Our Lent and Easter Shows!

Once again the Consortiun Vocale Oslo brings us a stunning recreation of a medieval service from Norway. Following the recreation of the service for St. Olav, the Office of the Holy Blood, and the service for John the Baptist, we’ll hear chant for Lent and Holy Week from the medieval church of Ringsaker.

We recently traveled to Budapest in search of the latest from this extraordinary ensemble that has brought us unusual and rare chant recordings for over 25 years.

Another "big sound" concert as La Fenice joins the Chamber Choir of Namur in a recreation of the massive services at San Marco created for feast days by the great Gabrieli.

NOTE: All of the music on these programs are from discs produced by the Choir of the Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes.

For the 27th anniversary program of Millennium, we will return to how it began, with chant for Eastertide. And, happily, the same group with whom we initiated the program, the Choir of the Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, are now releasing self-produced discs!

NOTE: This greatest of Swiss composers has been an ongoing area of rediscovery in the last decades; this week, the Swiss Radio Choir gives us more sacred gems, including the grand motets and the para-liturgical "Five Salutations of Christ" commissioned by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria. The Coro della Radio Svizzera is directed by Diego Fasolis in this recording, which is titled Ludwig Senfl: Missa Paschalis und Motteten. It is on the Musikszene Schweiz label, and is CD # MGB 6165.

With the current interest in the story of Christ's Passion rekindled by the recent popular film, we examined over three weeks how the story was told during the first twelve centuries of Christianity.

With the current interest in the story of Christ's Passion rekindled by the recent popular film, we examined over three weeks how the story was told during the first twelve centuries of Christianity.

With the current interest in the story of Christ's Passion
rekindled by the recent popular film, we examined over three weeks how the story was told during the first twelve centuries of Christianity.

We continue the series with The Cardinall's Musick directed by our guest, Andrew Carwood with the recording The BYRD Edition 6: Music for Holy Week and Easter.

Continuing the best of 2001, as for the 16th year, Fr. Jerome Weber (early music critic for Fanfare magazine) chooses the top releases in the field.

Sacred music.

NOTE: All of the music on this program was chosen by Fr. Jerome Weber, early music critic for Fanfare and Goldberg magazines.

Note: Ted Libbey, author of the NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection, joins us to share some of the works in early music that are his favorites that could not be included in the original book.

NOTE: Our special guest for this program is Martin Goldsmith, host of NPR’s Performance Today.

While we often hear music for the sacred service of Holy Week, the period stretching from Ash Wednesday to Easter tends to have suffered benign neglect... though it, too, is filled with beautiful music! This week Father Jerome Weber, Early Music critic for Fanfare Magazine, shares some of his favorite compositions for the Lenten season.

A Sacred oratorio by Luigi Rossi, a world premiere of a Plague Mass by Orazio Benevoli, and the earliest use of the violin (with voice!).

Tenebrae lessons by Charpentier and a world-premier recording of the Tenebrae of Michel Lambert; and between, the popular fables of La Fontaine set by Clérambault.

The Danish composer and conductor has a great range of interests; happily early music is one. His latest CDs with his ensemble Music Ficta feature music of Gesualdo and the Lassus St. Matthew Passion.

We will go from the Middle Ages with the Orlando Consort, to the Renaissance and John Sheppard, and lastly to the French, with the sacred music of Couperin.

October 31st makes the actual date of the Reformation, and we conclude our year-long series with recordings that take us from Schutz to Bach.

The musical life of post-Reformation Basel; Tobias Michael; and more from the Vox Luminous boxed set.

The adventurous German label gives us two great works from the early German Baroque, and a setting of the Lamentations scored for soprano and psaltery!

Three new releases: a boxed set of early Lutheran settings set by the liturgical year, an evocation of the crucial year of 1517, and an early Baroque master in Leipzig.

Conductor Andrew Carwood guides us through more of his extraordinary Tallis edition.

The wonderfully supportive label for early music gives us new releases from the 13th, 14th, and 16th centuries.

