Benjamin Britten

A new release in the Naxos wedding music series, ‘A Choral Wedding’ is a 2 CD collection of popular choral anthems and favourite hymns which have been chosen specifically as suggestions for brides and grooms planning church weddings with a choir.

CD 1 includes a variety of anthems from the popular Anglican tradition such as Wesley’s Blessed be the God and Father and Parry’s I was glad through to classical evergreens such as Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine. There are some seasonal items too – Stainer’s God so loved the world for an Easter wedding and Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium for a Christmas wedding.

CD 2 is a re-packaged version of Abide with Me (8557578), and includes a wide selection of congregational hymns such as sing-along favourites Jerusalem and Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven.

Sheffield Cathedral is dedicated to St Peter & St Paul and this recording, Tu es Petus – ‘Thou art Peter’ – presents an unusual collection of music in honour of St Peter.

A new recording from this excellent choir.

Includes rarely-heard works works from Jonathan Dove and Carl Rütti, and the first recording by a British choir of the stunning Grande Messe Solennelle by the contemporary French composer, Thierry Escaich.

Sheffield Cathedral’s previous recordings included ground-breaking releases devoted to the works of Robert Walker and Patrick Gowers.

Iain Burnside and Ailish Tynan return to Signum with their second disc of Irish Songs and arrangements: this time from a range of different 20th Century composers.

Although all of the sung texts stem from Ireland's rich heritage of literature (including poems from W.B. Yeats, Thomas Moore and James Joyce), the composers featured have a more transatlantic feel, with works by John Cage and Samuel Barber programmed alongside others by Benjamin Britten and Herbert Hughes. This disc continues Burnside’s series of recital discs with Signum – in particular his 2007 disc with Ailish Tynan of Irish songs by Herbert Hughes.

This is ideal music to introduce children to the sounds of the orchestra. The narrators are Christopher Lawrence, Marian Arnold and Emma Ayres. Tubby the Tuba is a welcome addition, as it features as a musical childhood memory for many, but is seldom performed these days.

In an interview for the New York Times, Klincharova said “”It means interpreting the work so that its musical content is revealed without having my listeners notice any effort either technical or intellectual. “ Her recital includes works by Croft, Parry, Britten, Kandov and Tournier.

Alice Giles is unquestionably Australia’s best harpist. Since winning First Prize in the 8th Israel International Harp Contest at the age of 21, Alice has performed as soloist throughout the world and has had many works written for her.

She is in demand as a soloist and spends time every year performing overseas. She is also in demand as a teacher and loves giving masterclasses. She currently teaches harp at the Australian National University and has formed SHE (Seven Harp Ensemble) from amongst her current and former students. SHE’s first CD was released a few months ago on Tall Poppies (Bolmimerie, TP204).

On this CD Alice plays some of the 20th century masterpieces for harp, such as the Britten Suite and the Hindemith Sonata. The Berio Sequenza II is a special work for Alice, as Berio himself chose her as his favourite performer of this work, and she has played it for him throughout the world.

The Eberhard work was written “especially” for Alice, and the two works by Moshe Lustig were written for her husband Arnan Weisel’s mother, harpist Aviva Weisel who was married to Lustig until his untimely death. Alice has premiered these two gorgeous works.

The Temple Church is one of the most historic and beautiful churches in London. Situated between Fleet Street and the Thames Embankment, its recorded musical history extends back to its restoration in 1841, although a church has stood on the site for over 800 years. The modern choir is comprised of 18 boy choristers and 12 professional choirmen – an excellent opportunity for the choristers who receive singing and theory tuition as well as generous scholarships towards their education. The programme explores three fascinating and contrasting settings of the ‘Te Deum’: A stalwart of the church liturgy (first conceived as far back as AD 387), these settings span over 300 years of English music history, composed respectively in 1694 (Purcell), 1897 (Elgar) and 1944 (Howells).

This disc is complemented by the release of James Vivian’s English Organ Music from the Temple Church, also released this month.