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ID: SIGCD032
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Chamber Music
Recording Location: St. Andrew's Church, Toddington, Gloucestershire
Louis (c.1626-1661), François le Grand (1668-1733) and Armand-Louis (1727-1789) were the three most celebrated members of the distinguished Couperin family of musicians who flourished from the late 16th century until the middle of the 19th, holding a position of esteem parallel to that of the Bachs in Germany.
The Sultan and the Phoenix presents both masterpieces and rare gems from the Couperins and their contemporaries, all delivered with a rare insight by the ensemble charivari agréable. The programme presents an overview of the ensemble use of the viol in its various manifestations and stages of evolution in France. The Couperin dynasty offers a convenient chronological framework within which the viol could be heard in various guises: from a consort setting to a ‘pičces de clavecin en concerts’ configuration; from a six-string bass viol to a five-string hybrid ‘quinton’. Underpinning this programme is the historical practice of adaptation, transcription and arrangement with which French baroque music is replete.
Historical tradition is followed by the arrangement of some pieces by the players. Some involved direct transcription, such as the L. Couperin Pavan for a viol consort or the F. Couperin harpsichord piece for theorbo (in the style of de Visée, see above). Other pieces are left untouched, such as L. Couperin’s Fantaisies and Corrette’s Phénix, as well as the large-scale chamber works of Dornel and Couperin.
Charivari Agréable’s reputation as one of the most original ensembles in the period-instrument scene was recently articulated by the BBC Music Magazine, which noted that the ensemble “has carved something of a niche for itself in imaginative and well thought-out programming”, reasoning that its work is the fruit of both scholarly research and charismatic musicianship, a combination which puts it at the forefront of period-instrument ensembles.
This recording is refreshing and rewarding. Charivari Agréable is a rare combination with a distinct sound and sonority, displaying sincere empathy and love for the repertory they choose to record. |
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ID: SIGCD029
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Renaissance
Subcollection: ChoirSignum Records are delighted to release the seventh volume of their celebrated nine-disc series, presenting the Complete Works of Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585).
Queen Elizabeth’s reign (1558-1603) was a golden age for the arts. England enjoyed a growing cultural exchange with continental Europe. England’s rich, but essentially conservative pre-Reformation heritage was infused with increasing continental influence and innovations.
Elizabeth I was the fourth monarch to sit on the throne in Thomas Tallis’s lifetime. From the outset of her reign Elizabeth allowed considerable freedom of practice and belief. She was firmly in favour of a vernacular liturgy for the general population, although in her own chapels she preferred a more lavish ceremony to music.
Tallis had witnessed the wholesale destruction of much of England’s church music tradition, however the ever adaptable composer met the challenges of a new liturgy, its new styles and genres, with the imaginative force of a man half his age.
The years of Reformation, and Elizabeth’s protestant settlement, freed the Latin-texted tradition of liturgical propriety, allowing composers to reinvigorate the language and harness it to new, expressive and personal ends. This recording presents Tallis’s Elizabethan Latin motets (which number fifteen). The mighty occasional piece, the forty-voice motet Spem in alium, concludes the disc. |
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ID: COR16038
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Choral Collection
The works on this album show some of the breadth and range of Benjamin Britten's choral writing, embracing the masque from his opera 'Gloriana,' his own take on the English part song tradition in 'Five Flower Songs,' and his last work for unaccompanied voices, 'Sacred and Profane.' The latter sets medieval texts described herein as a "mixture of the devotional and the rumbustiously secular." The Sixteen is one of the jewels in the musical crown of Britain, and enjoys a worldwide reputation for clarity and beauty with precision and dramatic intensity.
1-8 - Ian Partridge (Tenor); Helen Tunstall (Harp)
9 - Stephen Westropp (Piano)
10 - Ruth Dean (Soprano); Neil MacKenzie (Tenor); Margaret Phillips (Organ) |
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ID: SIGCD019
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Choral Collection
Subcollection: ChoirSignum Records is delighted to present Chapelle du Roi’s eleventh release with the label. This recording offers a selection of music spanning the life and reign of Charles V, undoubtedly the most powerful man in 16th-century Europe, from his early teenage years to his death in 1558.
Charles was a devout Catholic, and maintained a chapel employing some of the most notable composers of the period, including Nicolas Gombert and Thomas Crecquillon, who Charles referred to as ‘the truest Opheus of the age’. Closely identified with the Order of the Golden Fleece, which gave rise to the L’homme armé tradition, Charles V was said to have a musical ear. A great deal of music survives that is associated directly with him and his patronage - a selection of which is presented on this recording.
The music composed for rulers frequently mixed the heavenly with the secular, and a great many pieces were written to celebrate political conquests and occasions within the court. For example, Cristóbal Morales possibly wrote his Missa L'homme armé as an offering for Charles’s wedding to Isabella of Portugal.
