DECEMBER 2012
CD OF THE MONTH
John IRELAND (1879–1962)
MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN
Church Music
Lincoln Cathedral Choir • Charles Harrison, organ
Aric Prentice
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Spiritually at home in the liturgy and fine choirs of High Church Anglicanism, John Ireland wrote much–loved hymns and carols throughout his life. A fluent Edwardian style can be heard in earlier works such as the Stanford–influenced Te Deum and the Communion Servic. The anthem Greater love hath no man took on affecting resonance when sung during memorial services during the First World War, and the ravishing Ex ore innocentium movingly responds to the agony of the Crucifixion in a rich, post–romantic musical language.
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John McCABE (b. 1939)
Visions (Choral Music)
Iain Farrington, organ • BBC Singers • David Hill
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The distinguished composer and pianist John McCabe has written in almost every genre, and has long been one of Britain’s leading musicians. In his choral music he has taken a variety of texts – including anonymous sixteenth–century Latin, and the poems of Henry Vaughan and Thomas Hardy – and fashioned them into powerful settings. He evokes a rich variety of vocal colours and textures, remaining at all times communicative and vital, not least in the beautiful Marian Carols and the contrasting riches of the Mangan Triptych.
Maurice GREENE (1696–1755)
25 sonnet settings taken from Spenser’s Amoretti
Benjamin Hulett, tenor
Luke Green, harpsichord • Giangiacomo Pinardi, theorbo
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The distinguished English composer Maurice Greene was appointed Master of the King”s Music in 1735. He soon composed a series of 25 sonnet settings taken from the collection of 89 Amoretti (‘little loves’) written by Edmund Spenser, one of the greatest poets of the Shakespearean age. These settings show Greene to have been a master of word–painting technique, and a subtle colourist with a sensitive ear for Spenser’s verse. This jewel of a collection is also historically important, as it can be considered one of the earliest song cycles in the history of English music.
Bohuslav MARTINŮ (1890–1959)
Piano Trios (Complete)
Arbor Piano Trio
(Dmitri Vorobiev, piano • Stephen Shipps, violin • Richard Aaron, cello)
Cinq Pièces Brèves (Piano Trio No. 1) • Piano Trio No. 2 in D minor
Bergerettes • Piano Trio No. 3 in C major (The Great)
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Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů excelled in chamber music and made a substantial contribution to the piano trio repertoire of the twentieth century, his keen ear for balance and sonority finding here a perfect medium for his music. Trio No. 1, Cinq pièces brèves, written in an appealing and virtuosic neo–classical style in Paris in 1930, was admired by Stravinsky. Trios Nos. 2 and 3, composed in America in 1951, are more ambitious in scope and notable for their rhythmic verve and unpredictability, ingratiating themes and elegiac slow movements.
FAVOURITE SACRED MASTERPIECES
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Some of the world’s greatest sacred masterpieces are heard on this disc, performed by some of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. The journey ranges from Thomas Tallis’s extraordinary Spem in alium to César Franck’s immortal Panis angelicus. Pergolesi’s Stabat mater is a masterpiece of the early eighteenth century. Mozart, who as a 14 year old had copied out Allegri’s Miserere from memory, is represented by his beautiful Ave verum corpus. It is impossible to omit the Bach–Gounod Ave Maria from a journey that crosses geographical borders and spans the centuries.
Ferdinando PAËR (1771–1839)
Il Santo Sepolcro (The Holy Sepulchre)
Preceded by Invito by Giovanni Simon MAYR (1763–1845)
Cornelia Horak, soprano • Miriam Clark, soprano
Vanessa Barkowski, alto • Valer Barna–Sabadus, alto
Thomas Michael Allen, tenor • Klaus Steppberger, tenor
Jens Hamann, bass • Thomas Stimmel, bass
Simon Mayr Chorus and Ensemble • Franz Hauk
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Together with Johann Simon Mayr, Ferdinando Paër counts as one of the most important opera composers of his day, and he was unable to resist filling his oratorio on Christ’s Passion, Il Santo Sepolcro with expressive extremes. Pain and grief contrast with joy and hope, and scenes including the terrible hours of the crucifixion, frenzy of the crowd, resurrection and Last Judgment are given potently descriptive music. Originally a prelude to Haydn’s Seven Last Words, Mayr’s Invito is a call to hear Paër’s incomparable narrative.
Giovanni SGAMBATI (1841–1914)
Cola di Rienzo – Overture
Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 16
Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma • Francesco La Vecchia
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Giovanni Sgambati was one of the most important figures in the Renaissance of Italian instrumental music that began in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Wagner arranged the publication of his first chamber works, calling him ‘a true, great and original talent’. Sgambati’s blending of Italianate lyricism and German rigour led to large–scale works of real historical significance. His overture Cola di Rienzo exemplifies his richness of characterisation while the First Symphony is a major statement of breadth and intensity, admired by Grieg and Saint–Saëns, and often conducted by Toscanini.
DVD OF THE MONTH
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Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
Charlotte Broom, Michael Camp, Richard Clews, Nigel Cooke,
Jonathan Cullen, Arthur Darvill, Robert Goodale, Paul Hilton,
William Mannering, Sarita Piotrowski, Pearce Quigley, Iris Roberts,
Beatriz Romilly, Felix Scott, Jade Williams, Chinna Wodu
Director: Matthew Dunster
Music: Jules Maxwell
Recorded live at Shakespeare’s Globe, August 2011
"Rude, robust, bawdy, magical and violent, it is a provocatively entertaining production whose "frivolous demands" are more than met." Daily Express

"A triumph of spine–tingling spectacle. Director Matthew Dunster conjures in a way that would delight the Prince of Darkness himself." The Spectator

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Doctor Faustus is Christopher Marlowe’s most renowned and controversial work. Famous for being the first dramatized version of the Faustus tale, the play depicts the sinister aftermath of Faustus’s decision to sell his soul to the Devil’s henchman in exchange for power and knowledge. In the first–ever staging of this menacing drama at the Globe Theatre, Matthew Dunster’s production features Paul Hilton as the arrogant, power–hungry Faustus and Arthur Darvill as the sardonic Mephistopheles, and includes several impressive magical stunts along the way.
DVD OF THE MONTH
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Doctor Faustus is Christopher Marlowe’s most renowned and controversial work. Famous for being the first dramatized version of the Faustus tale, the play depicts the sinister aftermath of Faustus’s decision to sell his soul to the Devil’s henchman in exchange for power and knowledge. In the first–ever staging of this menacing drama at the Globe Theatre, Matthew Dunster’s production features Paul Hilton as the arrogant, power–hungry Faustus and Arthur Darvill as the sardonic Mephistopheles, and includes several impressive magical stunts along the way.
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James WHITBOURN (b.1963)
Annelies (Chamber Version) World Première Recording
The first major choral setting of The Diary of Anne Frank
Arianna Zukerman, soprano
Westminster Williamson Voices
The Lincoln Trio (with Bharat Chandra, clarinet)
James Jordan
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The first major choral setting of The Diary of Anne Frank takes the teenager’s remarkable and penetrating observations, written whilst hiding in an Amsterdam attic, as the basis of its extraordinary and moving libretto. Whitbourn’s music for this work has been described as "woundingly beautiful" (The Daily Telegraph). He reflects sounds of the Westerkerk bells and tunes heard on the radio in the Annexe, along with representations of Anne Frank’s Jewish and German heritage, details that add to a score "whose respectful understatement is its greatest strength" (The Times).