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Composer: LEIGHTON, Kenneth ((1929-1988)) |
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ID: CHRCD013
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Choral Collection
Subcollection: Christmas Music
Dame Felicity Lott and the Joyful Company of Singers serve up rich Christmas fayre with 'Plum Pudding', well-spiced with favourite carols and readings by actor Gabriel Woolf.
PLUM PUDDING
‘A rich boiled suet pudding with raisins, currants, spices, etc.' (OED).
You'll find no ‘boiled suet' in our offering, but rich and well-spiced fare abounds - and unlike its namesake our pudding is bursting with plums! First, though, a warming drink as we Wassail with the merry folk of medieval Yorkshire: ‘…all over the town… in the wassail bowl we'll drink unto thee'. Vaughan Williams, renewing his quest for traditional airs after the horrors of war service, made his exultant arrangement in 1919. Almost a century earlier, in his beloved Northamptonshire village, John Clare was immortalising country life through the seasons; in December, when ‘GladChristmas comes…' he vividly evokes the simple pleasures of that ‘day of happy sound and mirth'. Close contemporaries, Victoria (1548-1611) and Byrd (c. 1543-1623) both began their musical life as choristers, at Avila Cathedral in Spain and at London's Chapel Royal respectively. The former's magnificent motet O magnum mysterium, its arching phrases intertwining like a great cathedral's vaulting, was written in Rome in 1572. Byrd's equally intricate but more worldly This Day Christ Was Born - subtitled ‘A Carroll for Christmas Day' - appeared in his last published songbook in 1611. Moving back to medieval times, to the Wakefield Mystery Plays, we hear God - portrayed by a worthy merchant in his guild's ‘pageant' - reflecting on his treatment of Adam, and summoning Gabriel to tell Mary that she will bear his Son.
Only the ‘Pageant of Shearmen and Tailors' survives from Coventry's contemporary play-cycle, and it is this which furnishes the text of the “Coventry Carol”, Lully, lullay - sung here in Kenneth Leighton's glorious 1956 setting for ethereally serene soprano and choir. By way of contrast Rhian Samuel (b. 1944 and, like Leighton, a distinguished teacher as well as composer) brings Jolly Wat the Shepherd to vivid life in her strikingly harmonised ballad.
After such exuberance, it is time for calmer contemplation. The 15th-century poem I sing of a Maiden, with its gentle portrayal of the sleeping Maid, and haunting refrain ‘He cam also style … as dewe in Aprylle …' is perfectly complemented by the lovely Mariä Wiegenlied; in Peter Broadbent's arrangement of Reger's 1912 ‘slumber-song' a pair of sopranos duet ecstatically above a soft choral accompaniment. Felicity Lott returns to tell the story of The Three Kings ‘from Persian Lands afar'; Elgar's organist friend Ivor Atkins (1869-1953) wrote the familiar arrangement of this Weihnachtslied (Christmas song) originally written in 1856 by Liszt's pupil Peter Cornelius. A darker view of The Journey of the Magi informs T.S. Elliot's 1927 poem, in which one of those kings, years afterwards, recalls the bitter cold and hardship of their journey and, for all its ‘satisfactory' end, reflects equivocally on the changes wrought by that Birth.
There is bleakness, too, rather than the rustic revelry which Laurie “Cider with Rosie” Lee's name might lead one to expect, in his 1954 poem Twelfth Night, adroitly set to music by the American composer Samuel Barber in 1968. This austere meditation on the earth's ‘utter death', more animated at ‘his birth our Saviour', returns at the close to a restatement - albeit more hushed - of its opening line: ‘No night could be darker than this night'. Lee's memories of Christmas in Seville, on the other hand - he had a lifelong love affair with Spain - bring welcome respite. The children who sang him carols, ‘their faces set in a kind of soft unconscious rapture', moved him deeply - understandably so, if they even approached the purity of tone and radiant sense of innocence which the Joyful Company of Singers conjure up in Guerrero's heart-easing Virgen Sancta, written in 1589. How those same children might have revelled in Andrew Carter's arrangement of the Spanish Esta Noche (‘This Night'), with its guitar effects and infectious high spirits.
