J. S. BACH
Bach: Secular Cantatas [BWV201, 205, 213] RIAS Kammerchor & Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 16/Jun/2014 ] "immensely persuasive performances" (International Record Review) |
BRAHMS
Sacred Choral Music: Geistliche Chormusik RIAS Kammerchor / Marcus Creed [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/Feb/2009 ] "The RIAS Chamber Choir produce a fine quality of homogenous tone and, under Marcus Creed, show themselves fully responsive to both words and music.The RIAS disc remains a strong recommendation, especially for its inclusion of the surviving Missa... |
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: Nachtgesang RIAS Kammerchor, Martin Creed, with Birgit Remmert & Werner Gura [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 7/Jul/2017 ] Whether it be cheerful, melancholy, amorous or piously contemplative, the night - a favorite source of romantic inspiration if ever there was one - is the unbroken thread running throughout this recording on which we will find monumental pieces like... |
KRENEK
Lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae RIAS-Kammerchor / Marcus Creed [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 1/Sep/2008 ] When Ernst Krenek wrote these Lamentations in 1941, his music had been banned by the Nazi regime as 'degenerate art' and he was an exile in the United States, where he earned his living as a teacher. Ingeniously combining the polyphonic tradition and... |
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Sacred & Profane (with works by Elgar, Stanford & Vaughan Williams) RIAS-Kammerchor, Marcus Creed [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/Jan/2014 ] From Elgar's 'Partsongs' (1904) to one of Britten's very last works, 'Sacred and Profane' (1975), here are some of the most beautiful pieces in the English a capella repertoire, many of them rarely recorded. All the composers here show the... |
HEINRICH IGNAZ BIBER
Violin Sonatas Romanesca: Andrew Manze (violin) / Nigel North (lute & theorbo) / John Toll (harpsichord & organ) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 20/May/2011 ] "This is masterful playing...The range of expression is indeed a constant joy. Amongst the finest baroque chamber music to have appeared in recent years." - Gramophone Magazine |
JOHN BLOW
Blow: Venus & Adonis Rosemary Joshua (sop), Gerald Finley (bar), Robin Blaze (countertenor), Clare College, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Renae Jacobs [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 29/Sep/2008 ] "Rene Jacobs and his musicians present Blow's Venus and Adonis with persuasive style and dramatic clarity...Venus's lament and the closing plaintive chorus touch the heart deeply." (Daily Telegraph) |
MENDELSSOHN
A Midsummer Night's Dream / Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave) Sandrine Piau & Delphine Collot (sopranos) / La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent & Orchestre des Champs-Elyses / Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 1/Jun/2012 ] "Not since Heather Harper and Janet Baker have I heard such a perfect partnership in 'Ye spotted snakes'. The soft, barely touched high notes at the end of each chorus are also exquisitely rendered." Fanfare |
TRADITIONAL
Chant Byzantin Sister Marie Keyrouz [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 29/Sep/2008 ] In the Byzantine Rite, the Office of Matins for Holy Saturday is a meditation on the mystery of Christ asleep in the tomb, deeply imbued with faith and hope. As for the chants for Matins of Easter Day, they are the most splendid in the entire... |
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: Petite Messe solennelle Krassimira Stoyanova, Birgit Remmert, Steve Davislim, Hanno MAller-Brachmann / RIAS-Kammerchor, Marcus Creed [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD/Book - released 10/Aug/2018 ] "The soloists are as compelling-bright, fresh voices appealing in timbre and aware of the implications of the texts they're singing. Minor reservations aside, Rossinians won't want to miss this one." (ClassicsToday.com) |
MONASTIC CHART
Monastic Chant Theatre Of Voices, Paul Hillier [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 3/Jun/2013 ] The Age of Cathedrals, Hoquetus |
SCHUBERT / HUMMEL
Schubert: Die Forelle (Trout Quintet) / Hummel: Quintet Trio Wanderer [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 29/Sep/2008 ] "The Wanderers and their friends play both works with irresistible freshness and brio, making one listen afresh to the glories of Schubert - and regret the neglect of Hummel." Three stars (Excellent) The Sunday Times |
JOSEF HAYDN
Piano Trios Nos 39, 43-45 Trio Wanderer [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/Feb/2009 ] "Music whose profundity is still not fully acknowledged, but surely irresistible when performed with such flair and imagination." Gramophone Magazine, December 2002 Critics' Choice |
BEETHOVEN
Triple Concerto Trio Wanderer, Gürzenich-Orchester Kölner Philharmoniker, James Conlon, [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 10/Jun/2012 ] A concerto for four? The Triple Concerto may well be one of Beethoven's most enigmatic works: some commentators have seen it as no more than a vast rhapsody intented to show off the virtuosity of three hand-picked soloists. But when a piano trio that... |
OLIVIER MESSIAEN
Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du Temps [Quartet for the end of time] / Theme et variations Trio Wanderer with Pascal Moragues (clarinet) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 30/Aug/2017 ] MARBECKS STAFF PICK - BEST RECORDINGS 2008 |
MASSAINO / ROBERT WHITE / MARBRIANUS de ORTO / ROLAND de LASSUS
Lamentations Of The Renaissance Huelgas-Ensemble / Paul van Nevel [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 25/Apr/2008 ] The heartrending words of the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah have at all times inspired a multitude of musical settings imprinted with a characteristic mixture of pain and hope. It would be wrong to imagine that these famous biblical poems... |
MANUEL DE FALLA
Seven Spanish Popular Songs / Harpsichord Concerto / El gran teatro del mundo Victoria de los Angeles (sop) / Instrumental soloists, Josep Pons [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 1/Sep/2008 ] Following in the footsteps of his teacher Felipe Pedrell, Manuel de Falla chose to set his music within the twin Spanish traditions of art and folk music. If the Siete canciones populares españolas mark the culmination of his work on folksong, the... |
BERLIOZ
L'Enfance du Christ Veronique Gens, Paul Agnew / La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent / Orchestre des Champs-Elysaes / Philippe Herreweghe [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / 2 CD - released 20/May/2011 ] "Herreweghe paces it perceptively...the sound is extraordinarily clean and fresh, and the balance deserves much praise for the technicians as well as the artists." (Gramophone) |
BRAHMS / CLARA SCHUMANN / ROBERT SCHUMANN
Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden [The Romance of the Song] Werner Gura (tenor) Christoph Berner (piano Ehrbar) [ Harmonia Mundi Gold / CD - released 20/Jan/2014 ] "A technique second to none, able to vary his tone, sing a lovely pianissimo and/or a long-breathed phrase with perfect control. Then no musical or verbal subtlety seems to escape him." - Gramophone |