Near the end of Charles’s reign, the young composer Orlandus Lassus was just starting his career, and seeking preferment. He offered his secular motet, Heroum Soboles to Charles in the hope that he would join the prestigious Capilla Flamenca. He was unsuccessful, however Charles’s minister, Bishop Granvelle of Arras helped Lassus to secure his position at the court of Duke Albrecht of Bavaria - a musical establishment that was no less magnificent.
The last years of Charles life were troubled by his failure to convert the Protestants back into the Roman Catholic Church, and to lead a universal Catholic empire. His death resounded throughout the Empire, and Don Fernando de las Infantas marked his passing with a setting of Parce Mihi Domine, the best-known of the texts from Matins pro defunctis. |
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ID: COR16041
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Sacred Music
Subcollection: ChoirBrand new recording from The Sixteen (recorded in 2006) features new editions and world premiere recordings. It was largely through the efforts of "Captain" Henry Cooke (c.1615-1672) that the choir of the Chapel Royal was successfully restored at the Restoration in 1660. He invoked ancient press-gang legislation to purloin promising choirboys from cathedrals across the country. Two of them, Pelham Humfrey and John Blow, went on to write groundbreaking music. |
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ID: COR16042
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Baroque
About this title: The small British chorus called the Sixteen and director Harry Christophers have delivered consistently popular recordings of Renaissance and Baroque music, maintaining very high standards of performance. Here they couple two of the most popular Baroque works of all, Vivaldi's Gloria in D major, RV 589, and Bach's Magnificat in D major, BWV 243, and the results are handsome indeed. The tenor of the performances flows from the conceptions of each work that Christophers expresses in one of the little personal essays that appears at the beginning of each booklet in this series: Vivaldi, he said, is "effective," and even operates in places here "at his simplest," while Bach is "complex." Some would use other words first, for each composer -- daring or kinetic for Vivaldi, devotional or a dozen other words for Bach. There are recordings that give Vivaldi in general and the Gloria in particular more of an edge; there are recordings of Bach that seem warmer, or more rooted in the sacred texts. |
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ID: COR16047
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Sacred Music
Subcollection: ChoirRecorded in November 2006, this disc offers a fascinating collection of works written for the Papal Chapel. Researched and sung by one of the world's leading choirs, The Sixteen and Harry Christophers, this recording includes many world premiere recordings of these rarely heard sacred works. Felice Anerio displays a fluid mastery of the Roman style of composition, and some of his surviving settings are shown to advantage here, in particular his glorious twelve-part setting of Stabat Mater, more ambitious and possibly more beautiful than those by Palestrina and Lassus. Gregorio Allegri is famous for his Miserere (available on coro as cor16014); this recording contains representative examples of his polyphonic style. Together with settings by the towering figure of Palestrina, all receive warm and vital performances. |
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ID: COR16045
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Vocal Collection
Subcollection: ChoirRecorded live at The Sixteen's Handel in Oxford Festival, 2006, Elin Manahan Thomas gives a performance of captivating communication and sparkling intelligence in these stunning and contrasting Handel Cantatas, bringing to life the world of four women, all of whom have been betrayed by love and its deceitful charms.
Agrippina, sister of Caligula and wife of Claudius, vacillates from fiery monarch in outrage to a tender mother appalled by her son's weakness. At the last, she resigns herself to a noble death at the hands of her cruel, ignoble son. Nel dolce dell' oblio descries the sweet oblivion of sleep as the beloved Fili lies dreaming of her darling. Tu fedel, Tu Costante has the singer berating her beloved, Fileno, for his philandering ways as he loves a hundred beauties and wishes to share himself with them all. In the last aria she decides either to love another, or to live entirely with out love henceforth. Armida abbandonata tells a tale of desperate, unrequited love. When the Saracen witch Armida falls in love with captured warrior Rinaldo, Armida bewitches him to love her in return but eventually her spell fails and Rinaldo returns to his ship and abandons her. |
| 18.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
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ID: COR16049
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Sacred Music
Subcollection: ChoirMagdalen College, Oxford, was a centre of excellence in the sixteenth century, with three of the era’s greatest composers holding the position of Master of the Choristers during a prolific period of English music.
Harry Christophers presents the unique Magdalen sound in sublime music from these composers, performed by The Magdalen Collection, all previous academical clerks of Magdalen College, Oxford. |
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ID: COR16048
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Sacred Music
The second in a series of four Hilliard Ensemble collections on CORO, with beautiful artwork. The Hilliard LIVE Series was originally produced by the BBC for lobby sale at Hilliard concert events and has never previously been available commercially. The ensemble, founded in 1974, is one of the world's finest vocal chamber ensembles, unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both old and new music. The group's performing schedule is varied, amounting to about a hundred concerts a year. Its substantial following in Europe is augmented by regular visits to Japan, the US, and Canada
Language: Latin
The Hilliard Ensemble is one of the world's finest vocal chamber groups, and is probably unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music. This series was only previously available direct from the group but has never before been fully available at international retail. |
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