How many poets have made such music from words alone as Dylan Thomas? He wrote (and read) his original Memories of Christmas for BBC Radio in 1945. Two years later, for the magazine Picture Post, he added a postscript to it, the Conversation About Christmas; Gabriel Woolf's reading captures all the sly wit embodied in its dazzling wordplay. One of the best-loved English carols, The Holly and the Ivy, introduces the topic of traditional Christmas Decorations, a theme taken up by the journalist, novelist and Punch contributor E.V. Lucas (1868-1938). A sequence of letters between a rector and his parishioners - aptly interspersed between lines from the rousing old Welsh song Deck the Hall - reveals how the best-laid plans can go increasingly awry. No festive celebration of this kind would be complete without The Twelve Days of Christmas - and we are treated to two variations on the theme: John Julius Norwich's hilarious warning against taking the old song's message too literally is aptly counterpointed by Andrew Carter's roistering choral arrangement. Another swift change of mood ensues. In Christmas Truce Captain R.J. Armes, writing home from the muddy hell of the First World War's trenches, touchingly describes an utterly unexpected experience. Then, across the desolate no man's land, steal the strains of the Stille Nacht. On Christmas Eve in 1818, in the Austrian village of Oberndorf, disaster struck when the church organ broke down. The organist, Franz Xaver Gruber, gratefully accepted some verses written two years earlier by the parish priest, Josef Mohr, and hastily set them to music; the choir sang the piece that night, to the accompaniment of a guitar - and the rest, as they say, is history. In another remembrance of Christmases past, Leonard Clark tells how he had almost forgotten the Singing in the Streets, before Gruber's immortal melody returns, this time in English. Joyful indeed are Felicity Lott and the Company of Singers as Silent Night, in Peter Broadbent's richly-harmonised arrangement, brings our festive feast to a contented close. |
| 15.00 eur Buy |
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ID: COR16004
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Subcollection: Choir
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| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: COR16054
CDs: 3
Type: CD
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Collection: Choral Collection
Subcollection: Christmas Music
The perfect gift for Christmas - three of The Sixteen’s most celebrated festive CDs in a Boxset. From medieval carols with fiddles, harps and drums to the traditional carols we know and love, this collection includes favourite twentieth century English carols. |
| 36.00 eur Buy |
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ID: DCD34017
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Choral Collection
Subcollection: Choral and Organ
The powerful imagery of the Ascension has inspired generations of composers, from Peter Phillips and William Byrd to Gerald Finzi, Charles Villiers Stanford and Olivier Messiaen. The first part of this recording is in the form of an Anglican service of Choral Evensong; this is followed by Messiaen’s organ work L’Ascension, performed by Matthew Owens.
The choral works on the disc all have particular associations with the Cathedral, and some receive their premiere recording here. From James MacMillan’s meditative Tremunt videntes angeli to the rich fabric of Richard
Allain’s Exon Service, the Choir of St Mary’s weaves a complexly beautiful sonic tapestry in the cathedral’s generous acoustic.
Track listing
1 James MacMillan Tremunt videntes angeli
2 Kenneth Leighton Preces and Responses I (1964)
3 Office Hymn: Eternal Monarch, King Most High
4 Psalm XLVII
5 Psalm CVIII
6 Richard Allain Magnificat ‘The Exon Service’
7 Richard Allain Nunc Dimittis ‘The Exon Service’
8 Kenneth Leighton Preces and Responses II
9 Patrick Gowers Viri Galilaei
10 Recessional Hymn: Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) L'Ascension
11 I Majesté du Christ demandant sa gloire à son Père
12 II Alléluias sereins d'une âme qui désire le ciel
13 III Transports de joie d'une âme
devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne
14 IV Prière du Christ montant vers son Père |
| 15.00 eur Buy |
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ID: DCD34100
CDs: 4
Type:
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Collection: Organ Collection
Subcollection: Organ
Various Artists
Edinburgh's churches and concert halls are home to a rich variety of pipe organs. Open this lavishly-scaled book (30cm x 27cm) and step into a world of glorious architecture and fascinating history. In amongst these 100 pages twenty-two of the city's most notable instruments and their venues are surveyed in full colour. Meanwhile 12 illustrious players - all with deep-rooted Edinburgh connections - demonstrate the full range and versatility of these instruments on the four accompanying CDs. The full gamut of the repertoire is here, and Edinburgh's organs have the voices to match. Isn't it time to lift the veil from some of the closest-guarded treasures of one of the world's great cities? Only 2,000 numbered copies will ever be made available; demand for these is very high, so please place your order early to avoid dissapointment.
