Some of the Top 40 Choral Hits

This week on GBW and ACDA Radio/ChoralNet Host Stan Schmidt directs our thinking to choral compositions that are considered to be revered, respected, exalted, enriching and treasured.  What are the top 40 hits in the genre .  When you get choral directors together, perhaps at a national convention, they might have a debate on what compositions are really in the top 40.   Some colleagues might say that the great conductor Eric Ericson recorded the top forty.  There is no question that Maestro Ericson conducted most of them.   Regardless of what you think the top 40 includes or who might have set the bar by bringing these great choral works to our attention;  most of the music you will hear on this broadcast certainly can be considered a hit or a classic but then some pieces just stick out and we say….hey, that one is part of the top 40.   The choral classics on this visit are Aftonen by Hugo Alfvén, the Missa brevis C Dur KV220 by Mozart and that great madrigal by John Dowland…..Come Again! Sweet Love Doth Now Invite.  But I contend that two of the pieces you will experience on this broadcast, Fest Und Gedenksprüche by Johannes Brahms sung by The Cambridge Singers and the Deutsche Motette, Op 62 by Richard Strauss offered by Eric Ericson and the Stockholmer Kammerchor are both from the top 40 of choral music.  Perhaps we can get into more depth in future broadcasts.   Hope to see you at the ACDA Convention in Kansas City 

For a look at the CD”s used and a complete list of music heard, go to the blog of WWW.GOINGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2519.