JOHN RUTTER - MASS OF THE CHILDREN         NAXOS 8.557922

The composer, choral conductor, editor, arranger and record producer John Rutter was born in London in 1945 and educated at Highgate School, where a fellow pupil was John Tavener. He was organ scholar at Clare College, Cambridge, and founded his own choir, the Cambridge Singers. In 1996 he received a Lambeth Doctorate of Music in recognition of his contribution to church music. His compositions are mainly choral, including Christmas carols, anthems and extended works such as the Gloria and Requiem. In 2002 his setting of Psalm 150, commissioned for the Queen's Golden Jubilee, was performed at the Thanksgiving service in St Paul’s Cathedral. His eclectic music, influenced by the French and English choral traditions of the early 20th century as well by of light music and American classic songwriting, has made him one of the most performed choral composer of his generation. Mass of the Children was composed in 2002 after the untimely death of his son Christopher while a student, and received its first performance in February 2003 in Carnegie Hall, New York. The effect of combining children’s and adults’ voices is unique, and the Mass seems to reflect the events and feelings of a single day, from waking to falling asleep. The accompaniment to Mass of the Children exists in two versions, one for orchestra, the other for chamber ensemble with organ, which is the one recorded here. Soloists Angharad Gruffydd Jones (soprano) and Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone) are joined by James McVinnie (organ), Clare College Choir, Farnham Youth Choir and the Clare Chamber Ensemble, conducted by Tim Brown. Also on this CD are two other works by John Rutter: Shadows (a dream-like song cycle inspired by eight poems from the 16th and 17th centuries) and Wedding Canticle (a setting of one of the psalms used in the Anglican marriage service, with the accompaniment of flute and guitar). Daniel Pailthorpe and Stewart French play here with the excellent Clare College Choir.

JOHN TAVENER - LAMENT FOR JERUSALEM         NAXOS 8.557826

Sir John Tavener first came to wide public attention in 1968 when his oratorio, The Whale, was recorded on the Beatles Apple label. Tavener’s avant-garde style of the seventies contrasts with the contemplative beauty of the works for which he is now better known. His conversion to the Orthodox Church resulted from his growing conviction that Eastern traditions retained a primordial essence that the west had lost. Tavener again came into the limelight in 1989 with the BBC Proms premiere of The Protecting Veil and a documentary, ‘Glimpses of Paradise’ that was broadcast on BBC2. Tavener was also inspired by the universalist philosophy of the Swiss metaphysician Fritjhof Schuon, which embraces all great religious traditions. This change in direction has influenced most of his work since 2001, especially The Veil of the Temple, Lament for Jerusalem, and Hymn of Dawn, based on Hindu, Sufi, Christian and Jewish texts, as well as the music of the American Indians. The austerely beautiful Lament for Jerusalem, which the composer describes as a mystical love song, brings together Christian, Judaic and Islamic texts, and is sung in Greek and English. It is both a cri de coeur at the loss of peace in a place where religions once co-existed in harmony, and an affirmation of the power of love to bring together all ‘who seek God, from whatever tradition they come’. This recording features the composer’s reworked version for the Choir of London’s groundbreaking visit to Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem in 2004. The outstanding soloists are soprano Angharad Gruffydd Jones and the countertenor Peter Crawford.

RICHARD STRAUSS - FOUR LAST SONGS       BERLIN CLASSICS  0017812BC

Richard Strauss was born in 1864 in Munich (then in the Kingdom of Bavaria, now in Germany), the son of Franz Strauss, who was the principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. Richard received a thorough, though conservative, musical education from his father, writing his first music at the age of six. He was to write music almost continuously between then and his death almost eighty years later. Strauss’s style began to change when he met Alexander Ritter, a composer and violinist, and the husband of one of Richard Wagner’s nieces. Ritter persuaded Strauss to abandon the conservative style of his youth and begin writing tone poems. Richard Strauss married the soprano Pauline Maria de Ahna in 1894 and she was a great source of inspiration. From his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he always preferred the soprano voice above all others. The Four Last Songs (German: Vier letzte Lieder) were among his final works, composed at the age of 84, and Strauss did not live to hear their first performance in 1950. Written for soprano and orchestra, they are titled: Frühling (Spring), September, Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep) and Im Abendrot (In the Red Glow of Evening). The gifted young soprano Michaela Kaune was born in Hamburg and studied with Judith Beckmann at the Music Academy there. She won the Belvedere Wettbewerb prize in Vienna (1996) and the Otto-Kasten-Preis of the Deutsche Bühnenverein in 1999. Since 1997, she has been a member of the German Opera Berlin, taking roles such as Micaëla in Carmen, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte. In this her debut recital CD she includes the Four Last Songs, as well as 11 other Strauss songs with accompaniment by the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the Eiji Oue. Michaela Kaune has a pure, expressive voice and her singing shows a delicate understanding of this inspired music.

