Amongst the many endeavours funded by the Carnegie Trust marking its centenary in 2013), was the publication and editing of ‘Tudor Church Music’ in ten large folio volumes of music, with 50 performing pieces published individually. This had a considerable impact on the revival of this important music: for the first time a significant body of the greatest Tudor compositions became accessible to scholars, performers and listeners having languished in cathedrals, museums and colleges. It also inspired a further generation of English composers after its resurrection including Howells, Britten and Vaughan Williams. Stile Antico presents a varied selection of the finest pieces from TCM in a programme centred around William Byrd s masterful five-part mass. Stile Antico is an elite ensemble of young British singers, working without a conductor, each contributing artistically to the musical result. They are now established as the crack ensemble to beat, having enjoyed huge success, via their SACD recordings for harmonia mundi USA. Awards include the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music [Song of Songs] which also reached the top of the US Classical Chart. Their performances have repeatedly been praised for their vitality, commitment and imaginative response to text. Highlights of Stile Antico’s 2012-13 season include a series of concerts as co-curators of the Wigmore Hall’s William Byrd: Sacred Music festival, and this new recording celebrating the centenary of the Carnegie UK Trust, publisher of the pioneering Tudor Church Music edition. Carnegie Trust: changing minds, changing lives 1913-2013 Set up by Andrew Carnegie in 1913 to improve the wellbeing of the people of the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is one of the oldest and most respected charitable trusts in the British Isles. The Carnegie medal of philanthropy, given to those who have dedicated their private wealth to public good, will be presented in the Scottish Parliament in October 2013, in a week of events seeking to engage the Scottish public with the legacy of Andrew...
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The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, under the direction of Stephen Darlington, gives glorious renderings of rich 15th-century English sacred music from the Eton Choirbook, by Browne, Cornysh, Davy, Lambe and Wylkynson. Following a critically acclaimed recording of music from the Eton Choirbook, More Divine Than Human (AV2167), The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford returns with a second volume from the vast collection of 15th-century English sacred music, Choirs of Angels. The works range from John Browne’s richly scored eight-part O Maria salvatoris mater, the first piece in the Eton Choirbook, to William Cornysh’s exquisite miniature Ave Maria mater Dei, the choirbook’s shortest work. The compositional range in the Eton Choirbook demands extraordinary virtuosity from its performers, and Stephen Darlington and his choir of men and boys do this glorious music tremendous...
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The Brabant Ensemble, better known for uncovering works by forgotten composers such as Dominique de Phinot, turns to a giant of the Renaissance—perhaps the most celebrated name of the period. Yet within Palestrina’s huge output there are many hidden gems, lacking both recordings and modern performing editions, and it is from among these that the ensemble’s director Stephen Rice has chosen the repertoire for this album. A Mass—Missa Ad coenam Agni, from Palestrina’s first book of Mass-settings—is included, plus antiphons, motets and five Eastertide Offertories. Each work is, as Stephen Rice states in his typically informative booklet notes, ‘a finely crafted addition to the liturgy’. The Brabant Ensemble brings a matchless blend of musicianship, scholarship and sensitive singing to this glorious music. For more information, please visit the Brabant’s...
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Eric Whitacre follows the Grammy-winning success of his debut Decca album, Light & Gold, with Water Night, a brand new album that features no less than seven World Premiere Recordings. Light and Gold was awarded ‘Best Choral Performance’ in February 2012 at the 54th Grammy Awards for Whitacre’s first recording as both composer and conductor. This second disc for Decca juxtaposes music written as a young composer alongside brand new repertoire, both choral and orchestral, displaying the different influences and styles of Whitacre. The Eric Whitacre Singers positively shimmer on these world premiere recordings of “Alleluia” and “Oculi Omnium”, two of the brand new works alongside one of the greats of his oeuvre, “Her Sacred Spirit Soars”. “Equus” is played by the full forces of the London Symphony Orchestra. By way of contrast, “The River Cam” is a beautiful, pastoral piece that demonstrates Nevada-born Whitacre’s absorption of the works of Elgar and Vaughan Williams during his time in the UK as a visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. It was written at the invitation of the distinguished cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber, to mark his 60th birthday in 2011, who also gives the performance here. An unexpected gem of the album is a setting of Goodnight Moon, the multi-million selling American children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown (Harper Collins). Written for soprano and strings, this tender piece is performed by Hila Plitmann, a Grammy-winning artist with great commitment to contemporary music. The title track, “Water Night”, is one of Eric Whitacre’s most performed works, heard on this album performed by the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra. This, Eric’s second album as composer and conductor, made its debut at #1 in the US iTunes and Billboard Classical Charts. For more information, please visit Eric Whitacre’s...
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The Holy Week liturgies have provoked some of the most potent and emotional compositions of all time. In The Dark presents “some of the most powerful and poignant choral music to come from the western world”, including James MacMillan’s stunning Miserere and specially commissioned works by Richard Bates, Platinum’s composer in residence. These contemporary works are juxtaposed – yet inextricably linked – with choral music by Lassus, Victoria, Purcell and Lotti. The title work, Bates’ In The Dark, encapsulates the poignancy of Holy Week, with a new setting of the Tudor poem You that have spent the silent night by George Gascoigne (1525-1577). Straight in at #13 in the Specialist Classical Chart. In The Dark reached #6 in the UK iTunes and Amazon Classical Charts, and also featured in the US chart. For more information, please visit Platinum’s...
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