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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Brahms: Symphony No. 4Recorded live at Royal Festival Hall, London, 5-8 October 2008
Soli Deo Gloria is proud to release the last instalment of its successful Brahms Symphony series which sees John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique explore the music of Johannes Brahms. This album is a celebration of the Fourth Symphony and the various pieces that contributed to its making. From baroque to romantic, and from great orchestral pieces to intimate choral works, the listener gains a wonderful insight into Brahms’s mind and music making, through pieces that he loved and inspired him. The Fourth Symphony was described by Richard Strauss as “a giant work, great in concept an invention, masterful in its form, and yet from A to Z genuine Brahms, in a word, an enrichment to our art”. Drawing from many sources of the musical past, it is nevertheless absolutely unique. It is impregnated with baroque influence – the Finale was directly inspired by Bach’s cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich. Brahms enjoyed conducting less known old repertoire such as Gabrieli’s Sanctus Benedictus and Schütz’s Saul, Saul. They influenced his choral writing as we can hear in the Geistliches Lied. Brahms was also famously inspired by Beethoven, and the Finale to the Fourth clearly owes to his Coriolan overture. The booklet includes a conversation between John Eliot Gardiner and composer Hugh Wood, explaining how the pieces relate to each other and giving a moving account of Brahms as a composer and as a man. This recording was made during the 2008 Brahms: Roots and Memories tour. “Gardiner brings a delightful crispness and spontaneity to the work: he creates great sweeps of emotion without sacrificing inner details, and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique respond to him by playing with warmth and passion.” METRO, 3rd September 2010 “[The motets] provide a surprising context for the symphony, given in a transparent, analytical performance by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Harmony and counterpoint gleam, with no aural smudges and not a jot of bookish didacticism.” The Observer, 12th September 2010 “...the variety of tone, dynamic and texture from Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique is consistently well defined...A no-prisoners account of Beethoven's Coriolan Overture opens a programme that explores Brahms' choral influences, with pristine excerpts of Gabrieli, Schütz and Bach.” The Independent on Sunday, 12th September 2010 “Gardiner's highly energised, raw-boned account, superbly played by the ORR and never dwelling unduly on inessential expressive details, has a real sense of culmination, of the end of a creative journey that the whole series of recordings has illuminated in a genuinely original way.” The Guardian, 16th September 2010 **** “The symphony is upstaged by choral works (Schütz, Gabrieli, Beethoven and Brahms) which illuminate its creative background. The jewel is Brahms’s wondrous Geistliches Lied, giving the Monteverdi Choir its finest hour.” Financial Times, 17th September 2010 *** “this disc is a triumph of imaginative programming, an education for anyone wishing to hear the music that inspired the composer...Gardiner’s approach is the antithesis of the muddy sound of most “classic” recordings. His tempi are brisk yet flexible, as Brahms wanted, but he refuses to sentimentalise the music.” Sunday Times, 26th September 2010 **** “everything seems in focus: not just the tempo, but also the rhythmic drive and urgency seem absolutely right in the third and fourth movements...This performance gives a lively sense of what that authentic Brahms sound might have been like, and the music gains enormously - not an ounce of flab on these textures” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 ***** “It's fascinating to hear the Bach cantata movement that inspired that Finale, with the orchestra in its comfort zone. The little-known choral pieces are done well.” Classic FM Magazine, December 2010 **** “Textures are as transparent as chamber music. Phrases and ideas are nuanced, but disciplined...In short, Gardiner and his orchestra have placed the work firmly within the classical tradition, as a natural continuation from Brahms' symphonic idol Beethoven, rather than the seamless precursor to Wagner.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 2nd November 2010 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Brahms: Symphony No. 4 & Alto Rhapsody
Brahms: | Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Motets (2), Op. 74 (incomplete) Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, MDR Chor Leipzig Fest- und Gedenksprüche, Op. 109 Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, MDR Chor Leipzig Motets (3), Op. 110 Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, MDR Chor Leipzig Schicksalslied, Op. 54 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Begräbnisgesang, Op. 13 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Nänie von Friedrich Schiller, für Chor und Orchester, Op. 82 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates), Op. 89 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus |
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| |  | A Choral Tapestry
International award-winning octet Voces8 has established itself as the foremost young British a cappella vocal group. Performing a repertoire ranging from Renaissance polyphony to unique jazz and pop arrangements, the group has been praised for stunning performance, exquisite singing and creating a sound that spans the entire range of vocal colour. ‘A Choral Tapestry’ explores the rich vocal timbres of sacred vocal music spanning five centuries. Interweaving genres create an ethereal sonic tapestry that centres around the haunting beauty of William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices. The programme includes anthems and motets from the English Chapel Royal, the Sistine Chapel in Rome and St. Thomas' Church, Leipzig “The award-winning group Voces 8 is well-known for its wide-ranging programmes and accomplished technical control...In Monteverdi's Cantate Dominum (this is his 1620 setting, not the 1615 one) the voices dance with incredible lightness, and the bell-like soprano voice of Andrea Haines provides the icing on the cake.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 **** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Brahms - Motets
“A must for any serious collector” Organists Review | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Brahms - Geistliche Chormusik
Brahms composed choral music prolifically throughout his life. As the heir to Bach and the German Protestant tradition, he based most of his motets on texts from Luther’s translation of the Bible – yet succeeded in infusing them with Romanticism at its most soulful. “From the early Missa Canonica to the late death-confronting Motets Op. 109, Brahms decants new wine into structurally old yet expressive bottles. Marcus Creed's expert 'nose' ensures an infallibly-blended sound and satisfying 'finish'.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2009 **** “The RIAS Chamber Choir produce a fine quality of homogenous tone and, under Marcus Creed, show themselves fully responsive to both words and music.The RIAS disc remains a strong recommendation, especially for its inclusion of the
surviving Missa Canonica fragments.” Gramophone Magazine | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Brahms A Cappella Volume 1
| | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Brahms - Motets
Matthew Morley (organ) St. Bride's Church Choir, Fleet Street, Robert Jones | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Brahms: Sacred Choral Music
Brahms: | Ave Maria, Op. 12 Marienlieder, Op.22, No. 2 Maria Kirchgang Der 13. Psalm "Herr, wie lange" Op. 27 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, Op. 29 No. 1 Geistliches Lied, Op. 30 Sacred choruses (3) for unaccompanied four-part female chorus, Op. 37 Warum ist das Licht gegeben? Op. 74 No. 1 Fest- und Gedenksprüche, Op. 109 Motets (3), Op. 110 Schaffe in mir, Gott, Op. 29 No. 2 O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf, Op. 74 No. 2 |
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| |  | Brahms Choral Works
Stuttgart Chamber Choir, Wind of The German Chamber Philharmonic, Frieder Bernius | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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Deon Van der Walt (Tenor), Friedemann Winklhofer (Organ), Lioba Braun (Alto), Pamela Coburn (Soprano) Österreichisch-Ungarische Philharmonie, Windsbacher Knabenchor, Karl-Friedrich Beringer | |
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