Anima Mea

Anima Mea - Sacred Music Of The Middle Ages - Ensemble Cosmedin (2011) {Naxos 8.572632}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 275 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 153 Mb
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© 2011 Naxos | 8.572632 | Early Music Collection Series
Classical / Early Music / Medieval / Choral

Anima mea explores the Christian concept of the soul through these masterpieces of medieval Sacred Music. Hildegard of Bingen’s beautifully exalted harmonies represent God’s order in the music of the spheres. The recently rediscovered Erfurt Ritual contains sung music from Master Eckhart’s historical context. These antiphons are performed here for the first time since 1525, along with chants from the liturgy of the Roman mass, music from the Notre Dame School, and a glorious Magnificat. The German duo Ensemble Cosmedin, who take their name from a church in Rome, are considered one of the leading ensembles for medieval and modern sacred music. Music of the soul—gentle and luminous.

Hailed by the international music press and highly praised by music connoisseurs, the recordings of Bach’s entire body of vocal music made by the Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ), its conductor Masaaki Suzuki and numerous prestigious soloists, many of whom have remained remarkably loyal to the undertaking from the outset, are here brought together to form the only complete set of these works in high-resolution format.

Magdalena Kozena - Lamento
Musica Antiqua Köln / Reinhard Goebel
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 263 MB | Artwork: 100 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Archiv Produktion # 00289 474 1942 AH | Country/Year: Germany 2005
Genre: Classical | Style: Vocal, Baroque

"I would be very hard pressed to find another single recording of this high quality that so clearly demonstrates the musicality of the Bach family." ~American Record Guide

Bach's setting of the Magnificat is one of his most often-recorded vocal works; as a rule, it's paired with one of Bach's lavishly scored festal cantatas. (The Easter Oratorio seems to be a current favorite.) Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan had a different idea: they've paired Bach's Magnificat with roughly contemporary settings by Johann Kuhnau, who was Bach's immediate predecessor in Leipzig, and Jan Dismas Zelenka, who was a composer at the court of Saxony in Dresden. Zelenka is an interesting composer, among the most underrated of the Baroque era. His writing is less dense and intricate than Bach's–at times it looks forward to the simpler, more elegant style of Haydn and C.P.E. Bach. Zelenka knew his counterpoint, however, and was fond of slipping the occasional surprising chord change into his music.

With four recordings in six months, this seems to be open season for the Poulenc motets. The newcomers are up against stiff competition, and don't emerge unscathed from comparison either with the college next door (under Marlow on Conifer) or with the choir under the musical director of the one further along the road (Rutter on Collegium/Gamut).

This celebration of one of the most prodigiously talented musical families—father and two sons—is also a wonderful and varied program of three Magnificat settings. Father Johann Sebastian’s, the best known, is gloriously done by Arcangelo, with some spirited singing and energized orchestral playing. Johann Christian, the most cosmopolitan of the family, gives us a compact and rather Italianate setting while CPE Bach, perhaps JS’s most talented son, expands his Magnificat to 40 minutes. And what a setting it is—thrilling from the first notes, it just gets better.