8.578210

FAVOURITE SACRED MASTERPIECES
TALLIS Spem in alium
ALLEGRI Miserere
PERGOLESI Stabat mater
MOZART Ave verum corpus
BACH-GOUNOD Ave Maria
FRANCK Panis angelicus

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.

8.572911

Helmut WALCHA (1907–1991)
Chorale Preludes, Volume 2
Wolfgang Rübsam, organ

A native of Leipzig and steeped in the musical tradition of J. S. Bach, Helmut Walcha was one of the most influential organists of the 20th century. Building on Baroque examples, Walcha started composing the Chorale Preludes during the war years and they became popular teaching pieces as well as ideal vehicles for expressing the clarity and colour of organs both historic and new. As one of Walcha’s most renowned students Wolfgang Rübsam is uniquely authoritative in his interpretations. This is the second of four volumes of Walcha’s complete Chorale Preludes.

8.572251

8.573007

Giovanni SGAMBATI (1841–1914)
Cola di Rienzo – Overture
Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 16
Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma
Francesco La Vecchia

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.

8.572492

Ferdinando PAËR (1771–1839)
Il Santo Sepolcro
(The Holy Sepulchre)
Cornelia Horak • Vanessa Barkowski
Thomas Michael Allen • Jens Hamann
Simon Mayr Chorus and Ensemble
Franz Hauk

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.