ORF Vienna Radio Chorus - Missa Brevis - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Vienna Opera Chorus / Theussl - Choeurs de L'opera de Vienne [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/31/2011

Verdi's Messa da Requiem - an Inchopera in ecclestiastical robesInch, as conductor Hans von Bülow called it - recorded in October 1980 at Stiftskirche Herzogenburg with Julia Varady, Alexandrina Milcheva, Alberto Cupido, Nicola Ghiuselev, ORF Choir and ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leif Segerstam. The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist whom Verdi admired. The first performance, at the San Marco church in Milan on 22 May 1874, marked the first anniversary of Manzoni's death. The work was at one time referred to as the Manzoni Requiem. Considered too operatic to be performed in a liturgical setting, it is usually given in concert form of around 90 minutes in length. Musicologist David Rosen calls it 'probably the most frequently performed major choral work composed since the compilation of Mozart's Requiem'. Album Tracks 1. Introitus 2. Seuqentia Dies Irae 3. Dies Irae Dies Irae 4. Dies Irae Tuba Mirum 5. Dies Irae Liber Scriptus 6. Dies Irae Quid Sum Miser 7. Dies Irae Rex Tremendae 8. Dies Irae Recordare 9. Dies Irae Ingemisco 10. Dies Irae Confutatis - Dies Irae 11. Dies Irael Lacrymosa 12. Offertorium Domine Jesu Christie 13. Offertorio Domine Jesu Christe 14. Offertorio Hostias 15. Sanctus. Benedictus 16. Agnus Dei 17. Lux Aeterna 18. Absolutio Libera Me. Domine 19. Libera Me Libera Me, Domine - Dies Irae - Requiem Aeternam 20. Libera Me Libera Me

On it's new CD from BR-KLASSIK, the Bavarian Radio Chorus, directed by Howard Arman, presents Christmas music from Italy.With his Lauda per la nativita del Signore, Ottorino Respighi modernised the medieval nativity play of the same name by the religious lyricist Jacopone da Todi. He had already explored art forms of the past in adaptations of early music, re-creations and free works based on Gregorian chants. In this piece, he assigned the medieval verses to three soloists - the angel, the Virgin Mary, and the shepherd - as well as a chamber choir. Accompanied by selected woodwind instruments reminiscent of the music of Italian shepherds, and by four-handed piano and triangle, the miracle of Christmas is brought to life in a simple yet impressive way.Francesco Paolo Frontini is remembered less for his compositions than for his many collections of Sicilian folk songs. From his Canti religiosi del popolo siciliano (Religious Songs of the Sicilian People, published in 1938), a collection of 22 songs for voice and piano underlaid with Sicilian dialect verses and their Italian translations, Howard Arman selected eight songs and arranged them for choir and instruments. Like Frontini, who already included regional variants from Catania, Palermo, and other parts of the Mediterranean island, Arman also arranged different regional versions of two songs.The melody of the Italian Marian carol O sanctissima, which is one of the most popular Christmas carols in the German-speaking countries with it's opening verse O du frohliche, could possibly also have originated from Sicily. The arrangement is once again by Howard Arman. Album Tracks 1. Lauda per la Natività del Signore~Pastor, voie che vegghiate 2. Lauda per la Natività del Signore~E de ciò ve dò in segno 3. Lauda per la Natività del Signore~Segnor, tu se' disceso 4. Lauda per la Natività del Signore~Ecco quilla st