What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, March 1, 2015

 

08:02:00
Franz Schubert: Psalm 23 in A flat, D. 706 “Gott is mein Hirt”
Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Claudio Abbado
Brigitte Poschner, soprano; Barbara Bonney, soprano;
Dalia Schaechter, alto; Margareta Hintermeier, alto

 

William Horsley: There is a green hill far away
Choir of Wells Cathedral, Malcolm Archer
Rupert Gough, organ

 

Henry Purcell: Thou knowest Lord
Clare College Chapel Choir, Timothy Brown
Dominic Wheeler, organ

 

Schubert’s setting of Psalm 23 was written for a concert. Wells Cathedral Choir

produced a five CD set entitled The English Hymn in 1999. “Thou knowest, Lord

the secrets of our hearts” comes from the Funeral Sentences of 1677 Funeral Music for Queen Mary.

 

08:14:07
Sir William Harris: Strengthen ye the weak hands
Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, John Scott
Andrew Lucas, organ

 

Vincenzo Ugolini: Quae est ista
The Studio of Ancient Music of Montreal, Christopher Jackson

 

Dietrich Buxtehude: Canzonetta in A minor, Bux WV 225
Nicholas Danby, organ
1590 organ by Georg Slegel II in St.-Marienkirche in Lemgo

 

Sir William Henry Harris (1883-1973) was Professor of Organ
and Harmony at the Royal College of Music from 1921 to 1955.

Christopher Jackson is one of Canada’s top early music specialists.

Nicholas Danby (1935-1997) was Professor of Organ at both the Royal

College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, London.

 

08:31:19
Philip the Chancellor: Sol oritur in sydere
Sequentia

 

Imogen Holst: A Hymne to Christ
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Graham Ross

 

Charles Wood: Expectans Expectavi
Choir of Truro Cathedral, David Briggs
Simon Morley, organ

 

Philip the Chancellor (1160-1263) was a French theologian and

Chancellor of Notre Dame Cathedral. Imogen Holst (1907-1984) was

the only child of English composer Gustav Holst. English teacher and

composer Charles Wood numbered Ralph Vaughan Williams and Herbert

Howells among his pupils.

 

08:46:56
Martin Herbst: Forty days and forty nights
Choir of Wells Cathedral, Malcolm Archer
Rupert Gough, organ

 

from the Los Huelgas Codex, c. 1300: Chants for Morning
Anonymous 4

 

Max Reger: Fugue in D, Op. 59 No. 6
Andrew Lucas, organ
Mander organ in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

 

The Lenten hymn Forty days and forty nights is sung to an adaptation

of German composer Marti Herbst’s tune “Aus tiefer Not”. Anonymous 4

is well-regarded for its interpretation of plainsong. Andrew Lucas is the

Master of the Music at St Albans Cathedral.

 

09:01:47
J.S. Bach: Cantata 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Yumiko Kurisu, soprano; Akira Tachikawa, counter-tenor;
Koki Katano, tenor; Peter Kooy, bass

 

Johannes Brahms quoted the bass line of the last movement of this

cantata in the final movement of his fourth symphony. 

 

09:18:02
Josef Haydn: Salve Regina
Tolzer Knabenchor; Tafelmusik, Bruno Weil
Ann Monoyios, soprano

 

Haydn wrote his Salve Regina in 1770/71 at Eisenstadt.

 

09:33:15
W.A. Mozart: Missa brevis in G, K. 140
Leipzig Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Kegel
Helen Donath, soprano; Annette Markert, contralto;
Uwe Heilmann, tenor; Andreas Schmidt, bass

 

This Missa Brevis seems to have been composed after Mozart returned

from his third trip to Italy.

 

09:53:06
Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem, Op. 45
Berlin Radio Choir; Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle
Dorothea Roschmann, soprano; Thomas Quasthoff, baritone

 

Brahms considered his Ein Deutches Requiem his finest composition.