December 2019

Praetorius Christmas Mass

25 Years ago, Paul McCreesh gave us a spectacular recording of a Christmas mass as it would have been heard in 1620; last year, he created a new version for a performance at Versailles, which we will experience this week.

Composer: Michael Praetorius (1571–1621), Johann Rosenmüller, Heinrich Schütz

CD Info: Christophorus CD CHR 77445,

Three 17th Century German Christmas Discs

The Margaretha Consort with a German Christmas, Schutz’s Christmas Story with the Yale Schola Cantorum, and cantata by Buxtehude and Telemann.

Composer: Tunder, Praetorius, Schutz, Gesius, Wakelkamp, Siefert, Mazak, Hurtado, Hassler, Steigleder, Schein, Schiedemann, Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

CD Info: Naxos CD 8.551398, Hyperion CD CDA68315, Accent CD ACC 24348

Three English Ensembles

Advent from King’s College, London, carols from the Gesualdo Six, and Christmas at St. George’s Windsor.

Composer:

CD Info:

Blue Heron

The Cambridge-based ensemble brings us a program of Ockeghem and his contemporaries; our special guest is the ensemble’s conductor, Scott Metcalfe.

Composer: Johannes Regis (c. 1425-1496), Barbingant (fl. c. 1450-75), Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1420-1497), Firminus Caron (fl. c. 1460-75)

CD Info:

Farewell to 2018

Our annual collection of musical thoughts and reflections on the year passed (and the one to come).

Composer: J. P. Sweelink, Jacob Handl, Johannes Eccard, George Kirbye, Orlande de Lassus, Thomas Tallis, Richard Dering, William Byrd, Tomás Luis de Victoria, John Sheppard, Francisco Guerrero, Peter Philips, Andreas Hakenberger, Walter Lambe (1450-1504), Josph Phibbs (b.1974), William Cornysh (1465-1523), Philip Cooke (b.1980), Sir James MacMillan (b.1959), Marco Galvani (b.1994), Robert Wylkynson (c.1450-1515) , Stephen Hough (b.1961)

CD Info: CD COR16167, Naxos CD 8.573733-44, CD COR16166