SACDs - Sheppard, J

Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates.

Puer natus est

Puer natus est

Tudor Music for Advent & Christmas


Byrd:

Attollite portas

Ave Maria

Ecce virgo concipiet

Rorate coeli desuper (from Gradualia 1605)

Gregorian Chant:

Puer natus est nobis

Sheppard, J:

Verbum caro

Tallis:

Missa Puer natus est nobis

Videte miraculum

Taverner:

Audivi vocem de coelo

White, Robert:

Magnificat


Stile Antico’s newest programme centres on Tallis’s magnificent 7-part ‘Christmas’ Mass, based on the festive plainchant Puer natus est, in a new edition prepared by Sally Dunkley. The mass is interspersed with seasonal Tudor music, including Byrd’s exquisite Propers for the fourth Sunday of Advent, responsories by Taverner and Sheppard, Robert White’s exuberant setting of the Magnificat, and Tallis’s own sublime Videte miraculum.

Matthew O’Donovan’s booklet note cannot be bettered in terms of historical context, analysis and relevance. Stile Antico is much in demand in concert, performing regularly throughout Europe and North America in repertoire ranging from English Tudor composers to the Flemish and Spanish schools and early Baroque. Their recordings on the harmonia mundi label have enjoyed huge success, and their release Song of Songs won the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music.

“Surely the pick of the new CDs for Christmas this year, this exquisitely performed and beautifully planned disc is another winner for Stile Antico...what a sound: perfectly blended, carefully balanced, its sonorities reaching back effortlessly to conjure up a vanished age of devotion.” The Observer, 17th October 2010

“Stile Antico brings delicious balance and otherworldly beauty to this recording of music by Tallis, Taverner, Byrd, White and Sheppard. Listening will restore meaning to the holidays amid the retail onslaught.” New York Times, 26th November 2010

“Here is a disc full not of the joys but the mysteries of Christmas, the perfect corrective for the frenetic materialistic scramble it now is...The pure-sounding voices are exquisitely blended, and their broad pacing enables consistently shapely phrasing and clarity of line.” Sunday Times, 19th December 2010 ***

“Conductorless Stile Antico may be, but they could never be accused of lacking direction or clear-sighted commitment to the works on this generously-filled album...The approach encourages long-range thinking about the music, inviting the ear to contemplate soaring architecture rather than surface detail.” Classic FM Magazine, January 2011 *****

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Harmonia Mundi - HMU807517

(SACD)

$17.50

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Sheppard - Media vita

Sheppard - Media vita

Performing editions reconstructed and prepared by members of Stile Antico


Sheppard, J:

Media vita

Te Deum laudamus

Gaude gaude gaude Maria

The Lord's Prayer

I give you a new commandment

Christ rising again

Haste thee, Oh God


For its fourth recording, Stile Antico spotlights the work of a neglected Tudor master: John Sheppard. The programme displays his genius across the range of genres in which he composed, including Catholic liturgical responds and hymns alongside simple English-texted anthems written in the reign of Edward VI. As its centerpiece, the great antiphon 'Media Vita' is a reflection on the frailty of human life and the hope for salvation.

Stile Antico is an ensemble of young British singers, now established as one of the most original and exciting new voices in its field. Prizewinners at the 2005 Early Music Network International Young Artists' Competition, the group is much in demand in concert, performing regularly throughout Europe and North America.The group's most recent release, Song of Songs, won the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music and reached the top of the US Classical Chart. Notable engagements in the 2009-10 season include a New York debut in the Music before 1800 series, appearances in the Spitalfields, Rheingau, Barcelona and Al-Bustan Festivals, and performances in France, Belgium and Estonia.

"Stile Antico is hot property nowadays and was hardly likely to turn down a gig at York - it was through taking part in the Young Artists Competition a few years ago that they got their break. ..Spanning more than two centuries of music, it was a programme of works by composers aware of their own mortality. …The highlight of the concert was John Sheppard's Media vita, a vast work, which was beautifully paced by the group - another motet that mirrored the great arching roof of York Minster's chapter house particularly well. This was a wonderfully homogenous sound: the ensemble sings through the phrases in such a way that gives direction while never appearing rushed." Early Music Today

“Stile Antico's recording has many attractive qualities. The first of these is a very lovely alto blend, which remains a constant in a programme that contrasts Sheppard's ecstatic Latin polyphony with the quiet simplicity of his English motets” The Independent on Sunday, 3rd January 2010

“Their purity of sound, with a fullness achieved by only 14 voices, reveals Sheppard's rich counterpoint. Despite this extraordinary finesse there's no self-conscious beauty, only intelligent, vital simplicity.” The Observer, 10th January 2010

“The qualities which have earned Stile Antico international acclaim are intact: a glorious euphony, muscular line and nuanced dynamics illuminate the majesty of Sheppard's music...For listeners who revel in the beauty of English Renaissance polyphony, this disc is nothing short of perfect.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 ****

“Whether the music be simple or complex, Stile Antico have the measure of it. Excellent!” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Harmonia Mundi - HMU807509

(SACD)

$17.50

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Light of the Spirit

Light of the Spirit


 

Kontakion of the departed

O quanta qualia

Deep river

Steal away

Byrd:

Justorum animae

O Lux beata Trinitas

Davies, Walford:

Psalm 121 'I will lift up mine eyes'

Requiem aeternam

Despres:

Nunc Dimittis

Grechaninov:

Svyétye tíkhii (Hail, gladdening Light)

Gregorian Chant:

Domine Jesu Christe

In paradisum

Lumen

Requiem aeternam

Harris, W:

Bring us, O Lord God

Faire is the heaven

Hildegard:

O coruscans lux stellarum

O felix anima

Holst:

The Evening-watch, H159

Nunc dimittis, H127

Ligeti:

Lux aeterna

Palestrina:

Christe, qui lux es et dies

Lucis Creator optime

Parry:

There is an old belief (No. 4 from Songs of Farewell)

Rachmaninov:

Nunc Dimittis

Rautavaara:

Ehtoohymni

Rutter:

Hymn to the Creator of Light

Schütz:

Selig sind die Toten, SWV391

Sheppard, J:

Audivi vocem de caelo

Tallis:

O nata lux de lumine 5vv

Te lucis ante terminum

Tavener:

Funeral Ikos

Tchaikovsky:

Svyétye tíkhii (Hail, gladdening Light)

Victoria:

O quam gloriosum, motet

White, Robert:

Christe qui lux es et dies

Wood, C:

Hail, gladdening Light


Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Collegium - CSACD902

(SACD - 2 discs)

$18.75

Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days.

Composers

Copyright © 2002-13 Presto Classical Limited, all rights reserved.