Track Listing:
CD1
Usher Hall - John Kitchen
1 Percy Whitlock (1903-1946) Sonata in C minor - i. Grave
2 Alfred Hollins (1865-1942), Evening Rest
St Cuthbert’s Parish Church - Thomas Laing-Reilly
3 Eugène Gigout (1844-1925) Grand Choeur dialogué (no 6 from Six Pièces)
4 Jean Langlais (1907-1991) Méditation (no 4 from Suite Médiévale, Op
5 Louis Vierne (1870-1937) Carillon de Westminster (no 6 from Pièces de Fantaisie, Op 54)
Palmerston Place Church - Andrew Caskie
6 Dieterich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) toccata in F, BuxWV157
7 George Baker (b. 1951) Berceuse Paraphrase
8 William Mathias (1934-1992) Fanfare
St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral - Duncan Ferguson
9 Herbert Howells (1892-1983) Master Tallis’s Testament (no 3 from Six Pieces)
10 Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) Fantasy 5 ‘Veni Emmanuel’ (from Six Fantasies on Hymn Tunes, Op 72)
11 Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) Choral varié (from Prélude, adagio et choral varié sur le thème de ‘Veni Creator’, Op 4)
Freemasons’ Hall - Timothy Byram-Wigfield
12 Judith Bingham (b. 1952) St Bride, assisted by angels
Total playing time [78:42]
CD2
Freemasons’ Hall - Timothy Byram-Wigfield
1 W. Battison Haynes (1859-1900) introduction and Variations on a Ground Bass
St Andrew’s and St George’s West Parish Church, George Street - Michael Harris
2 Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780) Fantasia sopra ‘Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend’
3 Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846), Six Variations on a theme of Corelli, Op 56
Broughton St Mary’s Parish Church - John Kitchen
4 C. Hubert H. Parry (1848-1918) Elegy for April 7, 1913
5 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Prelude and Fugue in d minor, Op 37 no 3
St Thomas’ Junction Road Parish Church, Leith - Peter Backhouse
6 Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) Prelude in F (no 1 from Six Short Preludes and Postludes, Set 1, Op 101)
7 Edward Bairstow (1874-1946) Evening Song
8 Charles Villiers Stanford Postlude in G minor (no 2 from Six Short Preludes and Postludes, Set 1, Op 101)
Pilrig St Paul’s Church - Andrew Caskie
9 Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) Organ Sonata no 7 in F minor, Op 127 - i. Allegro non troppo
10 George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987) Elegy in F (no 11 from A Little Organ Book in memory of Hubert Parry)
St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral - Simon Nieminski
11 Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) Organ Symphony no 6 in G minor, Op 42 - i. Allegro
12 Giles Swayne (b. 1946) Mr Bach’s Bottle Bank
Total playing time [74:19]
CD3
Canongate Kirk - Nicholas Wearne
1 Niels Christian Rasmussen (b. 1950) Variationer og modspil
2 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV649
St Giles’ Cathedral - Michael Harris
3 César Franck (1822-1890) Pièce Héroïque (No 3 from Trois Pièces)
4 J.S. Bach, Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn, BWV648
5 Kenneth Leighton, Paean Royal Order of Scotland - Nicholas Wearne
6 John Stanley (1712-1786) Voluntary No 3 in D minor (from Ten Voluntaries, Op 7)
7 Eddie McGuire (b. 1948), Ae Fond Kist recorded premiere, commissioned by Paul Baxter with support from the Scottish Arts Council
Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh - Nicholas Wearne
8 Dieterich Buxtehude Te Deum laudamus, BuxWV218
McEwan Hall, University of Edinburgh - Michael Bonaventure
9 Judith Weir (b. 1954) Wild Mossy Mountains
10 Avril Anderson (b. 1953) Repetitive Strain
Enharmonic Chamber Organ, Laigh Room, St Cecilia’s Hall - John Kitchen
11 Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656) Voluntary
12 attrib. Benjamin Cosyn (c.1570-1653) [Voluntary]
13 James Nares (1715-1783) Introduction and Fugue in A minor/major
Total playing time [76:20]
CD4
Home of John Kitchen - John Kitchen 1 Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) Variations on ‘Est-ce mars?’
