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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Jingle WellsChristmas Music from Wells Cathedral
Jingle Wells offers an unusual and very festive collection of Christmas music from the choir of the famous thirteenth-century Cathedral of Wells. There are offerings both sacred and secular, old and new, to suit all Christmas pallets sung by the highly acclaimed Wells Cathedral Choir, hailed by Gramophone in December 2010 as the highest ranking choir with children in the world. “nice title; even nicer singing: the Wells Cathedral Choir, especially the excellent boy-girl treble line, enjoys itself in this selection of Christmas favourites. Their Jingle Bells is a real belter.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 **** “Wells's burgeoning reputation as one of the best cathedral choirs in the country is further bolstered by the faultless tuning and blend of the strong and broad sound for which its boys are known” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012 “everyone involved makes a good job of imagining snowy fields, glittery Christmas trees and holly-decked halls, and projecting that seasonal mixture of joyfulness and solemnity in their performances...Of its kind, it is hard to imagine a better Christmas CD. Profits from this bargain-priced disc will fund bursaries for Wells Cathedral choristers from poorer backgrounds.” MusicWeb International, November 2012 “Carols don’t often have me chuckling out loud, but the ha-ha-has and he-he-hes — no ho-ho-hos, alas — as the choir are “laughing all the way” in Ralph Allwood’s hilarious arrangement of Jingle Bells is a blast of seasonal jollity.” Sunday Times, 23rd December 2012 | 
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| |  | Illumina: Music of Light
Dominus Illuminatio Mea - The motto of the University of Oxford provides the inspiration for this album of a cappella choral classics performed by one of the greatest choirs in a city of great choirs. Includes a brand new arrangement of the famous Inspector Morse theme tune by Barrington Pheloung in this 25th Anniversary year of Oxford’s most famous fictional detective. “[the repertoire] shows off the warm, immediate New College, Oxford sound in which individuals are encouraged to sing out rather than, as some collegiate choirs prefer, blend in. Some tonal unevenness aside, the results are vivid and committed. One for choral lovers, not purists.” The Observer, 1st April 2012 | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | High FlightChoral Music by Chilcott, Lauridsen & Whitacre
A must-have for choral-aficionados everywhere that sees perhaps the world’s finest a cappella ensemble The King’s Singers join forces with The Concordia Choir – one of the USA’s best collegiate groups – to perform works by world-class choral composers Eric Whitacre, Bob Chilcott and Morten Lauridsen. One of the world’s most celebrated ensembles, The King’s Singers have a packed schedule of concerts, recordings, media and education work that spans the globe. Championing the work of young and established composers, they remain consummate entertainers; a class-act with a delightfully British wit. From Gesualdo and György Ligeti to Michael Bublé, The King’s Singers are instantly recognisable for their spot-on intonation, their impeccable vocal blend, the flawless articulation of the text and incisive timing. The Concordia Choir of Moorhead, Minnesota is one of America’s finest a cappella choirs. Since 1920, the 72-voice choir has performed in nearly every major hall including Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center and has taken numerous international tours. The Choir is broadcast throughout the United States on public radio stations and on television via its Emmy-award winning Concordia Christmas Concert. “it's an intriguing pleasure to hear this anthology of modern works by talented modern choral composers...the standout is The Concordia Choir's rendition of Whitacre's "Cloudburst".” The Independent, 4th November 2011 **** “[Chilcott highlights] the King's Singers' consummate skill as close-harmony singers, in particular their ability to terrace the dynamics as one section of the group slips into accompanying mode, while another takes the melodic limelight. The excellent Concordia Choir...[display] a warm tonal blend and supple phrasing alike. An interesting, well-planned collection, well worth investigating.