What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, April 26, 2015

 

08:02:10

Germaine Tailleferre: Nocturne
Frances Nobert, organ

 

Sir Edward Elgar: Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man”
Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, John Scott
Andrew Lucas, organ

 

Herbert Howells: All my hope on God is founded
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury
The Wallace Collection; Benjamin Bayl, organ

 

Great Sacred Music begins with a peek inside an English cathedral somewhere

as a service is just beginning in the late afternoon. Close your eyes and imagine

yourself sitting in the nave surrounded by gorgeous organ and choral music and

your own thoughts.

 

08:13:49

 

Harold Friedell: Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether
Choir of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Washington, DC, Samuel Carabetta
J. Dan Kiser, organ

 

Alexander Grechaninov: To the Mother of God
Chamber Choir “Lege Artis”, Boris Abalyan

 

Samuel Wesley: Ave Regina caelorum
Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Geoffrey Webber

 

Harold Friedell (1905-1958) was a native of Jamaica, New York. He was organist

of Calvary Episcopal Church and then St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New

York City. Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov (1864-1956) studied with Arensky

and Rimsky-Korsakov. He emigrated to the United States in 1939. Samuel Wesley

was the son of the noted Methodist minister and hymn writer Charles Wesley.

 

08:28:21

 

Lili Boulanger: Pie Jesu
Orchestra of the Toulouse Capitole, Michel Plasson
Roberto Alagna, tenor

 

Eugene Gigout: Toccata
John Longhurst, organ
Aeolian-Skinner organ in the Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City

 

Parisian Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) was a child prodigy and
sister of Nadia Boulanger. John Longhurst was Tabernacle organist from 1977-2007.

 

08:38:03

 

J.S. Bach: Cantata 146, “Wir mussen durch viel Trubsal”
Holland Boys’ Choir; Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink
Marjon Strijk, soprano; Sytse Buwalde, alto;
Marcel Beekman, tenor; Bas Ramselaar, bass

 

This cantata which was written for the Third Sunday after Trinity opens

with one of Bach’s finest sinfonias which the composer adapted from BWV 1052.
 

09:17:40

Josef Haydn: The Creation
Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Sylvia McNair, soprano; Donna Brown, soprano;
Michael Schade, tenor; Gerald Finley, bass; Ronald Gilfry, bass

 

Apparently Haydn was inspired to write The Creation after hearing Handel’s oratorio

Israel in Egypt whilst in London. Whatever the inspiration, The Creation is considered

by most musicians to be one of his finest compositions.