Gillian Weir

Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók were Hungary’s two most important composers in the 20th century. They were both friends and colleagues, working separately and together to document and preserve folk music from Hungary and its surrounding regions. The music they collected strongly influenced their own compositions. Decca was one of the first major record companies to invest in recordings of the choral music of Kodály. Perhaps spurred by the success of István Kertész’s recording of Psalmus Hungaricus, they continued to record a number of the composer’s choral works under the direction of László Heltay. All of these recordings are collected over a double-CD, coupled with Bartók’s Cantata Profana, one of Sir Georg Solti’s last recordings, for which he provides very moving commentary in the booklet.

Mendelssohn’s ‘Hear my prayer’ (or, in its English adaptation also known as ‘O for the wings of a dove’) is a much loved piece of ‘Victoriana’, made famous by, among others, Master Ernest Lough. Often sung by boy sopranos, it is here performed by Felicity Palmer, traditionally a mezzo, but using the soprano register of her voice here. She is soloist with the Heinrich Schütz Choir and Chorale under Roger Norrington, on an Argo LP which also contains the Sechs Sprüche (Six Aphorisms), a collection of short motets for particular days in the ecclesiastical year was written in 1845, the year in which Mendelssohn resumed directorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra. The three sublime Psalms, Op. 73 are included (shared between the Heinrich Schütz and King’s College choirs) as is the brief but touching Ave Maria, written in Rome in 1830 and whose publication at the time led The Neue Zeitschrift für Musik said of it at the time that ‘the music sings so convincingly of the sanctity of Mary that it could lead a non-Catholic to her. ‘If issued as a pop disc Ave Maria would probably make the top ten’ wrote The Gramophone when this recording was first issued.

Dame Gillian Weir's first and seminal recordings were made for Argo/Decca. They have systematically been issued in Australia and the final instalment brings her recording of the two Couperin Organ Masses, expertly and enchantingly performed on the organ of the Prediger-Kirche, Zurich. The Couperin scholar David Tunley provides the engaging liner notes.

The critically-acclaimed 5CD set King of Instruments is now reissued as five individual CDs retaining the original liner notes and recollections of Dame Gillian on the making of these seminal recordings.

The critically-acclaimed 5CD set King of Instruments is now reissued as five individual CDs retaining the original liner notes and recollections of Dame Gillian on the making of these seminal recordings.

The critically-acclaimed 5CD set King of Instruments is now reissued as five individual CDs retaining the original liner notes and recollections of Dame Gillian on the making of these seminal recordings.

The critically-acclaimed 5CD set King of Instruments is now reissued as five individual CDs retaining the original liner notes and recollections of Dame Gillian on the making of these seminal recordings.