What’s On Great Sacred Music, Sunday, June 17, 2018

I post these playlists weekly with the hope that you might find them useful as you plan your programs. All of my playlists are on Spotify for you to enjoy at your convenience.

GSM – June 17, 2018 https://spoti.fi/2ynhe4R

Don’t forget that we have more choral and organ music programmed
on Sunday evenings beginning at 10 p.m. eastern.

Rob Kennedy
WCPE The Classical Station
Web: TheClassicalStation.org
Facebook: www.facebook/theclassicalstation

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Franz Liszt: The Lord’s Prayer (Pater noster) ~ Christus
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

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

Hungarian composer Franz Liszt composed and performed music in larger than life terms. This exquisite choral setting of the “Pater Noster” is one of the fourteen movements in his oratorio “Christus” which itself runs almost three hours. The text of “All my hope on God is founded” was translated from the German by Robert Bridges in 1899. The tune “Michael” was penned by Herbert Howells in 1936 and has been a most felicitous pairing with that text ever since.

Johannes Brahms: Funeral Hymn, Op. 13
San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt

John Rutter: Give the king thy judgements, O God
The Cambridge Singers; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, John Rutter

Johannes Brahms’ “Begräbnisgesang” is an early composition dating from 1856. The orchestra omits strings and that gives the work its characteristic dark coloring. John Rutter was commissioned to compose “Give the king thy judgements, O God” for the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta on June 15, 2015.

Michael Bussewitz-Quarm: Nigra Sum
Singers of New and Ancient Music (SONAM), Allan Friedman

The composer writes: “The history of ‘Nigra Sum’ dates back to the time of King Solomon. Some scholars believe the Songs of Solomon come from a Syrian wedding ritual, while others understand it as representing the ‘revival of life in nature.’ This song is dedicated to all refugees throughout the world and all who are lost. May you find peace and may this dark winter soon pass.”

Alec Wyton: A Hymne to God the Father
Choirs of St. John’s Cathedral, Denver, Donald Pearson
Eric Plutz, organ

Felix Mendelssohn: Sonata in D minor, Op. 65 No. 6
John Scott, organ
Mander organ in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

English organist Alec Wyton emigrated to America in the 1950s and served as Organist and Choirmaster of New York’s Cathedral of Saint John the Divine from 1954-1974. German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote six sonatas for the organ. This Sonata in D minor uses the “Our Father” or “Vater Unser Himmelreich” chorale as its theme.

J.S. Bach: Cantata 21, “Ich hatte viel Bekummernis”
Swiss Radio Chorus of Lugano; Ensemble Vanitas, Diego Fasolis

The German translates as “My heart was deeply troubled”. This rather lengthy cantata was first performed in Weimar in 1713. Most commentators admire the complex, fugal musical writing and consider this one of Bach’s finest cantatas.

Emilio de’ Cavalieri: La Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo
Magnificat; The Whole Noyse, Warren Stewart and Susan Harvey
Judith Nelson, soprano, as Anima; Paul Hillier, baritone, as Corpo

Italian composer Emilio de’ Cavalieri (c. 1550-c.1602) composed his oratorio “Portrayal of the Soul and the Body” in 1600. Some scholars surmise that this was the first oratorio.

From the Naxos liner notes: “In a musical morality play Soul and Body dispute, with the participation of other allegorical characters, angels and souls in Heaven or in Hell. The work combines attempts to restore something of ancient classical drama with traditional and Counter-reformation religious dramatic traditions, here associated with the Oratorian movement in contemporary Rome. Although colourfully staged in 1600, it points towards the new genre of oratorio, without staging.”