Notes and Editorial Reviews
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
This is an excellent, imaginative coupling of familiar and unfamiliar works united in being either religious in inspiration, or consisting of imaginative reworkings of earlier music--Gesualdo in the case of Monumentum, Bach in the Chorale-Variations. Philippe Herreweghe's performances are crisp and sharply etched: Stravinsky surely would have approved. In the Symphony of Psalms the swift tempos, smallish chorus, and ideal balances between voices and instruments are hard to beat. In the second movement, at figure 12 after the first large choral exordium, there is a still moment for the lower strings and solo trombone (with the fugue theme) that
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is heart-stoppingly beautiful. You may miss the richness and power of Ancerl's choir, but of its type this version is terrific.
The other pieces are all smaller in scale and so questions of sheer numbers don't arrive. The brief Mass for voices and winds is really wonderfully sung. In the Chorale-Variations the instrumental lines truly dance around the choir's intonation of the chorale theme. Monumentum, oddly, sounds remarkably like Stravinsky in its characterful juxtapositions of timbre. Throughout the sonics are extremely natural in all formats. Whether you're filling a gap in your Stravinsky repertoire, or just looking for top-notch new performances of any of these pieces, this release deserves strong consideration.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
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Works on This Recording
1.
Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum by Igor Stravinsky
Conductor:
Philippe Herreweghe
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Flemish Philharmonic
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1960; USA
2.
Mass by Igor Stravinsky
Conductor:
Philippe Herreweghe
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ghent Collegium Vocale,
Royal Flemish Philharmonic
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1944-1948; USA
3.
Chorale Variations on "Von Himmel hoch da komm' ich her" by Igor Stravinsky
Conductor:
Philippe Herreweghe
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ghent Collegium Vocale,
Royal Flemish Philharmonic
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1955-1956; USA
4.
Symphony of Psalms by Igor Stravinsky
Conductor:
Philippe Herreweghe
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ghent Collegium Vocale,
Royal Flemish Philharmonic
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1930/1948; France
Sound Samples
Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum: I. Asciugate i begli occhi
Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum: II. Ma tu, cagion di quella
Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum: III. Belta poi che t'assenti
Bach - Choral-Variationen uber das Weihnachtslied Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her: Chorale
Bach - Choral-Variationen uber das Weihnachtslied Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her: Variation 1: In canone all'Ottava
Bach - Choral-Variationen uber das Weihnachtslied Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her: Variation 2: Alio modo in canone alla Quinta
Bach - Choral-Variationen uber das Weihnachtslied Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her: Variation 3: In canone alla Settima
Bach - Choral-Variationen uber das Weihnachtslied Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her: Variation 4: In canone all'Ottava per augmentationem
Bach - Choral-Variationen uber das Weihnachtslied Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her: Variation 5: L'altra sorte del canone al rovescio
Symphony of Psalms: I. Exaudi orationem meam, Domine
Symphony of Psalms: II. Expectans expectavi, Dominum
Symphony of Psalms: III. Alleluia. Laudate Dominum
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