Morningside Parish Church - Morley Whitehead
2 Herbert Murrill (1909-1952) Postlude on a Ground
3 Michael Christian Festing (1705-1752), transcr. G. Thalben-Ball Largo, Allegro, Aria and Two Variations
4 César Franck, Andantino in G minor
Reid Memorial Church -- Roger Fisher
5 Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921), arr. W. Creser, ed. Fisher Overture to Hänsel und Gretel
6 Peter Warlock (1894-1930), transcr. R. Fisher Pieds en l’air (from Capriol Suite)
7 Alfred Hollins, Maytime Gavotte
St Michael’s Parish Church, Inveresk - Peter Backhouse
8 Henry Smart (1813-1879) Postlude in D
9 Francis Jackson (b. 1917) Prelude on ‘East Acklam’ (No 4 from Five Preludes on English Hymn Tunes, Op 60)
Loretto School - Michael Bonaventure
10 John McCabe (b. 1939) Dies Resurrectionis
11 Graham Fitkin (b. 1963), Organ
St Mary’s Episcopal Church, Dalkeith - John Kitchen
12 Samuel Wesley (1766-1837) Air (No 8 of Twelve Short Pieces)
13 Samuel Wesley Gavotte (No 9 of Twelve Short Pieces)
14 Felix Mendelssohn Theme and Variations in D
15 Samuel Wesley Full Organ with the Trumpet (No 13 [sic] of Twelve Short Pieces)
Total playing time [74:19] |
| 45.00 eur Buy |
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ID: DCD34301-3
CDs: 3
Type: CD
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Collection: Instrumental
Subcollection: Piano
Angela Brownridge piano
The complete solo piano works of Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) are presented here for the first time on three discs, containing many premiere recordings. Written for Leighton's own instrument, and played here by his distinguished pupil Angela Brownridge, the varied nature of this programme spans Leighton's entire career as a composer.
Track listing
Kenneth Leighton
Disc 1
Five Studies Op. 22 (1952)
1 Allegro ma non troppo
2 Allegro leggerissimo
3 Allegro molto
4 Molto lento, molto espressivo, ed un poco liberamente
5 Presto con bravura
Sonatina No. 1 Op. 1a (1946)
6 Allegretto con moto
7 Andante expressivo
8 Prestissimo
Variations Op. 30 (1955)
9 Introduzione: Lento misterioso
10 Canzonetta: Allegro grazioso
11 Ninna-nanna: Cullante
12 Toccata: Allegro molto e ritmico
13 Notturno: Lento sostenuto
14 Valzer: Con moto, grazioso ma un poco ironico
15 Fanfara: Allegro molto
16 Interludio: Andante, dolce ed innocente
17 Fuga: Allegro marcato
Sonata No. 1 Op. 2 (1948)
18 Allegro
19 Scherzo: Presto
20 Lento e semplice
21 Rondo: Allegro molto e ritmico
Six Studies (Study-Variations) Op. 56 (1969)
22 Adagio molto
23 Allegro molto e secco, molto ritmico
24 Adagio molto, misterioso ma molto espressivo
25 Allegro leggiero e cappricioso
26 Allegro molto, nervosa
27 Presto con bravura
Disc 2
Sonata No. 2 Op. 17 (1953)
1 Allegro molto e sempre agitato
2 Lento sostenuto - elegiaco
3 Theme and Variations
4 Conflicts (Fantasy on Two Themes) Op. 51 (1967)
Four Romantic Pieces Op. 95 (1986)
5 Molto moderato
6 Presto capriccioso
7 Adagio molto
8 Allegro molto - con brio
Fantasia Contrappuntistica (Homage to Bach) Op. 24 (1956)
9 Maestoso ed un poco liberamente -
10 Toccata: Allegro molto e ritmico -
11 Chorale: Lento sostenuto -
12 Fuga I: Allegretto con moto -
13 Fuga II: Presto e gaio - Primo tempo
Disc 3
Sonatina No. 2 Op. 1b (1947)
1 Allegro
2 Andante sostenuto
3 Allegro molto
Nine Variations Op. 36 (1959)
