What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, June 26, 2016

My playlists are on Spotify for you to enjoy: GSM – June 26, 2016 https://goo.gl/q5cyVX
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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W.A. Mozart: Ave verum corpus, K. 618
Winchester Cathedral Choir, David Hill

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Nunc dimittis
Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips

James Whitbourn: Festival Alleluia
Wells Cathedral School Choralia, Christopher Finch
Elliot Launn, piano

Mozart wrote this much-loved motet in 1791 whilst writing his opera Die Zauberflote. We continue our survey of Palestrina’s music with an eight voice setting of the Song of Simeon or Nunc Dimittis. Early in his career English composer James Whitbourn (1963-) was a programme maker for BBC.

Benjamin Britten: Jubilate in C
Holst Singers, Stephen Layton
Text: Psalm 100

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Psalm 130, “Out of the deep”
Cappella Amsterdam

Giuseppe Verdi: Pater noster
Verdi Chorus of Milan, Riccardo Chailly

Britten wrote his Jubilate in C in 1961 for St. George’s Chapel, Windsor at the request of the Duke of Edinburgh. Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was friends of English composers John Bull and Peter Philips. Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote his setting of the “Our Father” prayer in Italian in 1880.

Henry Purcell: Blow up the trumpet in Sion
Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summerly
Laurence Cummings, organ

Heinrich Schutz: Selig sind die Toten
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown

Ned Rorem: O God, my heart is ready
Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, John Scott
Frederick Teardo, organ

Charles Macpherson: Fantasy-prelude
David Briggs, organ
The Lewis Organ in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood, London

English composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695) was only nineteen years old when he wrote his anthem “Blow up the trumpet in Sion”. German composer Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) scored his motet “Blessed are the dead” for SSATTB and continuo. “American composer Ned Rorem (1923-) has been a prolific composer over his long life. In particular his songs are highly regarded. English composer Charles MacPherson (1870-1927) was Organist and Master of the Choristers of St Paul’s Cathedral from 1916 until his death in 1927.

J.S. Bach: Cantata 93, “Wer nur den lieben Gott … ”
Holland Boys’ Choir; Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink
Ruth Holton, soprano; Sytse Buwalde, alto;
Knut Schoch, tenor; Bas Ramselaar, bass

The German translates as “If you but permit God to prevail.” This cantata was first performed on July 9, 1724. Bach recycled the fourth movement in BWV 647.

Josquin Des Pres: Missa Pange lingua
Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips

This mass by the sixteenth century Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Pres dates from 1515. Des Pres spent time in both Milan and Rome where he was highly regarded by the musicians of his time. The invention of the printing press helped to expose Des Pres’ music to a wider audience.

Louis-Claude Daquin: Noël sur les flutes
Marie-Claire Alain, organ
1679 Castie/Callinet/Kern organ in the Cathedral Saint-Theodorit d’Uzès

Organists in 18th century France used to play noels at Christmas. Many of these delightful compositions were based on folk tunes.

Franz Schubert: Mass in A flat, D. 678
Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, George Guest
Wendy Eathorne, soprano; Bernadette Greevy, contralto;
Wynford Evans, tenor; Christopher Keyte, bass; John Scott, organ

Schubert completed his Mass No. 5 in A flat major, D 678 in 1822. It is one of six masses which the Austrian composer wrote. He originally had hoped he work might land him the post of deputy kapellmeister in the Imperial Court Chapel in Vienna. Unfortunately politics prevented that from happening.

Anonymous: Magnificat in C
Kenneth Gilbert, organ
1981 Helmut Wolff organ, McGill University.

This anonymous Magnificat is found in “Le Livre d’orgue de Montreal.” This is an 18th manuscript brought to Montreal in 1724 by Jean Girard, a Sulpician cleric.