HANDEL - ITALIAN CANTATAS           TALL POPPIES  TP173

Georg Friederich Händel was son of a barber-surgeon. His father had intended him for the law but allowed him to study music and become a pupil of Zachow, the principal organist in Halle. Händel was appointed organist of the Calvinist Cathedral at the age of only 17 but a year later he moved to Hamburg, where he played violin and harpsichord in the opera house. His Almira and Nero were performed there in 1705 and in the following year he left for Italy, where he spent more than three years in Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice. His operas or other dramatic works (including the oratorio, La resurrezione) were given in these cities and he wrote many Italian cantatas for use in the Palaces of his Italian patrons, perfecting his technique in setting Italian words for the human voice. On this album, recorded at the Carmelite Monastery in Kew, the Australian group Arcadia play five cantatas dating from 1708 to 1711, opening with the dramatic solo bass cantata Cuopre tal volt ail cielo. Arcadia come from Melbourne and specialise in the baroque cantata repertoire. The group consists of two violins, flute, cello, theorbo (or chitarrone as it was known in Italy, evolved from the lute family) and harpsichord (played by director, Jacqueline Ogeil). They provide sharp and polished accompaniment to the soloists - Michael Leighton Jones (bass), Miriam Allen (soprano) and Christopher Field (alto). This passionate and technically demanding music that is performed here with great style and enthusiasm.

HARVEST HOME - THE DALE WARLAND SINGERS         GOTHIC G49243

The Dale Warland Singers choir recently celebrated its 31st and final season of concerts, tours, radio broadcasts and critically acclaimed recordings, following the retirement of its founder and director Dale Warland in 2004. This 40-voice professional ensemble specialises in performing American works and Harvest Home is the choir’s second and the final CD, following on from their best-selling Blue Wheat album. Harvest Home features 17 popular songs, hymns and spirituals, including Beautiful River (Shall we gather at the river) by Rev. Robert Lowry, Simple Gifts (arranged by Dale Warland), Deep River, The Water is Wide and We Gather Together.  As well as much loved American hymns and spirituals, the program also includes folk songs such as Emma Lou Diemer’s splendid arrangement of the evergreen She’ll be comin’ round the mountain and Carol Barnett’s spirited version of Cindy. An accompanying 16-page booklet gives full texts as well as notes on all the works. The sumptuous sound of the Dale Warland Singers and their obvious love of the music brings new life to even the most familiar songs, emphasising their sense of faith and fellowship. ‘There are, perhaps, few choruses in the world that could perform with such vocal richness and weightless, responsive ensemble’ - Minneapolis Star Tribune.

VISIONS INTERIEURES: THE DEVELOPING SONG CYCLE   BRIDGE 9168 A/B

The gifted American soprano Georgine Resick has received public and critical acclaim for her performances at some of the world’s greatest opera houses, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Paris Opera and Vienna State Opera, as well as at Salzburg, Edinburgh and Drottningholm festivals. Renowned for her Mozart and Strauss interpretations, she has given performances with orchestras such as the London Symphony, Rome's Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and the Israel Philharmonic. Visions Intérieures is a fascinating survey of the development of the song cycle, with performances in German, Polish, French, Swedish and Italian. The two CDs feature an intriguing selection of rarely heard works and composers from the great flowering of the song cycle that took place in early nineteenth century Germany, most notably with work by Schubert and Schumann. On Disc One, titled ‘The Early German Song Cycle’, the composers are Weber and Kreutzer ( with accompanist is Andrew Willis playing fortepiano) as well as Cornelius, Thalberg and Jensen (with Willis performing on an original 1841 Bösendorfer). On Disc Two, titled ‘The Wanderer: The Song Cycle in Migration’, the singer is joined by Warren Jones, to perform late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century songs by a Russian composer of French-Lithuanian descent setting Polish poems; a German-influenced Polish composer setting German poetry; a French influenced Italian, and French composers setting translations of texts from Persia and Denmark.

