Choral Music

[paul secor]

I was listening to some choral music on the radio recently and have since listened to more via the internet.

Would anyone here like to list some of their favorite choral recordings?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Florida Mass Choir - Lord, you keep on proving yourself to me - Savoy

Yes, I know that's not what you meant, but I couldn't resist

When I was into French camber music, I used to buy quite a bit of choral stuff. Some I liked a lot were

Elgar - The dream of Gerontius

Delius - Songs of sunset & Requiem

Liszt - Via crucis

Bernstein - Chichester Psalms - very dramatic and dynamic

Faure - Requiem

and for something a bit avant

Penderscki - St Luke Passion

Oh, and Carl Orff's 'Catulli carmina' which I preferred greatly to 'Carmina burana'. The percussion section in the Catulli is bleedin' fabulous! Ask Mike Weil

MG

[paul secor]

Florida Mass Choir - Lord, you keep on proving yourself to me - Savoy

Yes, I know that's not what you meant, but I couldn't resist

When I was into French camber music, I used to buy quite a bit of choral stuff. Some I liked a lot were

Elgar - The dream of Gerontius

Delius - Songs of sunset & Requiem

Liszt - Via crucis

Bernstein - Chichester Psalms - very dramatic and dynamic

Faure - Requiem

and for something a bit avant

Penderscki - St Luke Passion

Oh, and Carl Orff's 'Catulli carmina' which I preferred greatly to 'Carmina burana'. The percussion section in the Catulli is bleedin' fabulous! Ask Mike Weil

MG

I was looking for something other than gospel choirs, but I figured you'd drop a mention or two and I was cool with that, so I didn't place a limitation. (Well, I guess I did post in in the classical forum.)

[kh1958]

This recording, combining Norwegian choral group Skruk with Iranian vocalist Mahsa Vahdat, is quite excellent.

http://www.amazon.com/Vinens-Speil-Skruk-Mahsa-Vahdat/dp/B00406IQ1U/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1361724319&sr=1-6&keywords=skruk

I've been meaning to investigate Skruk a little more, but haven't gotten around to it.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Florida Mass Choir - Lord, you keep on proving yourself to me - Savoy

Yes, I know that's not what you meant, but I couldn't resist

When I was into French camber music, I used to buy quite a bit of choral stuff. Some I liked a lot were

Elgar - The dream of Gerontius

Delius - Songs of sunset & Requiem

Liszt - Via crucis

Bernstein - Chichester Psalms - very dramatic and dynamic

Faure - Requiem

and for something a bit avant

Penderscki - St Luke Passion

Oh, and Carl Orff's 'Catulli carmina' which I preferred greatly to 'Carmina burana'. The percussion section in the Catulli is bleedin' fabulous! Ask Mike Weil

MG

I was looking for something other than gospel choirs, but I figured you'd drop a mention or two and I was cool with that, so I didn't place a limitation. (Well, I guess I did post in in the classical forum.)

Predictable as ever

I gave up all that classical music when I could scarcely afford jazz & R&B, now I'm getting more interested, I don't have the space.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

This is one of my favourites:

I didn't know Janacek from Jam Doughnuts when I saw a Proms performance c. 1976 and it blew my socks off.

There are lots of more modern performances but this one was the one I've lived with.

[Д.Д.]

Second Janacek's "Glagolitic Mass".

Other favorite is "Psalms" by Lili Boulanger paired on this CD (first released on DG, budget-reissued on Brilliant) with Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms":

And some Renaissance stuff: Richafort's "Requiem"

[A Lark Ascending]

That Stravinsky is marvellous - don't know the Boulanger. One to check out.

I love this:

Again, there are much more recent versions and an historic original Britten/Pears one.

Despite have read about and taught countless lessons on WWI and taken trips to the battlefields I'd never really had the patience for the poetry of the war (just my lack of patience with poetry) - this piece illuminated the poems that make up the soloist parts (the choral sections are the Latin Mass).

An obvious choice which I play at least once a year:

This is utterly amazing:

I once sat listening to the whole thing on a CD walkman on a bench in Venice itself!

And then there's Bach...which you could take a lifetime exploring. Another one that has become an annual ritual at Easter:

[A Lark Ascending]

A couple off the beaten track:

There's a lengthy choral tradition in the UK - a bit like brass bands, it had a general popularity rather than being the preserve of the posh. As a result there's an enormous amount of English choral music. It can be somewhat lumpen. But these two discs are rather different - the first is almost an English 'Glagolitic Mass' with large forces and a strange Greek text. The second is very sparing in instrumentation with some absolutely gorgeous, translucent writing.

You could do worse than checking out Stephen Layton and Polyphony on Hyperion - a huge range of choral music with a lot of contemporary writing from Britain, the Baltic and America. Again, a lot of this is written for current performance rather than posterity and so has quite a wide following. Some of it might be a bit too sweet and tonal for advanced ears; but after being rather anti- it for a long time it's sucked me in over the last few years.

This is a gorgeous disc:

'O Magnum Mysterium' stops me dead every time. Worth checking out the piece on YouTube.

Edited February 25, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[David Ayers]

Does anyone here perform in a choir? I never have but would like to. It is a wonderful thing to hear a choir and pretty hard to reproduce at home. I am lucky to be able to hear a very high caliber cathedral choir which constantly performs interesting repertoire (this Sunday,a Penalosa Mass and Victoria's setting of O Vos Omnes). I also love to hear choir and symphony orchestra, in works such as the Missa Solemnis. I guess I am less keen on the Victorian-style mass choral experience and on those oratorios.. I'd say the way into choral music is to go and hear choirs!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Couldn't resist this, either.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Does anyone here perform in a choir? I never have but would like to. It is a wonderful thing to hear a choir and pretty hard to reproduce at home. I am lucky to be able to hear a very high caliber cathedral choir which constantly performs interesting repertoire (this Sunday,a Penalosa Mass and Victoria's setting of O Vos Omnes). I also love to hear choir and symphony orchestra, in works such as the Missa Solemnis. I guess I am less keen on the Victorian-style mass choral experience and on those oratorios.. I'd say the way into choral music is to go and hear choirs!

I was in a choir briefly at 11. Remember doing 'And the Glory of the Lord' from Messiah. I changed school and was too shy to ask to join the new one. Regret that.

Probably one reason choral music seems less intimidating than orchestral music (or chamber music!) is that it can allow those of little or no musical experience to join in. I'm sure you'd quickly get a much deeper appreciation of the different lines of the music.

They only thing that scares me is a) they won't let me into choirs with music I'd enjoy singing as I can't read music (or sing, come to that [or speak Glagolitic]!) and b) the choirs they might let me into will want to sing choral versions of Coldplay songs! Nothing wrong with that but it doesn't do it for me.

Edited February 25, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[mjazzg]

Allegri - Misere

may have become a bit of a 'standard' or even a cliche but it's very fine

Victoria, Palestrina and then the English composers Tallis (yes, Spem in Alium is obvious but for a reason), Byrd and their contemporaries

recordings of any of the above by The Sixteen or Tallis Scholars wouldn't be a bad place to start

Edited February 26, 2013 by mjazzg

[A Lark Ascending]

Very powerful commentary on the persecution in Europe at the end of the 30s. Makes very moving use of 5 spirituals from the US.

[MomsMobley]

robert fayrfax / cardinal singers

monteverdi odheacton

 

[StarThrower]

Just picked up this set. Lots of beautiful music!

 

And this one too!