What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, August 17, 2014

08:02:00
Traditional Maronite Chant: Ya umma-I-Iah
Soeur Marie Keyrouz

 

Gustav Holst: Ave Maria, Op. 9b
Choir of Westminster Cathedral, James O’Donnell

 

The Maronite church traces its origins back to Mount Lebanon. Gustav
Holst’s eight part setting of the Ave Maria for women’s voices is an early
work which dates from 1900.

 

08:14:55
James Whitbourn: A Prayer of Desmond Tutu
Commotio, Matthew Berry
Desmond Tutu, speaker

 

George Frideric Handel: Dixit Dominus Domino meo
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; English Chamber Orchestra
Philip Ledger
The opening to “Dixit Dominus”, Handel’s setting of Psalm 110

 

Leo Sowerby: Picardy (from Six Meditations on Communion Hymns)
Robert Parris, organ
1927 E.M. Skinner organ at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Rochester, New York

 

James Whitbourn (1963-) marries his own distinctive choral writing with
elements drawn from African traditions in this superb “A Prayer of Desmond
Tutu”. Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” is a major choral work which dates from
1707 when Handel was living in Italy. The lush sounds of the E.M. Skinner
organ in St. Paul’s Church, Rochester suit Dr. Sowerby’s meditation on the
hymn-tune “Picardy, commonly used with the text “Let all mortal flesh keep
silence”.

 

08:31:46
J.S. Bach: Cantata 168, “Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort”
Concentus Musicus of Vienna; Tolzer Knabenchor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Helmut Wittek, soprano; Christian Imler, alto;
Paul Esswood alto; Kurt Equiluz, tenor; Robert Holl, bass

 

The German translates as “Give an account of thyself! Word of thunder!”
Simon Crouch tartly observes that “the two recitatives in the cantata
paint a picture of life as being a loan that needs repayment on judgement
day and the Lord is the best bet for repayment.” You can read the rest of
his commentary here:
http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/bachjs/cantatas/168.php

 

08:47:19
Felix Mendelssohn: Elijah
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Robert Shaw
Barbara Bonney, soprano; Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano;
Jerry Hadley, tenor; Thomas Hampson, baritone

 

“Elijah” was written for the 1846 Birmingham Festival. Mendelssohn uses
Bach and Handel as his models for the oratorio form. The music is
distinctly Mendelssohn’s own early romantic period voice. The work was
sung in English at the Festival.