What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, April 24, 2016

My playlists are on Spotify for you to enjoy: GSM – April 24, 2016 https://goo.gl/fZPyg6
Don’t forget that we have more choral and organ music programmed
on Sunday evenings beginning at 10 p.m. eastern.

08:02:00
Alexander Grechaninov: Now the Powers of Heaven, Op. 58 No. 6
Holst Singers, Stephen Layton

Giovanni Gabrieli: Domine Deus meus a 6
Gabrieli Consort and Players, Paul McCreesh

Alexander Grechaninov’s “Now the Powers of Heaven” is taken from the Russian composers Passion Week which dates from 1912. The work languished until the 1990s when it was rediscovered. English conductor and early music specialist Paul McCreesh founded the Gabrieli Consort and Players in 1982.

08:16:33
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Quam pulchra es & Guttur tuum
Cambridge Singers, John Rutter

Darius Milhaud: Four Prayers ~ Sabbath Morning Service
Prague Philharmonic Choir; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz
Yaron Windmueller, baritone; Rabbi Rodney Mariner, reader

We continue our survey of the works of Palestrina with two motets based on texts from the Songs of Solomon. Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco commissioned Milhaud’s Sabbath Morning Service in 1948.

08:35:49
Herbert Howells: Take him, earth, for cherishing
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Stephen Layton

Cyril Jenkins: Dawn
John Balka, organ
Ruffatti organ in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco, California

“Take him, earth, for cherishing” was first performed in the National Cathedral by the Choir of Kingston Cathedral, Kingston, Ontario on the first anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. English composer Cyril Jenkins (1889-1978) composed what the English refer to as ‘light music’.

08:52:36
Henry Purcell: Jubilate Deo in D
Choir and Orchestra of the Golden Age
Robert Glenton

English composer Henry Purcell wrote his setting of the Jubilate Deo for 1694 St. Cecilia Festival.

09:02:47
J.S. Bach: Cantata 106, “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit”
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Aki Yanagisawa, soprano; Yoshikazu Mera, countertenor;
Gerd Turk, tenor; Peter Kooy, bass

The German translates as “God’s time is the best of all”. Bach was in his early 20s when he wrote this cantata at Mulhausen where he was the organist of St. Blasius Church.

09:25:45
Gyorgy Ligeti: Lux aeterna
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown

Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti wrote this complex choral work with 16 voice parts in 1966. Stanley Kubrick used it in his 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

09:37:06
Maurice Duruflé: Suite, Op. 5
Mary Preston, organ
C.B. Fisk organ Opus 100, McDermott Hall, Meyerson Symphony Center

French composer and organist Maurice Durufle was one of those incredibly meticulous composers who probably destroyed more of his music than he allowed to be published.

10:01:36
George Frideric Handel: Chandos Anthem No. 10, “The Lord is my light”
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Sir David Willcocks
April Cantelo, soprano; Ian Partridge, tenor;
Andrew Davis, organ continuo

Handel wrote the eleven Chandos anthems whilst in the employ of James, Duke of Chandos from 1717-1719.

10:32:53
W.A. Mozart: Mass in C, K. 257 “Credo”
John Alldis Choir; London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis
Helen Donath, soprano; Gillian Knight, mezzo-soprano;
Ryland Davies, tenor; Clifford Grant, bass

K. 257 is one of three masses which Mozart wrote in November and December of 1776.