Eighty minutes of Christmas at King’s: reference Argo recordings of Britten and Vaughan Williams capturing both the magic and joy of the season as well as the resonant glory of a famous acoustic. Britten’s genius as a choral composer centred around his ability to write rewarding parts for amateurs and young singers; his choice of […]
Three original Argo and Decca albums compiled together for the first time: Lassus with an English accent. Five Eloquence albums dedicated to the art of Simon Preston were enthusiastically welcomed by the press in 2018, featuring in ‘Best Of’ end-of-year selections in Gramophone and online. In 1970, Preston became Organist and Choirmaster at the Cathedral […]
A magnificent tribute to one of the world’s most panoramic cities from the masters of Venetian Renaissance – Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, respectively, father and son. This collection includes brass fanfares and choral music, resplendently sung and played.
A wonderful collection of meditative choral music, spearheaded by Allegri’s ubiquitous ‘Miserer’e with works by other Renaissance composers, including the magnificent Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis, performed here by two of the foremost British choirs under the direction of two of Britain’s leading choral conductors.
Mendelssohn’s ‘Hear my prayer’ (or, in its English adaptation known as ‘O for the wings of a dove’) is a much loved piece of ‘Victoriana’, made famous by, among others, Master Ernest Lough. Often sung by boy sopranos, it is here performed by Felicity Palmer, traditionally a mezzo, but using the soprano register of her […]
The potential of music as a means of adding dignity and grandeur to state occasions has surely been lost on a few rulers in history. Portraits of antique kings and queens are more often admired (or the reverse) for their artistic qualities, as opposed to the enhancement in the status of their subjects they were […]
Purcell wrote so much in so many different spheres of musical activity that it is easy to forget that one of his main tasks was to be a royal composer, to provide music for the occasions of State in Westminster Abbey, just as the Gabrielis had done for the Doge at St Mark’s or Lully […]
