SWR Vokalensemble - Maennerchoere - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In addition to his popular compositions such as orchestral works and chamber music, György Ligeti also wrote vocal music, among them numerous and demanding a cappella choral works. These, just like his canonically treated instrumental works, reflect his changes of style. With the exception of the Latin 'Lux aeterna' (1966) and 'Three Fantasias' based on Friedrich Hölderlin (1982) Ligeti exclusively set Hungarian poetry to music, showing a marked preference for texts by Balint Balassa (1554-1594) and Sándor Weöres (1913-1989). Ligeti wanted to set the respective contents to music programmatically but focussed especially on particular phonetic sound sequences, rhythms, intonations and accentuations of the Hungarian language. Translations of this speech music are nigh on impossible and even dispensable as you do not have to understand the words in order to experience the choral works as music that is rich in tone colours, rhythmically concise and extremely expressive. The radio choir of SWR is one of the international top ensembles on the professional choir scene. Ever since the ensemble was founded almost 75 years ago it has devoted it's passion and extraordinary vocal competence to exemplary performances and the further development of vocal music. Award-winning Yuval Weinberg has been the chief conductor of the SWR Vokalensemble since the beginning of the season 2020/2021.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Cultural Revolution did everything in their power to destroy the influence of religion in the Russian Empire. Sacred music was publicly forgotten in the process. Although Schnittke, whose German-born father emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1926, was atheistically influenced by the state education system, he believed spiritually in Inchsomething greaterInch. In 1982, he was baptized a Catholic, and shortly before his death he was accepted into the Orthodox Church. The search for a religious identity can also be traced in his works.Vedel and Berezovsky are among the most important composers of Ukrainian classical music of the 18th century. Little is known about Vedel's life. The works attributed to him, including 31 choral concertos, are all set to liturgical texts or Bible verses. In these works, the traditions of the Orthodox church music of his homeland, Ukrainian baroque tradition and folk songs merge with a new Western European operatic and instrumental style.Bortniansky is highly credited with bringing the genre of the sacred concerto to fruition. Consisting of psalm verses set to music, which were sung during the Eucharist in church services, it's purpose at the time was far-reaching as a universal genre, it was the highlight of the Orthodox liturgy, an adornment of the state ceremony and also intended for a kind of domestic music-making. In the Western repertoire, it comes closest to the instrumental concerto grosso, with the difference that no instruments are permitted in the Orthodox service.

This 14-album box contains all the recordings of the complete sacred vocal music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy with the Kammerchor Stuttgart under the direction of Frieder Bernius. The complete recording on the CARUS tag, which took more than two decades to complete, was highly praised by the press and won many awards. Now Bernius' masterful interpretations, which unfold Mendelssohn's sense of cantabile melody and differentiated harmony in a high sound culture and colorful, transparent diction, are available in a complete set.