Announcement,
New releases for Lent and Easter
This year's crop of Passiontide and Easter-related releases encompasses some superb new accounts of core repertoire for the season, the world premiere recording of a blistering setting of the Stabat mater by one of the leading contemporary composers of sacred music, and a couple of fascinating baroque excavations - here's the best of the rest…
Described as 'a devastatingly powerful evocation of Mary’s agony' by The Guardian, MacMillan's austere setting of the Stabat mater was premiered in October 2016 as part of a series of new commissions by The Sixteen's Genesis Foundation; watch this space for David's exclusive interview with James MacMillan and Harry Christophers later this week...
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater and Bach Cantatas for Alto
Lucy Crowe (soprano) & Tim Mead (countertenor); La Nuova Musica, David Bates
Wonderful alchemy between the two young British soloists here: Crowe is silver to Mead's bronze in Pergolesi's searing lament, impeccably paced by David Bates. Mead's luminous accounts of 'Widerstehe doch der Sünde' and 'Vergnügte Ruh' hold their own against the recent distinguished competition from Messrs Jaroussky and Davies!
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
JS Bach: St John Passion (sung in English)
Robert Murray (Evangelist); Crouch End Festival Chorus & Bach Camerata, David Temple
I've lost count of how many times I've been asked for an English-language recording of the John Passion (this one's the first commercial version in over four decades!), and the clarity of the translation here is but one of this set's virtues: add a fiercely committed chorus, radiant solo singing, and a conductor with a firm grasp on the work's architecture and you have a winner.
Available Formats: 2 SACDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Couperin: Leçons de ténèbres
Katherine Watson (soprano), Anna Dennis (soprano); Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
Two pure-toned but superbly expressive British sopranos complement one another quite wonderfully in Couperin's triptych of meditations for Holy Wednesday, particularly in the elaborate, suspension-filled final movement where the two voices intertwine. The Apothéose de Lully is an attractive companion-piece.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
I'm cheating a little here, as not everything on this disc's Easter-appropriate (there's also music for Christmas, and even a secular work), but I had to include it for the stark beauty of The Sixteen's account of the Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence. Blend, intonation and clarity of diction are, as you'd expect from this group, well-nigh immaculate.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
JS Bach: St Matthew Passion
James Gilchrist (Evangelist), Stephan Loges (Jesus); English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Gardiner's second, live recording of a work which he's described as 'a magical phenomenon' was a Disc of the Week for us last month and continues to win praise; Gramophone have since described it as 'one of his finest achievements', and The Times as 'a revelatory psychological document'.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Alessandro Scarlatti: Passio Secundum Johannem
Giuseppina Bridelli (mezzo), Choeur De Chambre De Namur & Millenium, Leonardo García Alarcón
Written around 1770, Scarlatti's sparsely-scored John Passion assigns the pivotal role of the Evangelist to an alto and reserves string and choral contributions for the climactic moments of the narrative; Leonardo García Alarcón intersperses the lean drama with selections from the composer's polyphonic Responsories for Holy Week.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Jommelli's oratorio is but one of several dozen settings of a Passion narrative penned by the great opera librettist Pietro Metastasio, depicting Peter's questioning of St. John, Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimathea in the immediate aftermath of the Crucifixion. Jommelli's characterisation has all the vivid immediacy of his operatic writing, but holds the vocal fireworks in reserve for St Peter himself.
Available Format: 2 CDs
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
