What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, December 6, 2015

The playlist is on Spotify for you to enjoy: GSM – December 6, 2015

Don’t forget that we have more choral and organ music programmed

on Sunday evenings beginning at 10 p.m. eastern.

 

Rob

Rob Kennedy
Great Sacred Music
The Classical Station
http://theclassicalstation.org

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08:01:02
Anton Bruckner: Os justi
Voices of Ascension, Dennis Keene

 

Morten Lauridsen: Ave Maria
Polyphony, Stephen Layton

 

Cesar Franck: Panis angelicus
Vienna Symphony Orchestra; Vienna Boys’ Choir, Helmuth Froschauer
Placido Domingo, tenor

 

The great Austrian composer Anton Bruckner was a church organist in his early years.

We have several fine liturgical compositions of which Os Justi is one, as a result of that

experience. Los Angeles conductor Paul Salamunovich (19272-2014) was a huge champion

of Morten Lauridsen’s music. Cesar Franck’s setting of the Panis Angelicus originally was

part of his Mass for Three Voices although it is usually performed these days on its own.

 

08:17:07
Manuel Arenzana: Salve Regina
Mexico City Chorus and Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin Jaurez Echenique
Irasema Terrazas, soprano; Gabriela Thierry, mezzo-soprano;
Flavio Becerra, tenor; Jorge Cozatl, bass; Ivan Juarez, bass

 

Johannes Brahms: Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit ~ A German Requiem, Op. 45
Vienna State Opera Chorus; Vienna Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini
Barbara Bonney, Soprano

 

J.S. Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Mormon Tabernacle Choir; Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy

 

Mexican baroque composer Manuel Arenzana was Director of Music at the Cathedral

of San Francisco in Puebla, Mexico from 1792 to 1821. Brahms reportedly told the

conductor Karl Reinthaler who wanted some changes in A German Requiem that he

thought of it as a ‘human’ requiem more than a German requiem. The choral “Jesu,

Joy of Man’s Desiring” is found in Cantata 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben.

 

08:36:36
Herbert Howells: All my hope on God is founded
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; The Wallace Collection, Stephen Cleobury
Benjamin Bayl, organ

 

J.S. Bach: Allegro~Trio Sonata No. 5 in C, BWV 529
Kevin Bowyer, organ
Marcussen organ in Sct. Hans Kirke, Odense, Denmark

 

Herbert Howells studied with Sir Charles Stanford at London’s Royal College of Music.

Bach left us six trio sonatas for the organ. Playing them is somewhat like walking a

musical tight-rope.

 

08:50:12
18th century melody arr. Ledger: Lo! he comes with clouds descending
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Philip Ledger

 

Marcel Dupre: Placare Christe servulis
John Scott, organ
Mander/Willis organ in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

 

Philip Ledger was Organist and Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge

from 1974 to 1982. Dupre’s short Toccata comes from his Tombeau de Titleouze.

 

09:00:05
J.S. Bach: Cantata 70, “Wachet! betet! betet! wachet!”
Holland Boys’ Choir; Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink
Ruth Holton, soprano; Sytse Buwalde, alto; Knut Schoch, tenor;
Bas Ramselaar, bass

 

Cantatas were not sung during Advent in Bach’s day. Yet this cantata fits the mood

of Advent rather well in my opinion focusing as it does on the theme of Christ’s second

coming and the Last Judgment. “Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!” is a translation of the

German title. 

 

09:25:29
George Frideric Handel: Silete venti
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Sylvia McNair, soprano

 

This little performed Latin work of Handel dates from approximately 1723-25. It shows the

influence of Italian opera which Handel embraced so enthusiastically.

 

09:55:40
William Byrd: Mass for Five Voices
Parthenia XVI, Mary Jane Newman

 

Tudor English composer William Byrd (1540-1623) was a prolific composer of his time.

 

09:20:03
John Rutter: Magnificat
Cambridge Singers; City of London Sinfonia, John Rutter
Patricia Forbes, soprano

 

English composer John Rutter’s setting of the Magnificat was first performed in New York’s

Carnegie Hall on May 26, 1990.