Vespers

This delectable work, premiered in 1721, shows composer Alessandro Scarlatti at his most brilliantly varied. Solo passages are punctuated with choral interjections and vice-versa, an antiphon duet for oboe and the lovely soprano Suzanne Ryden at first seems like one between two singers; Scarlatti fools the ear. Soprano Dominique Labelle brings a grace to her fluent singing in both solo and ensemble passages which manages to be energetic and tender at once. The setting of the Dixit Dominus never rests; a tenor solo is interrupted by the chorus; an intricate soprano-soprano-counter-tenor trio in the "Dominus a dextris" is rendered even more complex by the chorus, which then, in an entirely different meter, nervously jumps its way to the end and then melts into a gentle baritone solo, with long, legato lines.

The Philadelphia Singers was the mid-Atlantic region's premier chorus for over forty years, garnering national acclaim for artistic excellence. Since 1972, the Singers consistently provided the Philadelphia community with the highest-quality performances in the choral arts and partnered with many of the most renowned musical institutions in the region.
Founded by Curtis Institute of Music graduate Michael Korn, The Philadelphia Singers began as a 32-voice chamber ensemble that performed an extensive repertoire that ranged from Renaissance-era to contemporary works in an annual concert series. The group disbanded at the end of the 2014-15 Season.

Chicago's best-known early music ensemble The Newberry Consort exhilarates with VESPERS, a collection of dazzlingly original music for women’s voices. The composer? A mysterious early-17th-century Mexican named Juan de Lienas, whose style energetically oscillates between Renaissance and Baroque elements.

Chicago's best-known early music ensemble The Newberry Consort exhilarates with VESPERS, a collection of dazzlingly original music for women’s voices. The composer? A mysterious early-17th-century Mexican named Juan de Lienas, whose style energetically oscillates between Renaissance and Baroque elements.
Little is known about de Lienas beyond the manuscripts, which, much to the undeserved discredit of the poor composer, occasionally include unflattering personal remarks scrawled in the margins. Perhaps that these insults on his appearance and personality stemmed from mere envy, for the music captured by his hand presents such skill, wit and zest that it can still be enjoyed a full four centuries after its inception.

Chicago's best-known early music ensemble The Newberry Consort exhilarates with VESPERS, a collection of dazzlingly original music for women’s voices. The composer? A mysterious early-17th-century Mexican named Juan de Lienas, whose style energetically oscillates between Renaissance and Baroque elements.
Little is known about de Lienas beyond the manuscripts, which, much to the undeserved discredit of the poor composer, occasionally include unflattering personal remarks scrawled in the margins. Perhaps that these insults on his appearance and personality stemmed from mere envy, for the music captured by his hand presents such skill, wit and zest that it can still be enjoyed a full four centuries after its inception.

While there are plenty of contestants these days for the top spot in the "who's got the best recording of Rachmaninov?"" competition, one could persuasively argue that this 1993 recording with Nikolai Korniev directing the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir is the best. First, of course, the choir is Russian, which means that they've got the right tone, the right technique, the right intonation, and, best of all, the right basses for the job because no choir anywhere can hit low B flats like Russian basses. Second, the director is a dedicated choral conductor, which means that he's not using this disc as an audition for recording operas, oratorios, or symphonies, but rather doing it for the sake of the music.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) remains best known as a composer of virtuosic instrumental music, particularly in the form of concertos like The Four Seasons. This CD, first released in 1991, demonstrates that Vivaldi’s large-scale sacred choral music is equally stunning.

This is the second disc to come from Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli forces and it is already their second Gramophone Award. When I reviewed their Virgin Classics' recording of a reconstruction of a dogal coronation of 1595 (5/90) I admired their stylish blend of informed scholarship and sensitive musicianship allied to performances from musicians well-versed in the language of the period. Added to that the music was recorded with great immediacy in the acoustically impressive surroundings of Brinkburn Priory in Northumberland. For this reconstruction of a Vespers that could have be held in St Mark's, Venice McCreesh shows a real understanding of the placing and choreography of the participants in the musical aspects of the liturgy.

Juan García de Salazar was a Spanish Baroque composer from the Basque country who spent most of his career working at Zamora Cathedral; he is so obscure the entry for him in the New Grove doesn't even include a list of his works. Musicologist Manuel Sagastume Arregi has pulled together a number of Salazar's extant movements related to the Vespers service with additional material to create Juan García de Salazar: Complete Vespers of Our Lady in Naxos' Spanish Classics series. It is performed by the Basque ensemble Capilla Peñaflorida and features the period wind group Ministriles de Marsias and the fine baritone of Josep Cabré. There are no stars here, though – everything on Juan García de Salazar: Complete Vespers of Our Lady is done to the service of the music, which is outstanding. Sagastume Arregi's realization of García de Salazar's Vespers service incorporates appropriate plainchant sections taken from a Basque hymnal dated 1692, organ music by García de Salazar's contemporaries José Ximenez and Martín Garcia de Olagüe, instrumental arrangements of García de Salazar's motets, and an arrangement of Tomás Luis de Victoria's Vidi speciosam probably made by García de Salazar himself.

Heinrich Schütz's Christmas Story, besides being a historical milestone, has always been one of 17th-century music's crowd-pleasers–the former because it's the ancestor of Christmas oratorios by Bach, Charpentier, and even Berlioz; the latter because it presents engaging depictions of the characters in the Nativity story with a cornucopia of colorful instruments (piping recorders for the shepherds, a galumphing bassoon (representing the gait of the camels?) for the three wise men, regally blaring cornets for King Herod, and pompous trombones for his priests).