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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Sacred Music: God’s Composer (Tomás Luis de Victoria)Presented by Simon Russell Beale
The Sacred Music journey continues with this special celebration marking the 400th anniversary of the death of the Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria. One of the greatest choral composer of the Renaissance, Victoria devoted his life to the church and his music is profoundly spiritual. Interwoven with Victoria’s music, this documentary follows Simon Russell Beale as he takes us through the life and times of Victoria. Harry Christophers and his award-winning ensemble, The Sixteen, perform Victoria’s music in the glorious setting of the Church of San Antonio de los Alemanes in Madrid, founded in 1606 by Philip III in Victoria's lifetime. Born in 1548, Tomás Luis de Victoria was fortunate to live at the height of the Counter-Reformation, at a time of great vitality in the Roman Church. Music and musicians played a prominent role in encouraging religious regeneration, so there were many opportunities for a musician of Victoria’s talent. Victoria devoted his life to the service of God and the music performed in this programme opens a window onto the world of this intensely spiritual man – scholar, mystic, priest, singer, organist and composer - six persons all rolled into one. This is an opportunity to celebrate his life and his creations, some of the most glorious work of the late Renaissance and the Spanish Golden Age. Bonus Features include: Exclusive Interviews - members of The Sixteen discuss Victoria Sacred Music Series One and An Easter Celebration DVD trailers 6 Bonus Audio Tracks taken from a selection of The Sixteen’s celebrated Victoria CDs Related Recordings by The Sixteen Artist Biographies and Images Region: NTSC Region 0 - Plays in all territories Subtitles: English & Spanish “With the help of a brisk factual narration by the actor Simon Russell Beale, quite a lot of ground is covered...The whole is punctuated with pleasing partial performances of ten works nicely recorded...If you have already decided that you like choral music then this will give you pleasure, but it is a celebration of tastes already acquired rather than a passionate advocate for new experience.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 **** “Forget the unctuous title: this documentary...strikes the right balance between words, images, and music...we hear entire motets; and quite often, when the music starts, the presenter, the engaging Simon Russell Beale, steps aside...The performances are very successful...Harry Christophers and his singers are heard at their not inconsiderable best” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Victoria - Missa Gaudeamusa liturgical sequence, with organ works by Girolamo Frescobaldi
Westminster Cathedral Lay Clerks, Matthew Martin A new recording from Westminster Cathedral features the gentlemen of their choir in a fascinating programme which brings to life the musical and liturgical traditions of this foundation. This recording by the lay clerks of Westminster Cathedral presents a full choral, and instrumental, celebration of Mass for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which falls on 15 August. It is based on music by two major composers, Tomás Luis de Victoria and Girolamo Frescobaldi. Victoria’s Missa Gaudeamus provides the central feature of an elaborate liturgical sequence in which other music—including motets by Victoria, Mass Propers and other passages of chant, and organ music by Frescobaldi in several forms—is interpolated between the movements of the Mass Ordinary. This festive celebration of Mass is intended not as a reconstruction of a known occasion in the early seventeenth century, but as a sort of musical offering that illustrates the complex liturgical structures becoming available in a period when the resources for the enrichment of the liturgy were growing steadily. “New recordings of Tomas Luis de Victoria's intensely beautiful mass settings, the musical peak of the Spanish Renaissance, come along frequently enough. This latest, recorded in Westminster cathedral, places one of them...It makes a compelling whole, sung with rapt purity by the male voices of Westminster Cathedral choir.” The Guardian, 26th June 2009 **** “This offers satisfying musical variety, sung with smooth elegance by the Lay Clerks of Westminster cathedral...the Gloria, Benedictus and Agnus Dei of the Mass itself do full justice to Victoria's sublime, seamlessly flowing polyphony.” The Observer, 19th July 2009 “A stunning disc that will become the new benchmark in this repertoire. Westminster Cathedral's 19 Lay Clerks give a beautifully paced rendition of Victoria's rarely performed… Missa Gaudeamus. Organ and choir come together in the final Recercar: Sancta Maria by Frescobaldi. The choral blend is - as might be expected - superb and exquisitely balanced. The countertenors soar to amazing heights without the slightest hint of strain.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2009 “An elaborate musical mosaic, the appeal of which owes much to the atmospheric depths of the Westminster acoustic, beautifully captured on this recording” Financial Times “Close-up, full-throated and passionate” International Record Review | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Song of Songs
