Despres: Ave Maria

Daniel Taylor is one of the world’s most sought after countertenors in the world and appears on over 100 recordings. Having made his debut at Glyndebourne, he followed it by participating in Jonathan Miller’s production of Handel’s Rodelinda.

In this latest release from Canadian label Analekta, Daniel performs a disc of ‘Ave Maria’s’ written by Caccini, Schubert, Byrd, von Bingen, Monteverdi and others, so provides a definitive disc of this repertoire performed by a world class singer.

This CD features compositions from the time of Leonardo da Vinci, including works by Gaffurio, Dalza, Tromboncino, Aquilano and others. They are beautifully performed by Renata Fusco and Massimo Lonardi.

Renata Fusco is very well known in her native Italy and has most recently played the role of Rizzo in Grease!

The WESER-RENAISSANCE ensemble of Bremen under its proven conductor Manfred Cordes dedicates itself to the grand master of polyphony – Josquin Desprez and his Marian Motets.

Decca Records proudly announces the release of two new versions of the perennial best-seller Renaissance: Music For Inner Peace.

Genesis Sixteen was set up by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen to nurture the next generation of choral stars, and to help them bridge the gap between student and professional. The Sixteen are set to feature in a documentary about the history of the Allegri Miserere, marking its development from the little-known work performed in the Sistine Chapel to the work so widely performed and loved today.

1CD + Bonus DVD

Decca Records proudly announces the release of two new versions of the perennial best-seller Renaissance: Music For Inner Peace.

Genesis Sixteen was set up by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen to nurture the next generation of choral stars, and to help them bridge the gap between student and professional. The Sixteen are set to feature in a documentary about the history of the Allegri Miserere, marking its development from the little-known work performed in the Sistine Chapel to the work so widely performed and loved today.

The Luxury Edition version comes with the full documentary on bonus DVD.

‘An excellent and intriguing anthology….wonderfully sung…containing some of Josquin’s greatest music’ Gramophone

Recording made in 1999.

The earliest mention of Josquin is as a singer in Aix en Provence in 1475. In a short time he would gain a reputation for being the leading composer of the period. He was the first to have his works published, and such was his reputation that many lesser composers passed their music off as being by Josquin some with considerable success.

He was born in 1450 in what today is Belgium, but then was part of the Netherlands. At this period, the Flemish region was a powerhouse for both music and art, and many of its masters travelled widely throughout Europe shaping the artistic agenda for many centuries to follow. Josquin was typical of these much-travelled artistic and cultural envoys. He worked extensively in Italy, at the court in Ferrara, and for the powerful Sforza family in Milan. During his Italian years he met the humanist and writer Angelo Poliziano, and this had a profound effect upon his compositional style. The importance of shaping a composition around the text, giving the words greater impact. Hitherto composers had paid scant attention to the structure of words and syllables, bending and stretching them to suit the melodic line. Josquin combined his mastery of setting words to music with extraordinary displays of contrapuntal genius as can be heard on this CD in the motet Ut Phoebe.

All of his settings are from Biblical or liturgical sources.

Easter 2009 sees the release of a major new disc on Collegium from John Rutter, the Cambridge Singers and La Nuova Musica, featuring a collection of outstanding motets from the canon of European sacred choral repertoire.

Focusing on the extraordinary body of choral music produced for liturgical use during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, The Sacred Flame explores the rich and varied ways in which European composers responded to sacred texts. Delving into a treasure-trove of music from cultural centres as diverse as Amsterdam, Antwerp, Leipzig, Milan, Rome, and Venice, this collection features familiar classics by Gabrieli,Monteverdi, Palestrina and Schütz, as well as less widely-known masterpieces by Bach, Buxtehude, Hassler and Sweelinck. All are performed in stunning new recordings by the Cambridge Singers at their sensuous and virtuosic best, joined here for the first time on disc by the instrumentalists of La Nuova Musica, rapidly establishing areputation as one of the UK’s most exciting early music ensembles.

All repertoire featured on The Sacred Flame is drawn from the enormously popular European Sacred Music collection edited by John Rutter for the Oxford University Press Oxford Choral Classics series. Recorded in the unparalleled acoustic of the Great Hall at University College School in London, and produced and engineered by award winning producer Simon Eadon, the performances of these much loved works heard on this disc are set to become definitive.

“These singers of John Rutter's choir are so expert, so very good at everything they do… They shade and shape the phrases beautifully” Gramophone

A definitive collection of settings of the ancient Prayer to Mary, beautifully sung by the boys and men’s choir of the London Oratory School Schola.

A compendium of different styles showing how composers across the ages have approached setting these most famous words.

Settings ranging from the fifteenth century to the present day.

The Schola has quickly established itself as a leading boys’ choir, singing a large and varied repertoire, encompassing sacred and secular works from early to contemporary music. It performs regularly with the major London orchestras and national opera companies, has made numerous film soundtracks, (the boys are the voices behind the double platinum award winning soundtracks of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).