Author: chris_m

The liturgy of Compline marks the end of the monastic day, as the community seeks peaceful repose for the night ahead.

Psalmody, be it in the form of chanted recitations or anthem settings, lies close to the heart of liturgical singing, and this collection, ìPsalms for the Spiritî brings together an engaging variety of both long familiar and recent psalms that celebrates the traditions and explores new directions.

The courtly instrumental music of the Halle composer, Samuel Scheidt, is preserved in the printed collection “Ludi musici” (1620), giving congenial suggestion of both the richness of the court practice and the virtuosic abilities of the ensemble players there, including the cornettist, Zacharias H‰rtel.

The quarter century of work by the French medieval ensemble, Ensemble Organum, and their director, Marcel PÈrËs has positioned them as leading interpreters of early liturgical repertories; among interpreters, their renditions assert a high degree of distinctiveness and character.

In 2005 the Australian musicologist Janice Stockigt made the case that several works attributed to Baldassare Galuppi in the Saxon State and University Library (Dresden) were really the works of Antonio Vivaldi.

This installment in the ongoing series of Monteverdi madrigal recordings from Marco Longhini and Naxos presents distinctive performances of works that lie close to the heart of the early baroque style.

There is much to admire in Masaaki Suzukiís Bach performances with the Bach Collegium Japan, and this recording of excerpts from the St. Matthew Passion will remind the listener of the diverse ways in which this is so.