4 Molto moderato, sostenuto ed uguale
5 Esitando molto
6 Allegro molto, con fuoco e molto ritmico (il più presto possible)
7 Lento sostenuto
8 Allegretto capriccioso con slancio ma un poco ironico
9 Presto con bravura, precipitoso
10 Alla Marcia (un pochiss. più mosso)
11 Adagio sostenuto e molto espress.
12 Andantino con moto, tempo giustissimo e sempre molto delicate
Sonata Op. 64 (1972)
13 Lento e chiaro
14 Chorale with contrasts: Adagio molto e sostenuto
15 Toccatas and Chorale: Presto precipitoso
Household Pets Op. 86 (1981)
16 Cat's Lament: Largo e cantabile
17 Jolly Dog: Presto con spirito
18 Goldfish: Adagio e calmissimo
19 White Rabbit: Allegro ma non troppo
20 Bird in cage: Largo e lamentoso
21 Squeaky Guinea-pig: Allegro molto
22 Animal Heaven: Lento e sostenuto, cantabile
23 Jack-in-the-Box (1959)
24 Study (1965)
25 Lazy-bones (1965)
Pieces for Angela Op. 47 (1966)
26 Clockwork Doll: Allegro alla marcia
27 The Swan: Andante con moto
28 Little Minx: Molto allegro capriccioso
29 Cradle-Song: Non troppo lento, dolce
30 A Sad Folk Song: Flowing and expressive
31 Leap-Frog: Allegro ritmico
32 Lament: Moderato espress.
33 Final Fanfare: Brisk and loud
Preludes (1988)
34 Prelude in D minor: Allegro con molto cantabile ed un poco agitato
35 Prelude in D major: Lentissimo dolce e cantabile
36 Prelude in E flat minor: Adagio molto (Tempo giusto)
37 Prelude in C major: Allegro molto chiaro e limpido
38 Prelude in C minor: Adagio molto sonoro e cantando |
| 24.00 eur Buy |
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ID: GMCD7170
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Sacred Music
Subcollection: Cathedral Choir
Recorded in the Parish Church of All Saints, Hove
It’s history……. The young King Edward VI founded three Royal "Hospitals" towards the end of his reign. Christ’s Hospital, in the old buildings vacated by the Grey Friars, was to educate and care for fatherless children and other poor men’s children, St Thomas’ Hospital was to attend to the sick, and Bridewell Hospital was to give shelter and sustenance to beggars. Barely a century later the Great Fire of London claimed a large number of the Christ’s Hospital buildings, but it was almost entirely rebuilt within 30 years, thanks to the generosity of a number of city merchants. In 1673 Charles II founded the Royal Mathematical School within Christ’s Hospital, largely from the inspiration of Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist. He was the Secretary to the Admiralty and so was interested in ensuring that high quality mathematicians and navigators were educated for future sea-service. Much later Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb and James Leigh Hunt were boys at Christ’s Hospital, and the School has boarding houses named after them. The school was originally co-educational; however, from quite early in its history, the girls of the Foundation were educated separately at Hertford. In 1985, however, they rejoined the boys at Horsham, where the School had relocated in May 1902 in search of fresh air and space for proper relaxation and games. Today, Christ’s Hospital is the largest educational charity in the country, enabling this education to be offered to the most deserving children, irrespective of the ability to pay. All fees are means tested and on average parents meet less than 15% of the School’s costs. The Foundation therefore looks for children who will contribute most to, and benefit most from, a place at the School. …it’s music……. Historians have quite correctly emphasised that Christ’s Hospital was never merely an orphanage as such, for amongst the earliest academic appointments was "a schoole-maister for Musicke". So our musical tradition stretches back nearly 450 years: - longer, if one were to count the semi-monastic tradition that had been nurtured for centuries before by the Greyfriars by the Newgate of the City of London, for Christ’s Hospital took over their premises in November of 1552. It is far from fanciful to imagine the youthful voices of the children singing in the massive three hundred foot long church of Christ Church, Greyfriars, not far from Old St Paul’s, and we know for certain from Robert Dow’s Will for setting up a Song School in 1609 that boys were "to sing in the Quier of Christ Church", and that from 1613 a boy should "serve and be employed in playing of the organs of the said church". Alas in September 1666 the Great Fire destroyed that wonderful building, but the tradition itself continued in the rebuilt, though rather smaller church, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, which became known as Christ Church, Newgate Street. Today, the School has six full-time and thirty visiting music staff teaching some 500 individual lessons each week, as well as providing a full programme of rehearsals and concerts for ensembles of all sizes. Much emphasis is given to the development of musical ability through chamber music and the finest pupils give an annual concert at the Purcell Room on London’s South Bank. However, the School