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 **** “Those used to hearing Whitacre and Lauridsen delivered by chamber choirs will doubtless take time to adjust to the more focused, closely recorded sound of the six-strong King's Singers. The group's ideally blended sound and ensemble precision, however, magnify the inner harmonic beauty and hypnotic tread of pieces such as Lauridsen's O Nata Lux and Whitacre's Lux Aurumque.” Classic FM Magazine **** “Each song is a little gem, deceptively simply, perfectly poised and bespoke for the King's Singers' unique blend...The juxtaposition of the King's Singers' closely placed authoritative tone and the larger group's more distant soothing breadth works wondrously well. All of the music of this disc is beguilingly beautiful and worthy of widespread enjoyment. Do try it.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2012 “one's attention is engaged by the sheer beauty of the chording [in Lux Aurumque], allowing the complexity of the harmonic thinking to shine and, apparently paradoxically, the pacing of the performance...When both groups sing together the results are spectacular...An interestingly varied collection, then, outstandingly sung and recorded.” International Record Review, February 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Eric Whitacre: Cloudburstand other choral works
“Mightily effective, it’s superbly performed” BBC Music Magazine “Unmissable” Classic FM Magazine “Impeccably performed” Fanfare “Here’s a CD to put the hype back into Hyperion … beautiful” The Times | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Eric Whitacre - Choral Music
Eric Whitacre’s dedication to the beauty of sound, paired with exquisite texts, results in a poetic combination that creates a unique sonic experience. These works are existential choral moments, beautifully crafted, and harmonised to express a compressed moment in time. Such sublime sonorities transcend descriptions such as ‘warm’, ‘glistening’ or ‘shimmering’, although these features of his choral works do suggest affinities with the sound worlds of Arvo Pärt or John Tavener, for instance. However, Whitacre’s fluid lines and blossoming harmonies give his music its own highly personal and irresistible magic. “The only fully professional church choir in Canada, and, clearly, an energetic and inspiring team.” BBC Music Magazine “...a choir long on experience and comfortable in its own collective skin. The mainly vibrato-less singing is warmly blended, with spot-on pitching, and a welcome focus on elucidating text and structure without gimmicky effect-making.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 **** “The fresh-sounding Toronto-based Elora Festival Singers obviously love this optimistic and transparently honest music...Tuning is always spot-on and Nigel Edison draws a wide dynamic range from his singers. Climaxes are never coarse and the church acoustic is used to sublime effect...This stimulating and superb disc is a bargain and an absolute"'must-have".” Gramophone Magazine, September 2010 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Christmas a cappella II
Musica Sacra, Indra Hughes | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Hope, Faith, Life, Love…Choral Music by Eric Whitacre
Junges Vokalensemble Hannover, Klaus-Jürgen Etzold Eric Whitacre has a sure instinct when it comes to writing music beyond any kind of avant-gardism in the 21st century: he is representative of a generation of composers who consider tonality and music’s accessibility a crucial feature of their works. The Junges Vokalensemble Hannover translates this instinct into sound, and unfolds the compositions’ colourfulness with an exceptional level of artistic mastery. The works are written with the clear ideals of performability and feasibility in the composer’s mind, making Whitacre’s music particularly interesting to ambitioned non-professional choirs such as the Junges Vokalensemble Hannover. Probably the best-known of Whitacre’s works recorded on this disc is his Lux Aurumque. This work was composed in 2001 and sets to music the poem Light and Gold by the American poet Edward Esch, a meditation on the birth of Christ and the light. Hope, Faith, Life, Love..., Cloudburst, and Five Hebrew Love Songs are also recorded on the present disc. |
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| |  | Classical Music for Meditation - 50 of the Best
