What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, January 25, 2015

 

08:02:00
Sir John Stainer: God so loved the world ~ The Crucifixion
Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, George Guest

 

Don Carlo Gesualdo: Ave Regina coelorum
Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summerly

 

J.S. Bach: Chorale Prelude: Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter BWV 650
Hans Fagius, organ
1724 Cahman organ in Kristine Church, Falun, Sweden

 

Stainer’s oratorio The Crucifixion was written in 1887 for use by choirs of average ability.

Don Carlo Gesualdo was an Italian nobleman who was also a brilliant composer, lutenist

and murderer.  BWV 650 is one of six chorale preludes Bach transcribed from cantata

movements. Johann Georg Schubler published them in 1748 an event which was unusual

for Herr Bach as most of his cantatas were never published within his lifetime.

 

08:15:18
Pierre Villette: Jesu, dulcis memoria
BBC Singers, Stephen Jackson

 

Franz Liszt: The Lord’s Prayer (Pater noster) ~ Christus, Part 2
Gachinger Kantorei Stuttgart; Krakow Chamber Choir;
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helmuth Rilling
Henriette Bonde-Hansen, soprano; Iris Vermillion, mezzo-soprano;
Michael Schade, tenor; Andreas Schmidt, bass

 

Louis Marchand: Fonds d’orgue
Joseph Payne, organ
Fisk organ, Opus 78, University of Vermont, Burlington

 

French composer Pierre Villette studied with Maurice Durufle. Hungarian

composer Franz Liszt’s oratorio Christus runs about three hours in length.

Hopefully the Pater Noster will whet your appetite to listen to the entire oratorio

on Spotify. The American organ building firm of C.B. Fisk hails from Gloucester,

Massachusetts and is considered one of the finest builders in business today.

 

08:30:29
George Frideric Handel: Praise the Lord ~ Solomon
Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner

 

Herbert Howells: Jubilate, “Collegium Regale”
Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, John Scott

 

Gyorgy Riutov: Velikoye Slavosloviye (The Great Doxology)
Chorovaya Akademia, Alexander Sedov
Alexander Mossevnin, tenor

 

Praise the Lord is the final chorus from Handel’s oratorio Solomon which

was first performed in March 1749. English composer Herbert Howells wrote

his setting of the morning canticles entitled Collegium Regale for King’s College,

Cambridge. I searched everywhere for information on the Russian composer

Georgy Riutov (1873-1938). Let me know if you find anything on him.

 

08:49:39
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Valiant-for-Truth
Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, John Scott

 

John Cook: Fanfare
Nigel Potts, organ
The Schoenstein Organ of St. Paul’s Parish, Washington, DC

 

I thought it would be interesting to present the distinguished church musician

Dr. John Scott in two of his major roles this morning. Earlier we heard him directing

the choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London where he was director of music from 1990-2004.

Now we hear him conducting the choir of St. Thomas’ Church, New York, where he has been

since 2004. New Zealand-born Nigel Potts is Organist & Choirmaster of Christ & Saint Stephen’s

Episcopal Church in New York.

 

09:01:51
J.S. Bach: Cantata 73, “Herr, wie du willt, so schick’s mit mir”
Holland Boys’ Choir; Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink
Marjon Strijk, soprano; Sytse Buwalde, alto; 
Nicovan der Meel, tenor; Bas Ramselaar, bass 

 

Simon Crouch thinks highly of the tenor aria in this cantata which was written

for the third Sunday after the Epiphany. 

 

09:17:11
Dominique Phinot: Missa Si bona suscepimus
The Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice

 

Stephen Rice founded The Brabant Ensemble in 1998. 

 

09:42:11
Max Reger: Phantasie und Fuge uber B-A-C-H, Op. 46
Lionel Rogg, organ
1976 organ by Grönlunds Orgelbyggeri in Church of Hedvig Eleonora, Stockholm

 

Reger’s Fantasy and Fugue on the Name of Bach is a dazzling tour de force for a

virtuoso organist such as Lionel Rogg.
 

10:01:49
Ludwig van Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives
National Choir & Orchestra of Lyon, Serge Baudo
Monica Pick-Hieronimi, soprano; James Anderson, tenor; Victor von Halem, bass

 

Apparently Beethoven wrote this oratorio in a few weeks in 1802. It is a fine work which

is not performed much these days.

 

10:56:06
Jehan Alain: Postlude pour l’Office de Complies
Raphaele Garreau de Labarre, organ
Dondaine 1792/Sauvage 1851/Dalstein-Haerpfer 1872/Staudt 1913/Alfred Kern 1969

/Daniel Kern 1988 organ in Eglise Saint Maxim de Thionville, France.

 

Jehan Alain was the older brother of the renowned organist Marie-Claire Alain. Maitre Alain

was killed in action in World War II in 1940.