Exultation!

The Ian Carr and Nucleus parade of reissues keeps rolling out of the gate on BGO Records, and this two CD compilation of the albums Labyrinth and Roots is solid jazz fusion from the golden year of 1973. Labyrinth was created to be somewhat of a concept album, an instrumental masterpiece telling the story of the Greek mythological character the Minotaur. With such a serious and heavy topic, Ian Carr needed to compose some equally dense music, and with virtually the same line-up as on the bands previous album Belladonna, the results are staggering. For the album Roots, Nucleus was stripped down to just eight members, and the purpose was to come up with a more personal sound, hence the whole band took a more active approach in the songwriting. The results are looser and more earthy than the previous releases.

It is a measure of the respect in which Sir Charles Mackerras is held in Czechoslovakia that this recording should have been possible. The compliment is no less than his due, for no man has done more to win acceptance in this country for Janacek as one of the great composers of the twentieth century. With Simon Rattle now taking his place as the leader of the 'second generation' of Janacek conductors in this country, we are fortunate indeed.

Johann Ludwig Bach’s Funeral Music for the Duke of Sachsen-Meiningen is a delightful discovery. JS Bach clearly regarded his distant cousin’s music highly, performing 18 of his cantatas in Leipzig during a single year. The Funeral Music, setting in part the Duke’s own text, is magnificent in scoring – for two choirs, soloists and large orchestra including trumpets and drums – and in scale. Like a Baroque Dream of Gerontius, the soul begins fettered in human bonds on earth, then ascends to the heavenly gates, with Part 3 a brilliant celebration of celestial joy. Bach’s descriptions are graphic – ‘bonds’ create staggering dissonances, resolved to momentary silence when ‘torn asunder’.

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck - De orgel- en klavecimbelwerken II - Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam (2014) {3CD Set Glossa GES922409-NL}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.10 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 508 Mb
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© 2014 Glossa Music | GES922409-NL | Het Sweelinck Monument Series
Classical / Renaissance / Baroque / Organ / Harpsichord / Vocals

During the Sweelinck year 2012, Harry van der Kamp formed Geseeldo Consort Amsterdam Het Sweelinck Monument by recording all the vocal works of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. But the monument (HSM) is not complete. There are also organ and harpsichord works by Sweelinck that Sweelinck has written especially in later life. In 2012 and 2013, eight prominent organists and harpsichordists recorded works by Sweelinck on various historical organs and harpsichords in the Netherlands and Germany.

With this new album the award-winning Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Klava is turning its attention to the music of Alexander Grechaninov (1864–1956), one of the masters of Russian liturgic music. Grechaninov’s All-Night Vigil is a fitting continuation to the choir’s albums of sacred music by Sergey Rachmaninov and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Together with the two latter names, Grechaninov’s All-Night Vigil, completed in 1912, belongs to the central repertoire of Russian liturgic music. Unlike the Vigils by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, Grechaninov’s work was written primarily for concert use. Grechaninov’s All-Night Vigilis a bright, optimistic work full of light.