MIRABILIS - MEDIAEVAL BABES       EMI 3315462

The Mediaeval Baebes were founded in 1996, when the band gathered a group of female friends together to enjoy some musical Mayday frolics on Hampstead Heath. They went on to form a unique singing group that has been hugely successful performing in theatres (and at Glastonbury) as well making best-selling records. Previous albums have included their debut, Salva Nos, The Rose, the brilliant World’s Blysse, Udrentide (produced by John Cale, of Velvet Underground fame) and the compilation Mistletoe Wine. Mirabilis is the latest studio album from the eight singers and instrumentalists - the title being a mediaeval Latin word with pagan associations used to describe the forces on the edge of the world. With its mix of gothic, pagan, religious and historical connotations, Mirabilis epitomises the group’s eclectic approach. The Baebes sing in several languages, including Middle English, Manx, Cornish, Latin, mediaeval Italian and 16th-century Swedish, and the music features rich, luxurious textures and evocative sounds, as well as the those trademark seductive vocals. The song-writing and performances are among the group’s finest to date, with outstanding tracks such as Star of the Sea, the exquisite Temptasyon and a poignant version of the traditional Scarborough Fair. Highly recommended.

LIDERMAN - THE SONG OF SONGS             BRIDGE 9172

Jorge Liderman’s beautiful dramatic cantata The Song of Songs is written for soprano, tenor, female chorus and chamber orchestra. Based on the Old Testament story of the sexual awakening of a young woman and her lover, the music of great physicality and almost primitive rhythmic energy. Liderman divides the instrumental ensemble into three groups: a pulsing and percussive pair of marimbas and pair of pianos, a lush group of pairs of clarinets, violas and French horns, and a more mixed ensemble of flute, oboe, trumpet, violin and contrabass. These layered ensembles give the work a sense of being simultaneously transparent and complex.  As the Shulamite, soprano Elissa Johnston gives an impassioned reading, and conductor David Milnes leads a performance that is both detailed and radiant. Other soloists include Charles Blandy (tenor), Catherine Webster (soprano), Sara Colburn (mezzo-soprano), Amelia Tirest (contralto). Chamber Chorus of the University of California at Berkeley is directed by Marika Kuzma and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players by David Milnes. Born in Buenos Aires in 1957,  Jorge Liderman began his musical studies in Jerusalem and went on to join the composition faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where he still teaches. His first CD on Bridge, Waking Dances, includes works for guitar and ensemble, featuring guitarist David Tanenbaum (BRIDGE 9150).

AZULAO - ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN       CBC MVCD 1164

The  young Canadian lyric soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian follows up her stunning debut album Joyous Light (CBC SMCD 5215) with an exploration of sensuously beguiling music from Spain and Latin America. Azulão features popular songs by the Spanish composers Enrique Granados and Fernando Obradors, as well as arrangements for soprano, piano and cello ensemble of works by Joaquín Rodrigo, Manuel De Falla, Xavier Montsalvatge and Carlos Guastavino. Highlights include Canadian composer Chris Paul Harman’s arrangements of an aria from the Granados opera, Goyescas, and of the traditional Catalan carol The Song of the Birds. Isabel Bayrakdarian won the prestigious Placido Domingo Operalia vocal competition in Los Angeles in 2000 and was also awarded the special Zarzuela Prize. Her warm, clear voice is heard to great effect here, and is especially mesmerising in her interpretation of the popular Bachianas Brasileiras # 5 for soprano and eight cellos by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. The Cello Ensemble is lead by Bryan Epperson and the pianist is James Parker.