Lute repertoire inspired by Martin Luther; the Dresden Passion; and haunting music of the Thirty Years’ War.

The latest from the Tallis Scholars takes us back to the early Tudor English master (a composer at the root of the groups founding).

The ensemble Contrpunctus begins a series of recordings featuring great Latin Tudor works compiled by John Baldwin in the late 1570s at the St. George’s Chapel in Windsor.

Holy Week chant from both the Eastern and Western traditions, and a rare Passion from late 16th century Germany.

Holy Week lessons from Couperin, a rare Requiem from Sicily, and music for The Man in the Iron Mask.

Continuing our occasional “Old Wine, New Skins” feature, we hear recordings that give us a contemporary take on Sephardic music, a jazz ensemble in the middle ages, and sacred Sicilian folklore

Recent release of pieces for Passiontide including works by Lassus, Victoria, Gesualdo, and Jacques Arcadelt..

The recently released latest from the Benedictines of Mary, “Lent at Ephesus,” and more from the Finnish women Vox Silenti.

It's been a while since we surveyed recent recordings in the field. This week, music for the 400th anniversary of the death of Gesualdo, funeral services from England, and more!

This program began on Easter in 1979—this week, the young performers of Stile Antico and their recent release dedicated to Holy Week & Easter.

Our programs for Lent and Holy Week commence with an extraordinary discovery and world premiere recording of a previously-unknown masterpiece by Pergolesi.

We continue with three recent releases with music for the days before Easter.

For this week and next, we look at recent releases by Les Arts Florissants, L'Arpeggiata, and the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Before the great Palestrina's death in 1594, seven Roman musicians came together to write a twelve-part mass based on the elder composer's motet Cantantibus Organis; this is the centerpiece of this new recording by the Cardinall's Musick.

Continuing the program with a suite by Du Mont and more by Charpentier.

Our first program with the Tallis Scholars was nearly 30 years ago, when the ensemble was new. This week, we look at their latest project with director Peter Phillips.

As we enter the 30th anniversary season of Millennium of Music, we share the great Holy Week writings of Lassus.

Our friends from the Abbey of Chevetogne are back, and we will begin and end our Belgian series with their latest two recordings. This week, the Matins of Holy Saturday.

Early Norwegian church psalm settings for Holy Week performed by the Oslo Cathedral Choir conducted by Terje Kvam. The Lutheran tradition is reflected in works from the Danish-Norwegian poets (Kingo, Dass, Brorson) whose hymnals defined the 16th and 17th century church style.

If the work that was done in the courts of Pepin II and his son Charlemagne was a vast editorial process collecting chant from different churches, one thriving musical style was in the neighborhood chapel—this week, we hear the liturgy of the Gauls.

Metz was the capital city of the Frankish kingdom, and the ancestor of the Carolingians was St. Arnulf, who became Bishop there after the death of his wife, and whose son married the daughter of Pepin I. It was the firs place Roman cantors taught Frankish cantors, and we hear an extremely rare reconstruction of this early liturgy (what we call "Gregorian Chant" was perhaps first called "Messine," from Metz).

Because of its centrality and continuity, the early liturgy of the Roman Christians is perhaps the earliest we can reconstruct—we'll hear some examples.

We return to the Benedictine Abbey of Chevetogne in Belgium with the latest from their stunning body of recordings, as this unique group continues its mission of uniting the ancient division between western & eastern Christianity through musical service.

All of the music on this program is from the recording made by the Choir of the Monks of Chevetogne directed by Fr. Thomas Pott. You may reach the Abbey at their web site: www.monasterechevetogne.com

All of the music on this program is from a live concert given at the Holland Festival of Early Music at Utrecht 2004 featuring the Ensemble Pierre Robert conducted by Frederic Desenclos.

