Teresia de Spiritu Sancto

Of all the performances of the Te Deum conducted during Lully's lifetime, history retains only the last, which sealed the composer's death in 1686: it was while beating time that, carried away by his zeal, he pierced his foot with the end of his cane… Ten years earlier, Lully composed this considerable score, for the christening of his own son, thus establishing an "official" genre for a century. Also intended to celebrate the great events of the reign, the grand motet Exaudiat Te Dominus is a dazzling glorification of the King, whose arms God has come to bear. Stéphane Fuget, with his ensemble Les Épopées, brings to a close this collection devoted to Lully's sumptuous Grands Motets, accompanied by the Pages et Chantres of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles: To the Glory of God and the King!

"With the first Sheppard recording by the Tallis Scholars, released in 1989, a new icon of English Renaissance polyphony had emerged - Media vita. This is our second Sheppard album, featuring masterpieces such as the Missa Cantate and his only votive antiphon with a festive setting, Gaude virgo Christiphera. These are significant works in the mid-century style that Sheppard had developed for himself. Since he composed more than almost any of his contemporaries and is still relatively unknown, he still has a long way to go.

With this ninth and final release in their Josquin Mass cycle, Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars come to three of his greatest works. Although all three Masses come roughly from his early middle age, together they form a perfect showcase for a genius who felt challenged to make each setting different. - The Tallis Scholars' Josquin Mass cycle may have spanned the longest period of any project in the history of recorded music, with over 33 years having elapsed between the first album in the series which won the Gramophone Record of the Year Award in 1987 and this final instalment. Composer: Despres, Josquin (c.1440-1521)

The Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips started their incomparable service to the 15th-century composer Josquin des Prez in 1986. And with this, the ninth volume, they conclude their journey magnificently. The “Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae,” written for Duke Ercole I d’Este of Ferrara, is a work of extraordinary complexity and compositional virtuosity, but its sheer emotional power is remarkable.

Recorded to celebrate The Tallis Scholars' 50th Anniversary, John Sheppard's exuberant Missa Cantate is an ideal work to highlight their pioneering achievements.

Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga from 1914 to 1916 and in Königsberg from 1928 to 1933, after which he left Germany in protest of the new Nazi regime and worked in Switzerland.

Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga from 1914 to 1916 and in Königsberg from 1928 to 1933, after which he left Germany in protest of the new Nazi regime and worked in Switzerland.

Conductor René Jacobs' turn to Beethoven has yielded impressive results by going back to Beethoven's works and rethinking them from the ground up. His revival of the opera Leonore, Hess 109, the original 1805 version of Fidelio, Op. 72, made a strong case for that little-performed version. Even better, perhaps, is this 2021 reading of the Missa Solemnis, Op. 123, a notoriously difficult work to interpret. It does not lie easily in the voice ranges of the singers; its mood shifts gears seemingly out of nowhere, and it ends on a seemingly uncertain note. Yet, in no way can the mass be considered a minor Beethoven work. The composer struggled with it for years, missing deadlines and returning to the mass text for fresh study. The work is a personal religious statement from a composer who has variously been called an atheist (by Haydn), an agnostic, or a freethinker. Jacobs treats the mass as a kind of passion play, bringing out the currents of thought in the music with strong contrasts and giving an uncanny sense of Beethoven's own responses to the text. Listen to the Incarnatus, where Jacobs catches the composer's relative lack of interest in the Incarnation as compared with the Crucifixion. Listeners are directed toward the interview-style booklet notes in which Jacobs expands on his ideas; his interpretation of the odd Agnus Dei finale is highly persuasive. In general, the music draws the listener in as if witnessing a spiritual journey. The performances are very strong; there is no hint of Baroque mechanistic quality in the work of the historical-instrument Freiburg Barockorchester, and the soloists handle the vocal challenges as well as any have. This is a Missa Solemnis that yields new insights with each hearing, and it is one that will be heard for many years to come.