Baroque festivities and choral classics This month also sees many Magnificats and French Romantic rarities
If you’re looking for a festive soundtrack without snowmen and silver bells, you might like to check out A Baroque Christmas (Harmonia Mundi HMX 2908984.87). Though presented on just four discs, the set takes in recordings from the 1970s through to 2016. At its heart is René Jacobs’s 1997 handling of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on two discs; the remaining discs see Charpentier’s Pastorale de Noël, Corelli’s Concerto No. 8 and works by the likes of Buxtehude and Schütz. Informative booklet notes, too.
It’s more a case of making Mary with the 14-disc Magnificat (Brilliant Classics 95928). From the Franco-flemish Renaissance to works by contemporary masters, this immersive collection is a true journey through the ages. It takes in music by over 60 composers, who each interpreted the liturgical text pertaining to the Virgin Mary’s response to being told that she would bear a child. It seems anyone who’s anyone has taken it on, from Albergati and Finzi to Penderecki and Vivaldi. Performers include Oxford Camerata and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.
A similarly wide range of periods is covered in The Choral Collection (Naxos 8.503298) which offers essential works across 30 discs.
It’s an exhaustive account taking in sacred and secular offerings from recordings previously released between 1992 and 2017 and highlights compositions from the 15th to the 21st centuries. If you’re looking for a catch-all introduction to the art of all things choral, then this is as good as it gets.
The likes of Beethoven, Arvo Pärt, Hildegard and Eric Whitacre performed by choral forces from London, Leipzig, Warsaw and beyond. What’s not to love?
There’s just a touch of the choral in The French Romantic Experience (Bru Zane BZ 2001), a delightfully colourful ten-disc collection.
Two discs of cantatas and sacred works are otherwise outnumbered by a wealth of 19thcentury lesser-known gems from the realms of opera, orchestral, concertante, chamber and instrumental music. All were ‘discovered’ as part of the Palazetto Bru Zane’s research into its musical heritage and include works by Gounod, Salieri, Massenet and Dubois.
This immersive collection is a journey through the ages