PENNY MERRIMENTS - THE CITY WAITES       NAXOS 8.557672

The songs on this recording, subtitled ‘Street Songs of 17th Century England’, were the popular music of their day. Printed on crude penny broadsheets, they became known as broadside ballads and were a kind of mass communication before the days of newspapers and magazines. Like today’s tabloid press, the ballads offered sensationalism with lively tales of sexual exploits, jilted suitors, shrewish wives and fumbling husbands. Comedy is provided by stories of Peeping Toms, saucy maids and country bumpkins. Some songs describe topical events such as the Fire of London or the latest hanging, while others tell of willing milkmaids, lecherous knights, cuckolded husbands, rowdy soldiers and devils, or just make fun of country folk. The musical arrangements reflect a variety of settings where the songs were performed - a theatre, the local tavern, a fashionable coffee house or, literally, the streets. The brilliant City Waites specialise in performing these ballads and have featured on many movie and television soundtracks. The splendid Lucie Skeaping (soprano) is joined by Douglas Wootton (tenor), Roderick Skeaping (the group’s musical arranger, who also plays fiddle and bass viol), Richard Wistreich (bass-baritone), Robin Jeffrey (cittern, lute, baroque guitar), Michael Brain (curtal, recorder) and Nicholas Perry (bagpipes). Other highly enjoyable City Waites albums to explore include The English Tradition (Arc EUCD 1616) and the outrageous Bawdy Ballads of Old England - formerly known as ‘The Musitians of Grope Lane’ (Regis Records RRC 1175). ‘Rock and roll with crumhorns’ -  Melody Maker.

OD ANTIQUA - ORPHEI DRANGAR             CAPRICE CAP 21710

The choir Orphei Drangar started early on to make phonograph records, using the best sound engineering available at the time, and this 4-CD anthology (Volume 11 in the Collectors Classics series) features some of the oldest preserved recordings, systematically elucidating the changes in taste within the notated western art music in Sweden. All the recordings are presented in chronological order on three of the four CD records - commercial as well as radio recordings - with Orphei Drangar under the direction of Ivar Eggert Hedenblad (1851-1909), Hugo Alfven (1872-1960) and Carl Godin (1909-1982). The fourth CD includes amusing and instructive glimpses of rehearsals with Hugo Alfven. Thanks to the phonograph cylinders from the year 1900 that were preserved by Hjalmar Stolpe (1841-1905) we get a fascinating peep at the student songs during the time of Oscat Arpi and Jacob Axel Josephson, the 1860s, when the founder Johann Christian Friedrich Haeffner was still within living memory. With state-of-the-art methods of digital erasure the voices in the old sound documents have been uncovered and regain their original tone colours. The singers perform with great feeling and clarity and the song texts are included in a 138-page book. This set of rare recordings gives a valuable insight into a little-known world.

PAULINE VIARDOT-GARCIA - ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN     ANALEKTA AN 2 9903

This recording features songs written by Pauline Viardot, nee Garcia, who was one of the most celebrated opera singers of the 19th century as well as a gifted composer. Berlioz described er as ‘one of the greatest artists in the past and present history of music’ and her appearance as Orpheus in Gluck’s Orfeo et Euridice was acclaimed as sublime by Charles Dickens. As well as her outstanding singing career, she composed four operettas, several instrumental works and much vocal music. Her songs were written in Italian, German and Spanish, as well as French. Accompanied by the pianist Serouj Kradjian, Isabel Bayrakdarian’s warm, clear voice is heard to great effect, particularly in the charming Seize-ans, Aime-moi and La fête, which are based on Chopin mazurkas. The beautiful Canadian-Armenian soprano won the prestigious Placido Domingo Operalia competition in Los Angeles in 2000 and has since gained an enviable international reputation, combining opera performances (especially in works by Mozart and Handel) with recitals, orchestral concerts and film projects. This ravishing and seductive album should gain her even more admirers and make these delightful songs deservedly better known.

JOHN TAVENER - THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE       RCA RED SEAL 82876661542

London’s beautiful Temple Church was built by the Knights Templar, the order of crusading monks founded to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem in the 12th century. The church has witnessed eight hundred years of history, from the crusaders through to the Reformation to the present day, and has a strong choral music tradition. In fact it was here in 1927 that Ernest Lough made his famous recording of ‘O, for the Wings of a Dove’. Sir John Tavener’s seven-hour musical vigil, The Veil of the Temple, was commissioned for the Church and draws on Christian traditions of the East and West. The work traces the history of Christianity from the Creation to the death of Christ and was inspired by a Native American music ceremony that the composer attended. A huge chorus is rquired, together with vocal soloists, organ, brass and percussion ensembles, a Tibetan horn, temple bowls, and an Indian harmonium. This superbly produced double-SACD set features a three-hour version of Tavener’s magnum opus, sung by The Choir of the Temple Church, directed by Stephen Layton, with Patricia Rozario (soprano), The Holst Singers and the English Chamber Orchestra. It was recorded live in Temple Church in 2003 and comes with an excellent 70 page booklet containing full texts and notes. This is a sublimely uplifting masterpiece by one of the world’s most popular living classical composers.