All of the music on this program is from the recording made by the Choir of the Monks of Chevetogne directed by Fr. Maxime Gimenez. You may reach the Abbey at their web site: www.monasterechevetogne.com

The program is sponsored in part by the Belgian Tourist Office and the Embassy of Belgium in Washington, D.C. For more information on visiting Belgium (including the Abbey), you may contact the Belgian Tourist Office at: www.visitbelgium.com

Father Jerome Weber guides us through the archives of Studio SM, a label which specialized in chant recordings decades before they hit the mainstream.

Gabriel Crouch, the director of the early music ensemble Gallicantus, guides us through some of their releases. This week, Robert White, The Word Unspoken, and Dialogues of Sorrow.

This week, Peter Phillips returns with works by Jean Mouton, more John Taverner, and Josquin once again.

After a long break, one of our most frequent guests returns to share his extraordinary efforts. This week Peter Phillips shares works by Victoria, more from the Josquin cycle, and music by the great Tudor master John Taverner.

In early spring of 1963, John Elliot Gardiner’s mother created an Easter play for their small church in Dorset; for the 55th anniversary, it was recreated for a special recording project we hear this week.

The director of the Ora Singers returns to share music from the Passion and into Easter; part 2 takes us from Good Friday to Easter day itself.

The director of the Ora Singers returns to share music from the Passion and into Easter; part 1 takes us into Good Friday .

A new recording of the huge Tenebrae settings (in a three-CD set).

Adrian Willaert and his circle at San Marco, the Lamentations of Morales, and sacred song from around 1500 with The Boston Camerata.

The great English ensemble continues with Volume 8 of their Palestrina cycle, music from Rome in the 16th century, and the latest in the series of recordings dedicated to Henry Purcell.

The superb West Coast ensemble gives us music of Renaissance Crete and Cyprus, plus music as it would have been heard in the Hagia Sophia.

Lamentations by Antoine Brumel, Psalms by Lassus, and music from Renaissance Prague.

Secular music of Josquin, penitential music in the Chiesa Nuova in Rome (1610), and motets by Natale Monferrato.

Lenten music of Cristobal de Morales, a grand mass by Cipriano de Rore, and the second CD in Cinquecento’s series on Palestrina.

Alexander Blachly returns to share the latest recordings from his superb vocal ensemble.

The superb ensemble was a featured group at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival this year; co-founder Kivi Cahn-Lipman joins us to talk of their work and their latest recording.

This time the remarkable German label gives us madrigals of Giovanni de Macque, sacred works of Johann Krieger, and works by an Italian compatriot of Heinichen and Zelenka in Dresden who brought the first Italian operas to Russia.

We were fortunate to get to speak to Rory McCleery, who founded this fine young ensemble in 2007 (Gramophone Magazine notes their performances “of shimmering intensity”).

In the first of three programs with this celebrated group, we share the profound and moving Holy Week settings by Thomas Luis de Victoria.

The longest-serving conductor of this world-famous ensemble looks back on his work, and the service King's College has done for early music.

NOTE: All of the music on this program is features the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and our guest Stephen Cleobury. For more information: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/choir/index.html

The excellent English ensemble gives us music of Palestrina and music of lamentation from Renaissance Portugal.

Sacred works of Manuel Cardoso, popular music for harp, and the Cappella Mediterranea with music of the Golden Age.

This recent release by the ensemble Vox Luminis helps remind us of the neglected 17th century German composer, with sacred works for Passiontide.

The early Italian 17th century with Jakob Jozef Orlinski, a Roman Vespers by Pietro Paolo Bencini, and the new release by Andreas Scholl with the Accademia Bizantina.

We continue our series dedicated Monteverdi’s teacher Marc-Antonio Ingegneri and his long-neglected sacred settings with the Choir of Girton College, Cambridge and their director, Gareth Wilson.

The recently-formed Ghent-based ensemble Dionysos Now! has taken on another in one of those remarkable projects: the complete sacred music of Adrian Willaert. Volume 4 includes the St. John Passion.

There are few major figures in the field we have not had as a guest in our program’s history; one of these is the great Andrew Parrott with his Taverner Consort. This week, music of Gabrieli, Gesualdo, and Monteverdi.

