What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, June 5, 2016

My playlists are on Spotify for you to enjoy: GSM – June 5, 2016 https://goo.gl/KkXSoz
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

—————————–

08:00:44
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Antiphon ~ Five Mystical Songs
Corydon Singers; English Chamber,Orchestra, Matthew Best

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Osculetur me
Cambridge Singers, John Rutter

Alessandro Striggio: Ecce beatam lucem
Le Concert Spirituel, Herve Niquet

“Antiphon” is one of Five Mystical Songs which Vaughan Williams wrote for the Three Choirs Festival in 1911. Palestrina’s collected works comprise some 32 volumes of music. Italian composer Alessandro Striggio (1540-1592) was also a diplomat. On one of his trips to England he inspired English composer Thomas Tallis to write his famous 40 voice part motet Spem in Alium so as to not be outdone by Striggio’s motet Ecce beatam lucem which was also scored for 40 voice parts.

08:16:04
George Frideric Handel: Where shall I fly? ~ Hercules
Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset
Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano

Imant Raminsh: Ave Maria
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn
Sandra Graham, mezzo-soprano

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

We continue our survey of arias and choruses from the lesser known oratorios of G.F. Handel. Latvian-born Canadian composer Imant Raminsh (1943-)is perhaps best known for his many choral works. Stephen Cleobury was Master of the Music of Westminster Cathedral in London from 1979-1982 before he was appointed Director of Music for King’s College, Cambridge.

08:35:18
J.S. Bach, arr. Virgil Fox: Komm, susser Tod
Peter Richard Conte, organ
The Wanamaker Organ in Macy’s, Center City, Philadelphia

Peter Conte has been the Grand Court Organist at Macy’s since 1989.

08:46:47
Charles Wood: Expectans expectavi
Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, John Scott
Andrew Lucas, organ

Richard Strauss: Feierlicher Einzug der Ritter des Johanniter-Ordens
Saint Thomas Brass, John Scott
Christian Lane, organ

Charles Wood studied at the Royal College of Music with Sir Hubert Parry and C.V. Stanford. The German translates as “Solemn Entry of the Knights of St. John” was was written for an investiture ceremony in 1909.

08:59:32
J.S. Bach: Cantata 2, “Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein”
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Dorothee Mields, soprano; Pascal Bertin, countertenor;
Gerd Turk, tenor; Peter Kooy, bass-baritone

The German translates as “Oh God, look down from Heaven”. In the first movement Bach sets this rather severe text from Psalm 12 with the altos singing the cantus firmus around which he crafts some fugal writing. The first performance was on June 18, 1724.

09:18:27
Leoš Janáček: Mass in E flat
Choir of Westminster Cathedral, James O’Donnell
Andrew Reid, organ

Hungarian composer Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) never completed the Mass in E flat which he started composing in 1908. Years later he incorporated most of it into the first draft of his better-known work “The Glagolitic Mass”.

09:40:48
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Litanies a la Vierge
Le Concert Spirituel, Herve Niquet

Charpentier wrote his “Litanies a la Vierge” between 1683 and 1685 while he was the house composer for the Duchesse de Guise.

10:00:10
Ludwig van Beethoven: Mass in C, Op. 86
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Robert Shaw
Henriette Schellenberg, soprano; Marietta Simpson, mezzo-soprano;
Jon Humphrey, tenor; Myron Myers, bass

Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II commissioned Beethoven to write his “Mass in C” in 1807. The Prince apparently did not think much of Beethoven’s creation. While the “Mass in C” is not often performed and, indeed, pales by comparison with the composer’s Missa Solemnis in terms of scale, you can hear Beethoven’s acknowledgement of the masses of Franz Josef Haydn.

10:49:50
Johann Pachelbel: Ciaccona in F minor
Jorgen Ernst Hansen, organ
The 1740 organ of Holmens Church, Copenhagen

South German composer Pachelbel is best known for a certain “Canon in D”. However, he wrote many fine works for organ, this “Chaconne” being an example.