What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, August 23, 2015

Great Sacred Music airs every Sunday morning from 8 until 11 a.m. eastern on The Classical Station.

Much of the music on this week’s playlist can also be found on Spotify at this link: Great Sacred Music – August 23, 2015

Also on Sunday evenings you can hear more choral music both sacred and secular on Wavelengths and Peaceful Reflections

beginning at 9 p.m. eastern.

 

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08:00:26
Gregorian chant: Alleluia, Confitemini
Monks of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert

 

Sir Michael Tippett: Plebs Angelica
Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Stephen Darlington

 

George Frideric Handel: Largo ~ Xerxes
John Longhurst, organ
1948 Aeolian-Skinner organ in the Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah

 

The Benedictine Monks of the Desert live in Abiquiu, New Mexico in a
monastery which was founded in 1964. The music which they will sing for us
is taken from their album Blessings, Peace and Harmony on the Sony
Masterworks label. Sir Michael Tippett dedicated his motet Plebs Angelica to
the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral, January 1944. The Aeolian-Skinner organ in
the Mormon Tabernacle is one of the finest examples of that builder’s work.

 

08:12:59
Jean-Baptiste Faure, arr. Helmuth Froschauer: Le Crucifix (Vous qui pleurez)
Vienna Symphony Orchestra; Vienna Boys’ Choir, Helmuth Froschauer
Placido Domingo, tenor

 

Henry Purcell: Lord, how long wilt thou be angry
Cambridge Singers, John Rutter

 

Orlando Gibbons: Fantasia in A minor
Simon Preston, organ

 

French composer and baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830-1914) collected impressionist
art. At his death he owned 67 paintings by Manet and 62 paintings by Monet. English
composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695) tips his hat to his predecessors Orlando Gibbons
and William Byrd in his grand anthem Lord, how long wilt thou be angry which dates
from the 1680s. Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) was a chorister in King’s College Choir
from 1596-1598.

 

08:27:26
Giovanni Gabrieli: Jubilate Deo
Choir of Westminster Cathedral, Stephen Cleobury
Andrew Wright, organ

 

Sir Hubert Parry: O praise ye the Lord!
Choir of Wells Cathedral, Malcolm Archer

 

Daniel E. Gawthrop: Exultate
Mary Mozelle, organ
The Mander organ in the Princeton University Chapel
 
Stephen Cleobury (1948-) was Organist and Director of Music at London’s Westminster Cathedral
from 1979-1982 when he was appointed Director of Music at King’ College, Cambridge.
English organist and choir trainer Malcolm Archer (1952-) is currently Director of Chapel
Music at Winchester College. Mary Mozelle is the Assistant Director of Music and Associate
Organist at The Falls Church in Falls Church, Virginia.

 

08:41:18
Giuseppe Verdi: Te Deum ~ Four Sacred Pieces
Ernst Senff Choir/Berlin Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini
Sharon Sweet, soprano

 

Italian opera composer Guiseppe Verdi wrote his setting of the Latin hymn of praise Te
Deum Laudamus towards the end of his life in 1895-1896.

 

09:01:26
J.S. Bach: Cantata 35, “Geist und Seele wird verwirret”
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Robin Blaze, alto

 

The opening movement of this cantata is a virtuoso tour de force for the organist
playing the portatif organ in the ensemble.

 

09:29:12
Ethel Smyth: Short Choral Preludes
Christa Rakich, organ

Kilgen organ in St. Justin’s Church, Hartford, Connecticut

 

British composer Ethyl Smyth (1858-1944) was jailed for a time for her role in the women’s
suffrage movement in England.

 

09:51:40
Josef Haydn: The Seasons – Spring and Summer
Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Barbara Bonney, soprano; Anthony Rolfe
Johnson, tenor; Andreas Schmidt, baritone

 

Austrian composer Josef Haydn was encouraged to write his oratorio The Seasons because his
previous oratorio The Creation enjoyed immense popularity. The libretto by Baron Gottfried van
Swieten is based on a 1730 poem by James Thomson.