MORTEN LAURIDSEN - LUX AERTERNA           HYPERION  SACDA67449

Lux Aeterna is an ‘intimate work of quiet serenity’ for orchestra and chorus by the 61-year old American composer, Morten Lauridsen. His ravishing music has similarities with the work of Part, Gorecki and John Tavener, but has a mystic beauty all its own. On this new disc the superb Polyphony choir and the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Stephen Layton, give a vibrant performance of this sumptous piece that permits comparison to be made with Fauré’s Requiem. ‘A classic of new American choral writing...in this light-filled continuum of sacred texts, old world structures and new world spirit intertwine in a cunningly written score, at once sensuous and spare’ - The Times. This splendidly produced hybrid SACD also has four other works by Morten Lauridsen. The Madrigali, subtitled ‘Six Fire Songs on Italian Renaissance Poems’, are challenging unaccompanied choral works in the tradition of Monteverdi and Gesualdo. The technical difficulties they present to the performer are disguised from the listener by a sense of purpose which unites the cycle into a whole of stunning effect. Occupying a similarly opulent sound-world to Lux aeterna, Lauridsen’s three Latin motets are modern masterpieces in the traditional motet genre. For anyone who loves choral music, this stunning disc is essential listening.

WALDEN POND - DOMINICK ARGENTO         GOTHIC G 49217

The outstanding America composer and librettist Dominick Argento is one of the most frequently performed 20th-century composers of opera. His chamber pieces have also received international acclaim and he has a long history of collaboration with the Dale Warland Singers. The latest release by this ensemble features a world-premiere recording of the composer’s Walden Pond, a song cycle based on text by Henry David Thoreau and scored for chorus, three cellos and harp. The album also includes two other impressive works by Dominick Argento: A Toccata of Galuppi’s (a rhapsody for chamber choir, harpsichord and string quartet based on a poem by Robert Browning) and I Hate and I Love (seven brief settings for choir and percussion with text by Catullus). ‘Rich, virtually flawless singing from longstanding champion of Argento's music’ - Gramophone Magazine.

THE COMPLETE CARUSO         RCA RED SEAL 82876603962 (7)

Born in Naples in 1873, the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso was one of the most famous and influential singers of the twentieth century. He grew up singing Neapolitan love songs and performing in his local church choir before beginning to sing opera professionally in 1895. After aclaimed performances in Milan, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Monte Carlo and London, he made his first phonograph recordings in 1902, becoming one of the first musicians to become a best-selling recording artist. When asked who would write his life story, he answered, ‘My Victor records will be my biography’. His last stage appearance in Naples was in 1902 but he never returned after a poor critical reaction to his performance in Massenet’s Manon, although he died in his hometown in 1921. This splendid 12 CD box set brings together all his recordings and documents his progression from lyric to heroic tenor. CARUSO - THE DIGITAL COMEBACK (RCA Red Seal 82876641652) comprises three individual volumes released in 2000-2003 and now available as a box set. Expert restoration work by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation has breathed new life into the archetypal tenor’s unique voice, combining it with the sumptuous sound of the newly recorded Vienna Symphony Orchestra. This technical wizardry has produced amazing results, revealing Caruso’s performances in all their thrilling - and occasionally reckless - magnificence.

TERESA CAHILL - RACHMANINOV & STRAUSS SONGS   DIVERSIONS CD 24114

The acclaimed British soprano Teresa Cahill began her career at Glyndebourne and she gave more than a hundred performances at Covent Garden, including Sophie in Rosenkavalier, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito. Concert appearances have included solo appearances in Mahler and Shostakovich symphonies, and her recording debut was in Figaro with Klemperer. As a recitalist she has specialised in the songs of Richard Strauss and Elgar, and in the field of contemporary music, Richard Rodney Bennett, John Casken, David Blake and Robert Simpson have all written works for her. This impressive CD celebrates the singer’s 60th birthday by releasing two vintage performances. The first 18 tracks are from a Chandos LP of 1983, the remainder being taken from a previously unpublished BBC Radio recital of the same year. Three of the Strauss lieder are duplicated, as a bonus, giving two different interpretations of the items. Cahill is in fine voice and these ravishing performances make a worthy tribute to a singer of elegance and refinement.

