What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, September 15, 2013

Great Sacred Music airs every Sunday morning at 8 a.m. eastern on

The ClassicalStation.

 

08:00:46
Healey Willan: Prelude on “Ave, maris stella”
Patrick Wedd, organ
1914/1995 Casavant Organ in Eglise Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Montreal

 

W.A. Mozart: Ave verum corpus, K. 618
Clare College Chapel Choir, Timothy Brown
Dominic Wheeler, organ

 

Don Carlo Gesualdo: Ave dulcissima Maria
Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summerly

 

Patrick Wedd has been organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, since

1996. Mozart wrote Ave Verum Corpus six months before he died while writing

his opera Die Zauberflote. Don Carlo Gesualdo was a conflicted character if ever

there was one:  Italian nobleman, composer and murderer.

 

08:13:25
William Grant Still: Reverie
Philip Brunnelle, organ

 

Samuel Sebastian Wesley: Wash me throughly
Clare College Chapel Choir, Timothy Brown
Dominic Wheeler, organ

 

Leo Sowerby: I Was Glad
Trinity Church Wall Street Choir, Larry King
Larry King, organ

 

William Grant Still (1895–1978) studied with Edgar Varese among

others. Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–1876) was the grandson of

Methodist preacher Charles Wesley. Larry King (1932-1990) was organist

at Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street, New York from 1968-1989.

 

08:30:18
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Echo Fantasia in A
Jacques van Oortmerssen, organ

 

Spiritual, arr. by Timothy Brown: Steal away
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown
Elin Manahan Thomas, soprano; John Harte, tenor

 

Joao Lourenco Rebelo: Ecce Nunc
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers

 

Jacques van Oortmerssen (1950-) is a Dutch organist who studied with

Marie-Claire Alain. Timothy Brown succeeded John Rutter as Director of

Clare College Choir. Joao Lourenco Rebelo (1610–1665) was a Portugese

composer who was influenced by the Venetian polychoral style.

 

08:45:45
John Rutter: Hymn to the Creator of Light
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown

 

J.S. Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Mormon Tabernacle Choir; Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy

 

If Rutter’s anthem “Hymn to the Creator of Light” sounds a bit like the music

of Herbert Howells, that’s intentional. The music was written for the dedication

of the Howell’s window in Gloucester Cathedral in 1992. “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”

has to be one of Bach’s most popular choral compositions.

08:58:17
J.S. Bach: Cantata 161, “Komm, du Susse Todesstunde”
Monteverdi Choir; English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
Katherine Fuge, soprano; Robin Tyson, alto; Mark Padmore, tenor; Thomas Guthrie, bass

 

Bach’s use of recorders in his scoring of this cantata lends the poignant text intimacy.

 

09:21:37
Samuel Barber: Prayers of Kierkegaard, Op. 30
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Robert Shaw
Carmen Pelton, soprano; Nannette Soles, mezzo-soprano;
Richard Clement, tenor

 

The Koussevitzky Music Foundation commissioned Barber’s cantata which was first performed in 1954.

 

09:40:41
Marcel Dupre: Variations on Two Themes for Piano and Organ, Op. 35
Stefan Engels, organ; Alessio Bax, piano
Fisk Organ in the Caruth Auditorium at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

 

Marcel Dupre’s “Variations” date from 1937.

 

09:55:02
Franz Schubert: Mass in E flat, D. 950
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Carlo Maria Giulini
Ruth Ziesak, soprano; Jard van Nes, alto;
Herbert Lippert, tenor; Wolfgang Bunten, tenor;
Andreas Schmidt, baritone

 

Schubert’s Mass in E flat is considered his finest setting of the mass. You will hear influences

from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn in his writing.