This week GBW and ACDA Radio/ChoralNet you will hear a Mass for unaccompanied double choir that the composer kept in a drawer for five decades….and three of the best female vocalists in the world….plus two inspiring male ensembles from Canada and Germany.
The internationally famous male ensemble from Germany will favor your ears with two selections. Psaume 121 by Darius Mihaud and a exciting work by Camille Saint Saëns based on a poem by Emile Deschamps…It is a call to the people of Rome to leave the mountains and plaines and to come to dance and sing and have big Party. You will enjoy Contraltos Sara Mingardo and Nathalie Stutzmann singing works by Vivaldi and the famous Bach-Gounod Ave Maria. Plus Dame Janet Baker will vocalize the famous O del Mio Dolce Ardor penned by Christoph Willibald Gluck.
The second award winning male ensemble is Choir Leoni from Vancouver B.C. sing about the grieving of King Lily of the Valley by Swedish composer David Wikander. The conductor is Diane Loomer on this 2004 recording. In 1922 Swiss composer Frank Martin began working on what would be his only unaccompanied Choral Work….The Mass for Double Choir. The manuscript sat in a drawer for 50 years because Martin said, “This work is between Me and God”. He also feltit was unworthy to put the composition up against Bach’s St. Matthew Passion that he heard at age 12. Finally in the early 1970’s, it was premièred and has become one of the most significant 20th Century Masses ever written. In this case Maestro Eric Ericson leads the Stockholm Radio Choir for this performance.
For a look at the CD’s used and a complete list of the music heard, go to the blog of WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2445
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