Allegri: | Miserere mei, Deus | Bach, J S: | Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV1068: Air ('Air on a G String') | Beethoven: | Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Op. 56 - Largo Romance No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra in G major, Op. 40 Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36: Larghetto Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 - Largo | Borodin: | String Quartet No. 2: 3rd Movement (Notturno) | Brahms: | Intermezzo in E flat major, Op. 117 No. 1 | Chopin: | Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 in D flat major ‘Raindrop' Mazurka No. 6 in A minor, Op. 7 No. 2 Prelude Op. 28 No. 13 in F sharp major | Corelli: | Concerto grosso Op. 6 No. 8 in G minor 'fatto per la notte di Natale': Pastorale | Debussy: | Petite Suite: En bateau | Delius: | On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring | Fauré: | Sicilienne from Pelléas et Mélisande | Gluck: | Orfeo ed Euridice (Orphée et Euridice): Dance of the Blessed Spirits | Gounod: | Ave Maria (after Bach's Prelude No. 1, BWV846; version for flute and harp) | Grieg: | Peer Gynt: Morning Våren, elegiac melody for strings, Op. 34 No. 2 (version for orchestra) Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 16: Adagio | Haydn: | Symphony No. 24 in D major: Adagio | Lauridsen: | O magnum mysterium | Liszt: | Liebestraum, S541 No. 3 (Nocturne in A flat major) | Mahler: | Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor - Adagietto | Massenet: | Meditation (from Thaïs) (version for violin and piano) | Mendelssohn: | Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 'Italian': Andante con moto | Mozart: | Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K488 - Adagio Ave verum corpus, K618 Divertimento No. 2: Adagio | Parry: | Lady Radnor's Suite: 5th movement, Slow Minuet | Poulenc: | Elegie | Rachmaninov: | Melodie in E Major, Op. 3 No. 3 | Ravel: | Piano Concerto in G major: Adagio assai | Respighi: | Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3, P. 172 | Rodrigo: | Concierto de Aranjuez: Adagio | Satie: | Gymnopédie No. 1 (orch. Debussy) | Schubert: | String Quintet in C major, D956 - Adagio | Schumann: | Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Traümerei Fantasie in C major, Op. 17: Langsam getragen | Vaughan Williams: | The Lark Ascending | Vivaldi: | The Four Seasons: Winter - Largo | Warlock: | Capriol Suite: Pieds-en-l'air | Weber: | Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73: Adagio | Whitacre: | Lux aurumque |
(and excerpts from Albinoni: Concerto for 2 Oboes in F major, Op. 9, No. 3; Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B flat major; Telemann: Concerto TWV 51:G9 in G major for viola, strings & b.c.; Schubert: Schwanengesang, D. 957; di Lasso: Missa Bell' Amfitrit' altera; )
Anthony Camden (oboe), Jeno Jando (piano), Dong-Suk Kang (violin), Maria Kliegel (cello), Idil Biret (piano), Ludovit Kanta (cello), Ladislav Kyselak (viola), Michael Volle (baritone), Ulrich Eisenlohr (piano), Francois-Joel Thiollier (piano), Gerald Garcia (guitar), Takako Nishizaki (violin), Konstantin Scherbakov (piano), Ernst Ottensamer (clarinet), Norbert Kraft (guitar), Judy Loman (harp), Nora Shulman (flute), David Greed (violin), Havard Gimse (piano), Stefan Vladar (piano), Irina Zaritzkaya (piano), Katarina Andreasson (violin), Bjorn Gafvert (harpsichord), Bernd Glemser (piano), Alexandre Tharaud (piano), Francois Chaplin (piano) BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Camerata, London Symphony Orchestra, London Virtuosi, Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia, Capella Istropolitana, Elora Festival Singers, Concentus Hungaricus, RTE Sinfonietta, Oxford Schola Cantorum, Ireland National Symph, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Jeremy Summerly, James DePreist, John Georgiadis, Bela Drahos, Peter Breiner, Jaroslav Krcek, Noel Edison, Richard Edlinger, Matyas Antal, Reinhard Seifried, Antoni Wit, Adrian Leaper, Bjarte Engeset, Johannes Wildner, Kenneth Jean, Jun M | |
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| |  | A Choral Christmas