MEASHA BRUEGGERGOSMAN - SO MUCH TO TELL     CBC  SMCD 5234

The young Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman has been widely acclaimed for her musicianship, glorious voice and majestic stage presence. Only 27 years old, she has already performed at London’s Wigmore Hall , with Ben Heppner in Toronto and for Queen Elizabeth II, the Prince of Wales and Nelson Mandela. Born in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She was the first recipient of the Bernard Diamant Prize, an award that allows young classical music performers to pursue their careers through further education, and this album is her first commercial recording. It features works by Samuel Barber (Knoxville: Summer of 1915) and Aaron Copland’s Emily Dickinson Songs, as well as arrangements of three George Gershwin songs (Embraceable You, By Strauss and I’ve Got a Crush on You). Measha Brueggergosman’s soaring voice and larger than life personality show her to be a major international star in the making. She is accompanied here by the excellent Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Roy Goodman, who also play Barber’s celebrated Serenade for Strings. ‘A gigantic voice, also astonishingly supple and deeply moving like the early (Jessye) Norman’ - La Presse, Montreal.

CLEOPATRA - ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN       CBC  SMCD5233

The beautiful Canadian-Armenian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian scored a great success two years ago when she appeared as Cleopatra in Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare for the Canadian Opera Company. The legendary figure of Cleopatra has captured the popular imagination for generations, her seductive beauty being the inspiration for countless books, novels, plays and movies. The Queen of Egypt has been the inspiration for more than 50 operas, and on this vivacious album Isabel Bayrakdarian’s warm and expressive voice can be heard singing arias from works by four German baroque composers: Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Adolf Hasse, Johann Mattheson and George Frideric Handel. She is joined by Canada’s foremost period instrument orchestra, Tafelmusik, under the direction of violinist Jeanne Lamon. Isabel Bayrakdarian was awarded the Juno Award for her previous CBC release, Azulão (see here) and continues to perform to great acclaim for the Los Angeles Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

JOHN TAVENER - NEW CHORAL WORKS       HYPERION  CDA67475

In recent collaborations with composers, Stephen Layton has given first performances of music by Arvo Pärt and Thomas Adès, and his bold realisation of Sir John Tavener’s seven-hour vigil, The Veil of the Temple met with great acclaim. Stephen Layton has worked with orchestras such as the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the Danish National Choir. He is also founder and conductor of Polyphony, and on this recording the ensemble give assured performances eight new choral pieces by Tavener: Birthday Sleep, Butterfly Dreams, The Second Coming, Schuon Hymnen, As one who has slept, The Bridal Chamber, Exhortation and Kohima. Shunya.

SWEDISH RHAPSODY               NOSAG CD 087

For many years the conductor here, Bo Aurehl, worked in the famous Swedish music school Adolf Fredrik. When his students from the Children´s Choir, and from the Boys Choir grew up, he gathered the best of them in 1988 and formed the Swedish Voices Chamber Choir (or Kammarkören Svenska Röster). His amazing ensemble is heard to great effect on this collection of beautiful Swedish folklore-based choir music, with pianist Jan Åke Hillerud (who also made many of the arrangements) and some fine violin playing by Sara Trobäck in both classical and folk styles. The generous 26 tracks include Stjärntändningen (Oskar Lindberg), Svensk rapsodi, Tre körvisor (Wilhelm Stenhammar), Fyra akvareller for violin and piano (Tor Aulin), Förvårskväll (David Wikander) and Brusala (Knut Håkansson). This is choral singing of the highest order, revealing a rich Swedish choir repertory and including many lesser known pieces.

WEILL: SEVEN DEADLY SINS - MARIANNE FAITHFULL   RCA RED SEAL 82876608722

Anna I and Anna II, a singer and dancer respectively, set out on adventures throughout America, seeking to earn enough money to build a house for themselves in Louisiana. In the course of their travels they stop in seven places, corresponding to the seven deadly sins, Sloth, Pride, Anger, Gluttony, Lust, Covetousness and Envy, sins that in Brecht's Marxist text, become virtues. Die sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins) was an expensive failure when it was staged in 1930s Paris and London, following the earlier Brecht-Weill collaborations, Mahagonny and the Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera). Rock legend Marianne Faithfull brings her unique vocal sound to this caustic cycle of songs, performed in clever English translations by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallmann. Also included are Faithfull’s recordings of four other Brecht/Weill songs: Alabama Song, Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Bilbao Song and Pirate Jenny. Faithfull's smokey voice is cynically expressive and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is sympathetically conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.

