Category: Recordings

Of the operas composed in the latter half of the twentieth century, Krzysztof Pendereckiís Die Teufel von Loudon is a significant contribution to the repertoire.

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.

Whatís outstanding about this Lohengrin is the orchestral playing.

Before the age of computers, CDs. DVDs and Apple i-Phones, there was television.

One of the glories of a well-executed performance of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle is the sonic dimension of the work, with the dramatic contrasts between the larger musical canvasses and the more intimate ensembles that occur between several voices and within the orchestra itself.

Often overshadowed by its composer’s Requiem, the Te Deum, Op. 22 (1849) by Hector Berlioz deserves attention for its own merits, and this recent release by H‰nssler in its series of live recordings of the Staatskapelle Dresden is a solid reading of this work.

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.

On stages all over the world, most any night of the year, poor Parisian Mimi hacks her way into oblivion, while her sometime lover cries out her name in hysterical despair.