is also proud of its larger ensembles, the Choirs, the Orchestras, and the Marching Band, famous for its appearances each year at the front of the Lord Mayor’s Show, at Twickenham and at Lords. Music is an integral part of the School’s life, and continues to play an important role in the continuing strong links with the City of London. …and it’s choirs Standing on one side of the great central quadrangle of Christ’s Hospital is the Chapel. It is a collegiate-style building, spacious enough to seat the whole school of 830 pupils and 90 staff. Services are accompanied by the School Organist on the massive five-manual Rushworth and Dreaper organ, which was designed in 1931 by the Director of Music at that time, C. S. Lang. The 112 members of the Chapel Choir are seated centrally and antiphonally, ideally placed to lead the congregational singing. As well as singing hymns, anthems, canticles, psalms and responses for the regular weekly services, the choir also sings for a full programme of special occasions throughout the year including a service for St. Matthew’s Day in the City of London, attended by the Lord Mayor, re-emphasising the school’s strong links with its past. The choir performs in the famous "Bluecoat" Tudor uniform worn by all pupils of the school throughout the normal school week. The choir gives an annual performance of a major choral work - in recent years, Brahms’ German Requiem, J. S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Mozart’s Requiem. In addition the choir sings Choral Evensong at such venues as St Paul’s Cathedral, Chichester Cathedral, Guildford Cathedral, St George’s Chapel, Windsor, broadcasts for television and BBC Radio (Remembrance Sunday, Highway, Radio 3 Advent Carol Series, Sunday Half Hour) and the smaller chamber choir, Schola Cantorum, sing for many other special events. This is the Choir’s fourth CD recording. Details of earlier recordings are available from Christ’s Hospital Enterprises, Christ’s Hospital, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 7LS. |
| 15.00 eur Buy |
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ID: GMCD7226
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Subcollection: Choral and Organ
Christopher Eastwood plays the organ for In The Bleak Midwinter, and conducts The Three Kings.
Mark Williams (A Spotless Rose)
Rebecca Willcox (In The Bleak Midwinter)
William Tallon (In The Bleak Midwinter)
Sylvia Garnsey (Coventry Carol, Once In Royal)
Thomas Lydon (Three Kings)
Poulenc: Quatre Motets Pour Le Temps De Noel
Poulenc’s religious music, while expressing perfectly his profound Catholic faith, was always closely bound up with his relationships with friends and lovers. He had been catapulted back to the church in 1936 by the death in appalling circumstances of the composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud. His great opera Dialogues des Carmelites was deeply affected by the illness and death of his lover Lucien Roubert. These four exquisite miniatures seem to have been written, between November 1951 and May 1952, at least in part as gifts for their dedicatees: indeed they are such private pieces that no proper record exists of their first performance. What may have been their premiere was given, rather incongruously, in Madrid by the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Poulenc dedicated the first of them, a dark, tender setting of "O Magnum Mysterium", to the conductor of that performance, Felix de Nobel. The gentle second motet "Quem Vidistis Pastores" was a tribute to one of Poulenc’s closest woman friends, Simone Girard. She was the secretary of the Avignon Concerts Society and by all accounts an indefatigable organiser and fine amateur pianist. To Poulenc she was indispensable. In a letter of 1951, in which he offers her the "Quem Vidistis", he tells her "You have the ultimate intelligence - quite simply that of the heart, a sentiment surely appropriate to this evocation of the simple shepherds seeing the star over Bethlehem. The set is completed by a setting, marked "Calme et doux", of "Videntes Stellam", and an exultant "Hodie Christus Natus Est" which seems to be made up entirely of fanfares. |
| 15.00 eur Buy |
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ID: MSVCD92036
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Vocal Collection
Fine songs by British composers, with a slightly unusual instrumentation rather than the usual piano! Full texts included.
tracks:
KENNETH LEIGHTON:
Animal Heaven:
1 I think I could turn and live with animals
2 Here they are
EDWARD HARPER:
LIghts Out:
1 The Trumpet
2 The Ash Grove
3 The Wind's Song
4 Lights Out
SALLY BEAMISH:
Four Findrinny Songs:
1 Short Heraldry
2 Grey Seal
3 Three Horizons
4 Italia
LYELL CRESSWELL:
Prayer to appease the Spirit of the Land
ROGER WILLIAMS:
Oh! Mr. Lear!:
1 There was an old man in a tree
2 There was an old man of the Isles
3 A Scottish Lullaby
4 Scherzo
DAVID JOHNSON:
God, Man and the Animals:
nos 1-6 |
| 12.00 eur Buy |
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