The continuing series of the complete madrigals of Don Carlo Gesualdo, the composer’s profound Tenebrae music, and the early Italian madrigals of Heinrich Schutz.

Owain Park of the Gesualdo Six once again joins us to talk about the profound Holy Week music by the ensemble's namesake, Don Carlo Gesualdo.

All of the music on this program is from ensembles participating in New York Early Music's celebration of early Polish music, which will be taking place from October 4 - 20, 2013.

The superb Brabant Ensemble gives us the grand (and rarely-recorded) Palestrina Mass Ad coenam agni providi.

Another "big sound" concert as La Fenice joins the Chamber Choir of Namur in a recreation of the massive services at San Marco created for feast days by the great Gabrieli.

NOTE: All of the music on these programs are from discs produced by the Choir of the Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes.

For the 27th anniversary program of Millennium, we will return to how it began, with chant for Eastertide. And, happily, the same group with whom we initiated the program, the Choir of the Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, are now releasing self-produced discs!

NOTE: This greatest of Swiss composers has been an ongoing area of rediscovery in the last decades; this week, the Swiss Radio Choir gives us more sacred gems, including the grand motets and the para-liturgical "Five Salutations of Christ" commissioned by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria. The Coro della Radio Svizzera is directed by Diego Fasolis in this recording, which is titled Ludwig Senfl: Missa Paschalis und Motteten. It is on the Musikszene Schweiz label, and is CD # MGB 6165.

NOTE: All of the music on this program comes from the recording Missa Dum complerentur and other music for Whitsuntide featuring the Westminster Cathedral Choir directed by Martin Baker.

We continue our annual autumn series from Norway with the extraordinary Consortium Vocale in Oslo, who have attempted to present the earliest extant chant we can reconstruct, most of which has long-since passed from the active repertory.

The first Millennium of Music program was Easter 1979, and the program began regular broadcasts Easter 1980 (its ancestor, Musica Antiqua, began in 1975). We celebrate our birthday quietly, as always, and in the Middle Ages, with groups close to our heart: Schola Hungarica, Anonymous 4, and (of recent fame for the Croatian music), Dialogos.

We continue the series with The Cardinall's Musick directed by our guest, Andrew Carwood with the recording The BYRD Edition 6: Music for Holy Week and Easter.

For the 22nd anniversary of Millennium of Music, we present Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips with Nicholas Gombert’s Magnificat settings.

Sacred music.

In time for Easter (and our 21st anniversary of the program) the new recording by the Ensemble Officium dedicated to Passion and Pentecost music of Switzerland's greatest composer, Ludwig Senfl.

NOTE: Frequent guest commentator Fr. Jerome Weber of Fanfare Magazine joins us to discuss the publication of the volume Western Plainchant: A Handbook by David Hiley from Oxford University Press. Many recordings were used to illustrate aspects both of chant and this excellent text, many from Fr. Weber’s personal collection.

NOTE: Frequent guest commentator Fr. Jerome Weber of Fanfare Magazine joins us to discuss music for the Feast of the Pentecost.

NOTE: Our special guest for this program is Martin Goldsmith, host of NPR’s Performance Today.

From the Reformation and the counter-Reformation into the early Baroque era, the music that celebrated Easter became larger and grander. This week we sample the antiphonal glory of Venice, as well as the simpler vernacular Lutheran chorales that marked the Easter feast from the end of the 16th into the beginning of the 17th centuries.

The play of the Three Marys, music from the vièlle, and an amazing look at music from Medieval Denmark.

The musical life of post-Reformation Basel; Tobias Michael; and more from the Vox Luminous boxed set.

The masterful conductor of the Choir of Westminster Abbey takes us through some of his recent recordings of music from the Elizabethan era. All recordings feature The Choir of Westminster Abbey conducted by James O’Donnell.

Three new releases: a boxed set of early Lutheran settings set by the liturgical year, an evocation of the crucial year of 1517, and an early Baroque master in Leipzig.