COME TO ME - LOVE SONGS FOR CHORUS         ARSIS  CD 116

This delightful collection of love songs were all written by American Composers and are sung by the excellent American Repertory Singers, conducted by the ensemble’s founder and artistic director, Leo Nestor. The works are by James Hopkins (his phantasmagorical Come to Me in the Silence of the Night), Daniel Pinkham (Love Can Be Still - four settings of poems by Norma Farber), David Conte (Charm Me Asleep - a fine arrangement of the Elizabethan poet Robert Herrick’s verse), Leo Nestor (Four Songs from the Highlands, featuring two traditional texts and two by Robert Burns), Halsey Stevens (Go, Lovely Rose and Campion Suite), Jane Marshall (Two Madrigals: Then and Now - ‘A Lover and His Lass’, followed touchingly by ‘An older Lover and His Lass’) and Samuel Barber (Reincarnations, Opus 6). Sara Stern plays flute on Leo Nestor’s haunting Songs from the Highlands. ‘...one of our very finest domestic choirs specializing in modern American music’ - American Record Guide.

WILLIAM BYRD - CONSORT SONGS       HYPERION  CD67397

William Byrd (1543-1623) was one of England’s greatest composers, writing music of the highest quality that often reched sublimity. His sacred choral music is as passionate as any Italian ever wrote and far more politically daring in the context of Protestant Elizabethan England, while Marxist critic Ernst Hermann Meyer applauded his wonderful instrumental music as an example of art unfettered by bourgeois or royal propaganda. Byrd ‘the romantic Catholic figure’ and Byrd ‘the abstract expressionist’ are both present in his ‘consort songs’, telling of courtly love. Sir Philip Sidney’s demise in battle becomes an eloquent lament; an old woman tumbling down amid a flurry of human skulls represents contemporary desires for freedom of speech; moral temptations are likened to a storm-tossed ship; and a hymn to the Muses is inspired by the death of Thomas Tallis. This richly layered world of Queen Elizabeth I is brought vividly to life in these performances by countertenor Robin Blaze with the Concordia ensemble, featuring the brilliant lute player Elizabeth Kenny.

ALEXANDER GOEHR - SING, ARIEL/DEATH OF MOSES   NMC ANCORA NMC D096

This double disc of important vocal and choral works by Alexander Goehr is the second release by this composer in the Ancora series of reissues made possible by funding from the Arts Council. Sing, Ariel is a dazzling patchwork of mood and poetry for principal soprano, two sopranos and a small ensemble, setting poetry in English ranging from John Milton and Edmund Spenser to Wallace Stevens and Craig Raine. Written for Ann Murray, it was premiered by the exceptional soprano Lucy Shelton, who performs it here with Sarah Leonard and Eileen Hulse. The Death of Moses explores Hebrew myth and Jewish tradition and is written for large forces and soloists. Drawing on the composer’s passion for the music of Monteverdi, it was described by Goehr as ‘Monteverdi as heard by Varèse’ and is performed by massed choirs that include the Cambridge University Music Society, conducted by Stephen Cleobury. This CD also features a witty solo setting of a fable by Marianne Moore, The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid. ‘NMC's Ancora series... is to be welcomed without reservation’ - BBC Music Magazine.

LA VIE EST UNE PARADE - PATRICE MICHAELS       CEDILLE CDR 90000 070

Soprano Patrice Michaels, together with the Chicago Chamber Musicians and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paul Freeman, performs an intriguing selection of music by Benjamin Britten's (his masterpiece for soprano and strings, Les Illuminations), Darius Milhaud (a rarely-recorded vocal tour de force, Quatre Chansons de Ronsard); Erik Satie (four newly-arranged songs) and Germaine Tailleferre (the only female member of ‘Les Six’). As well as being an internationally-renowned opera and concert performer, Patrice Michaels is Associate Professor of Opera Theater and Studio Voice at Lawrence University's Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. Her pure, mellifluous voice is heard to great effect on these delightful recordings. ‘She has a supple voice with the ring of Waterford crystal, and seems able to sing anything effortlessly’ - Chicago Tribune. ‘Witty, adult and smart...a great addition to your French song library’ - San Francisco Examiner.