A leading light in the world of youth choral music, the Rodolfus Choir is made up of choristers from ages 16-25 who are past and present participants of the Eton Choral Courses, begun by the choir's director Ralph Allwood in 1980. This new Christmas programme mixes the familiar with pieces not usually heard in carol services – such as Tomas Luis de Victoria's stunning eight-part 'Ave Maria' (from an edition prepared by John Rutter), and more recent works like Chris Chivers' 'Ecce Puer' and Eric Whitacre's 'Lux Aurumque'. Such a programme is well-suited to a group with the versatility and enthusiasm of the Rodolfus choir. “The freshness of attack you get with younger voices is put to incisive use by conductor Ralph Allwood...Some of the emotional deepening which comes with vocal maturity is occasionally missing, but there are many qualities here that compensate.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 **** “For smooth, refined, effortless and warmly communicative singing this Christmas, you probably need look no further than this disc of somewhat less than mainstream Christmas music from the ever-impressive Rodolfus Choir.” International Record Review, December 2012 “From start to finish this is a superb recital and I’m delighted it is available widely to the public. The test of a good CD is wanting to play it again immediately and this is certainly one. A Christmas record to be delighted to give or receive!” MusicWeb International, November 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Eric Whitacre: Light & Gold
Eric Whitacre (b. 1970), accomplished composer, conductor and lecturer, is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. His published works – of which “Sleep,” “Cloudburst,” “Lux Aurumque” and “Water Night” are among the most popular in the modern repertoire – have sold over a million copies worldwide. Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, Eric’s cutting-edge musical, has won the ASCAP Harold Arlen award, the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award and 10 Ovation Award nominations. In the US he is greeted with “rock star adulation” (New York Times) and his Virtual Choir projects have given him a worldwide following on YouTube, marking a new digital age for classical music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs). In 2010 he signed to Decca, and is published by Chester Music. Light and Gold is a mixture of works from the Whitacre catalogue alongside three World Premiere recordings of new pieces, all of them freshly recorded for the occasion. It's the perfect gateway through which new listeners can experience the allure of Whitacre's music for the first time, while giving existing fans pristine new recordings of some of his most successful pieces, tailored by the composer himself. "This album is the first time that I've ever conducted on record my interpretations of my own pieces," Whitacre explains. "The new pieces haven't been recorded before. Previous recordings of the older works have always been nice, but they've never been exactly what I was hoping they would be. That's the most interesting part for me; it's finally a chance to say it the way I'd like to say it." The pieces on the disc are performed by the British chamber choir, Laudibus, alongside Whitacre’s newly-created vocal group, the Eric Whitacre Singers. “an engaging and populist, if not overly challenging, programme that presents Whitacre as perhaps the American equivalent of Karl Jenkins.” The Independent, 15th October 2010 *** “Soupily addictive and beautifully sung.” The Observer, 17th October 2010 “Their collective intonation is stunning, and they sing with conviction and enjoyment...[there are] many typical Whitacrian hallmarks: a sonorous haze of piled-up cluster-chords, with deep basses and floating upper parts, punctuated by startlingly "scrunchy" multi- (and oft-unresolved) suspensions of rapturous beauty...this gorgeous disc deserves the widest exposure. Simply glorious!” Gramophone Magazine, December 2010 “'The Stolen Child'...is the most immediately impressive. Here Whitacre deftly weaves the entreating faerie voices of Yeats's poem with that of the 'human child'...The burgeoning crescendo which opens 'i thank You God' is one among many...examples of the EW Singers' technical and expressive excellence.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2010 ***** “it's all spot on: tuning, vocal blend, articulation of text, or shaping and colouring of phrases. Whitacre's texts have a youthful appeal, from Leonardo da Vinci dreaming, to a young couple kissing in the sun. The singers' vibrant performances complement this, not just in their silvery vocal timbre, but in the sense that they truly believe in what they're singing.” Classic FM Magazine, January 2011 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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