The most 'profane' book of the Old Testament was among the favourite biblical texts of the Middle Ages. The composers of the Renaissance made particular use of it as a metaphor of divine love, or in association with the cult of Mary. After their first two extremely successful recordings, the singers of Stile Antico have chosen some of the most sumptuous examples of these musical settings. “…the superb singers of Stile Antico are up to the challenge of presenting all the required moods from pious restraint… to melting abandon… a magnificent display of the very best kind of polyphonic music.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2009 ***** “The standout piece is Tómas Luis De Victoria's epic motet "Vadam et circuibo", a masterpiece of polychoral ingenuity.” The Independent, 29th May 2009 **** “This ensemble, its members still in their 20s and just a dozen beautifully blended voices singing a cappella, has emerged as one of the best and freshest early music choirs around. Their third CD is a selection of motet and plainchant settings from the Song of Songs, the startling Old Testament collection of erotic love poems ascribed to King Solomon.” The Observer, 3rd May 2009 “…these are just the sort of performances I'd hope to hear in church, which was (one feels) the practical and creative laboratory for what is recorded: full but not strained singing, allowing an advantageous acoustic and the number (212) and freshness of voices to take care of blend and balance, with plenty left in reserve for the longer spans of the two magnificent Victoria anthems, Vadam et circuibo and Vidi speciosam.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2009 “One expectation that such an album may raise in its listeners is an answer to the question of what common and special inspiration might composers have taken from contemplating this most erotic of Biblical texts. The symptoms of their reactions might be sensuous melismas, perhaps, and anguished suspensions, surging bass–lines and… let us draw a veil there. Such devices and stratagems are in abundance, whether chastely deployed in turn by Clemens and Palestrina or flaunted all at once in the selections of Guerrero and Gombert, though no more so than they would be on a programme of Marian or Lenten devotions; and these are just the opening four tracks.
That unfair calculation ignores the plainchant antiphons between each pair of motets. These interspersions work well – as they must in a genuinely liturgical context, as here, thanks to the quiet good taste and stylistically homogeneous approach of Stile Antico, with an especially winsome unanimity to the female–only Tota pulchra es.
Indeed, these are just the sort of performances one would hope to hear in church, which was (one feels) the practical and creative laboratory for what is recorded: full but not strained singing, allowing an advantageous acoustic and the number (12) and freshness of voices to take care of blend and balance, with plenty left in reserve for the longer spans of the two magnificent Victoria anthems, Vadam et circuibo and Vidi speciosam.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Victoria: Requiem
Saarbrucken Chamber Choir, Georg Grun | | | (also available to download from $10.75) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Victoria: Missa Vidi speciosam & motets
This re-release is another addition to David Hill and Westminster Cathedral Choir’s glorious Victoria catalogue. In these exemplary performances the choir demonstrate their sublime musicianship, sensitivity and faultless intonation. A fitting tribute on the four-hundreth anniversary of this iconic composer’s death. “Flawlessly produced” Daily Telegraph “Splendid music, splendidly performed” Gramophone Magazine | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Ave Virgo SanctissimaA Garland for Our Lady
This CD includes some of the most familiar devotional texts such as Ave Maria, Salve Regina and the Magnificat as well as more rapturous works. The pieces are in four sections and each is introduced by a piece of chant. “This appealingly winsome choral Marian garland… is presented in four sections, each introduced by Gregorian chants, and spanning a vast swathe of sacred music, ranging from the 12th-century Hildegard of Bingen to Herbert Howells… Throughout the singing is perfectly poised and polished. Diction, phrasing, intonation and dynamic shading are all first rate.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2009 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | The Voice of my Beloved
Lincoln College Chapel Choir, Paul Wingfield and Rebecca Taylor The Lincoln College Chapel Choir, under the direction of Paul Wingfield and Rebecca Taylor, sing various
settings from “The Song of Songs” (from the book of Soloman), from the Renaissance to the present day. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Hail! Queen of HeavenMusic in honour of the Virgin Mary
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Gramophone Awards 2009
Gramophone Magazine
