Three from Delphian

 

NOTE: All of the music on this program is from the Edinburgh-based label Delphian. For more information about this label:

http://www.delphianrecords.co.uk/

 

 

 

In 2014, Merton College in Oxford celebrates its 750th year. Benjamin Nicholas and Peter Phillips’ specially conceived programme journeys through three quarters of a millennium of choral repertoire. Not just a demonstration of this accomplished ensemble’s versatility, the recording also provides a bird’s-eye view of some important moments in musical history, and features two composers – John Dunstaple and Lennox Berkeley – associated with the College as well as three works specially commissioned for the anniversary celebrations. The choir, a relatively recent addition to this illustrious college’s complement of treasures, gives stylish and committed performances in the famous acoustic of Merton’s chapel.

 

1. Magnificat (Merton College Service)
2. Nunc dimittis (Merton College Service)
Eriks Ešenvalds (b. 1977)
3. Veni Sancte Spiritus/Veni Creator
John Dunstaple (c.1390–1453)
4. Libera nos, salva nos I
John Sheppard (c.1515–1558)
5. The Woman with the Alabaster Box
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)
6. There is an old belief
Hubert Parry (1848–1918)
7. Praise our Lord, all ye Gentiles
William Byrd (1539/40–1623)
8. This is the record of John
Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
9. Veni sponsa Christi
Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989)
10.Hear my prayer, O Lord
11.Remember not, Lord, our offences
Henry Purcell (1659–1695)
12.Valiant-for-truth
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
13.Justorum animae
14.Beati quorum via
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)
15.Magnificat (Second Service ‘in F fa ut’)
16.Nunc dimittis (Second Service ‘in F fa ut’)
William Mundy (c.1529–1591)
17. Beati quorum via
James Lavino (b. 1973)
18.Lord, let me know mine end
Maurice Greene (1696–1755)
19.Sacred Origins
Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978)

 

 

       

          A chamber-scale Concerto Caledonia bring to life a key figure from the Golden Age of Scottish fiddle music,
when the publishing of fiddle music books was in full spate and the familiar forms of strathspey, reel and jig were taking shape.

'Red Rob' Mackintosh, named in the customary Gaelic fashion after the colour of his hair, found himself a place in the orchestra of the Edinburgh Musical Society and set up business as a teacher. (1783) was his first collection, published the year before his ill-fated move to Aberdeen, and it represents his desire both to understand the musical world around him as fully as possible, and to forge himself a career within it. Concerto Caledonia have realised the music from within its pages, shedding light on an age when, not yet 'traditional', such dance genres still bore the imprint of their individual composers.

Concerto Caledonia is one of Scotland's premiere earlymusic ensembles with a reputation for reviving littleknown but important music. With their third disc on Delphian the band bring vital part of Scotland's heritage to a wider audience with the music of 'Red Rob'.

1 Capt. Macduff’s Delight – Miss Katty Troter’s Reel
2 Minuetto
3 Miss Grant of Grant’s Reel
4 Miss Grace Stewart’s Minuet
5 Gavotta
6 Air
7 Lady Helenora Home’s Reel – Miss Jessy Dalrymple’s Reel – Miss Stewart’s Reel – Miss Carre’s Reel
8 The Duchess of Gordon’s Delight
9 Miss Campbell’s Reel
10 The Diamond Reel – Miss Burnet of Monboddo’s
11 Minuet – Quick Step
12 Lady Betty Boyle’s Reel – Miss Scott’s Reel
13 Miss Bewment’s Minuet – Air
14 Lady Betty Cochran’s Reel
15 Minuetto
16 Lady Emelia Ker’s Minuet
17 Gavotta
18 Miss Henderson’s Minuet – Lady Wallace’s Reel
19 Miss Pringle’s Reel
20 Miss Baird’s Minuet
21 Gavotta
22 Allegro
23 Largo
24 Jigg
25 March

 

 

 

 

Following Gramophone Editor’s Choices for their recent excursions into the sacred music of Bruckner and of Gabriel Jackson, Duncan Ferguson and the Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh return, in their fourth disc together, to the epoch of their first recorded triumph – the early sixteenth century. Their 2010 Taverner disc won plaudits for its exhilarating freshness and panache, and the choir bring the same musical and liturgical integrity to music by Taverner’s near contemporary John Sheppard, Informator Choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford (where Ferguson himself was a more recent organ scholar). Centred on Sheppard’s most extended and ecstatic composition, the Missa Cantate, this wide-ranging collection also includes the rarely-heard Gaude virgo Christiphera, Sheppard’s only surviving votive antiphon (with a new reconstruction of the treble part), and the first recording of Adesto sancta Trinitas II. Most remarkable of all is the performance level to which Ferguson has now brought this choir, and the expressive force given to the music by the astonishing agility of voices in the vast cathedral acoustic.

 

 

1 Libera nos, salva nos I
2 Reges Tharsis et insulae
3 Gaude virgo Christiphera
4 Sacris solemniis
5 Kyrie Lux et origo (Kyrie Paschale)
6-9 Missa Cantate
10 Adesto sancta Trinitas II
11 Hodie nobis caelorum rex
12 Verbum caro