For this release, Simone Eckert takes a stripped-down approach to Telemann. Granted, Telemann’s sacred music sounds glorious with a large chorus and supporting orchestra. But the reality was different. Most German courts had modest resources, with only a few singers and a handful of instruments. The cantatas recorded here could all be considered chamber works […]
choral music
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Les Escapades revive Georg Christoph Strattner sacred music
Georg Christoph Strattner is best remembered today for some of his hymn tunes. But in the late 1690s, he was a well-respected composer of many forms of sacred music. Strattner spent most of his professional life at the court chapel at Weimar. Like Heinrich Schutz, who was of the previous generation, Strattner blended the ideals […]
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Blue Heron serves savory sounds with 14th C. Salmagundi
What exactly is a salmagundi? According to the liner notes, it’s “a savory dish composed of chopped meats, seafood, eggs, vegetables, and condiments.” In other words, a kitchen sink dish. I’m not sure I’d enjoy such a dish. But I very much enjoyed this release. In this case, the salmagundi is a sampling of various […]
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Anton Schweitzer sacred music resurrected
So who was Anton Schweitzer? Born in 1735, he was a child prodigy who enjoyed the patronage of the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The duke paid for his education and made him Kapellmeister of his court orchestra. When the orchestra was disbanded, Schweitzer hit the road with a theatrical troupe. Most of his surviving compositions are […]
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Johann Mayr Messa di Gloria – forgotten, but not forgettable
If maestro Frank Hauk had his way, Johann Simon Mayr would be known for more than just being Gaetano Donizetti’s music teacher. Mayr, in his day, was a major figure. He wrote 19 masses, 57 symphonies, over 70 operas — most of which are now all but forgotten. Is Mayr’s music forgettable? Hauk would disagree. […]
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Christoph Graupner Easter Cantatas intimate and effective
Christoph Graupner wrote over 1,400 sacred cantatas. So there’s a lot to choose from — even for an album of just Easter cantatas. Christian Bonath has done a superb job programming a set of Holy Week cantatas that span decades of Graupner’s output. And each one receives a recording world premiere. Just to run down […]
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Hymns of Kassiani – history’s first woman composer
Pop quiz: who’s the earliest female composer you can think of? Chances are, it’s Hildegarde von Bingen. Although her star has risen from obscurity, she’s not the earliest, or perhaps, the most important. That honor belongs to Kassiani, or Kassia (c.810-c.865). Kassia’s career had some significant differences with Hildegard von Bingen, who was born two […]
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Benno Ammann – Missa Defensor Pacis blends new and old
Swiss composer and conductor Benno Amman embraced the full range of 20th Century composition — from neo-classical to experimental. That eclecticism is, I think, what makes the Missa Defensor Pacis so successful. It’s a work that could only be written in the 20th Century, and yet it seamlessly incorporates traditions of the past. Ammann was commissioned to […]
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Porfeti della Quinta perfectly perform Philippe Verdelot
Philippe Verdelot one of the composers credited with developing the Italian madrigal. Though French, he spent most of his professional life in Florence. His publications spread throughout Europe and set the model for this Renaissance vocal form. Verdelot wrote mostly five- and six-voice madrigals. This release features some of his less-common four-voice madrigals. They were […]