Conductor Andrew Carwood guides us through the final recordings of his great William Byrd cycle (Volumes 12 through 14!).

We are just back from a journey to London where we spent time with Musical Director Graham Ross, who shares his teaching philosophy and the great new recording of music for Corpus Christi, including Josquin’s masterful Missa Pange lingua.

Easter marks the 38th anniversary of the program, and we return to our roots—chant and early medieval sacred music.

The wonderfully supportive label for early music gives us new releases from the 13th, 14th, and 16th centuries.

Music from Shakespeare’s time featuring the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, the ensemble Ora, and The Sixteen.

Holy Week chant from both the Eastern and Western traditions, and a rare Passion from late 16th century Germany.

Three new releases give us different perspectives on late 16th century music: from the motif of the earth trembling, to Freiburg Cathedral in 1594, to the always arresting Don Carlo Gesualdo.

On this, the 35th anniversary of our first program, we continue with recent recording of music for the season, including works by Guerrero, Mouton, and Hieronymous Praetorius.

This year Pentecost falls on the 19th, and we will again celebrate with a chant program, including new releases from The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles and Gloria Dei Cantores.

With the third disc in a projected Palestrina cycle, Harry Christophers and his ensemble The Sixteen continue with the rarely-recorded Missa Regina caeli.

This program began on Easter in 1979—this week, the young performers of Stile Antico and their recent release dedicated to Holy Week & Easter.

Continuing with new discoveries appropriate for the Holy season, the Vocal Consort of Berlin gives us the almost-unknown sacred settings of Gesualdo in time for the 400th anniversary of the composer's death.

For our 34th anniversary on this date, we continue as we began, with Gregorian chant appropriate for Eastertide.

Our Easter program looks at the inspiration for Tallis' famous 40 voice motet, a huge work by the Italian composer Alessandro Striggio, in a new recording by I Fagiolini.

Concluding this early work performed by La Risonanza directed by Fabio Bonizzoni.

Handel's first oratorio and one of his earliest masterpieces (1708).

Sequentia and the young ensemble Ars Choralis of Cologne recreate devotional music from medieval German convents, many for the first time on disc.

Again, a new recording by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Chevetogne; this week, Eastertime and Ascension.

If the work that was done in the courts of Pepin II and his son Charlemagne was a vast editorial process collecting chant from different churches, one thriving musical style was in the neighborhood chapel—this week, we hear the liturgy of the Gauls.

Metz was the capital city of the Frankish kingdom, and the ancestor of the Carolingians was St. Arnulf, who became Bishop there after the death of his wife, and whose son married the daughter of Pepin I. It was the firs place Roman cantors taught Frankish cantors, and we hear an extremely rare reconstruction of this early liturgy (what we call "Gregorian Chant" was perhaps first called "Messine," from Metz).

Because of its centrality and continuity, the early liturgy of the Roman Christians is perhaps the earliest we can reconstruct—we'll hear some examples.

All of the music on this program is from the recording made by the Choir of the Monks of Chevetogne directed by Fr. Thomas Pott. You may reach the Abbey at their web site: www.monasterechevetogne.com

All of the music on this program is from the recording made by the Choir of the Monks of Chevetogne directed by Fr. Thomas Pott. You may reach the Abbey at their web site: www.monasterechevetogne.com

Responsories represent some of the most moving material in the Mass. Fr. Jerome Weber, Early Music critic for Fanfare Magazine, guides us through some familiar and obscure examples from Easter to Christmas.

November marks the 350th anniversary of the death of the great German composer; we are once again joined by Fr. Jerome Weber. This week, more Passion settings and the great Requiem

Two recent releases feature the choir of Notre Dame, creating music associated with the great cathedral since the fire; plus late medieval chant from Limoges and Northern European capitals.

Jacobus Clemens non Papa, Manfred Barbarini Lupus working at St. Gall, and from the Baldwin Partbooks, William and John Mundy.

The ensemble Cinquecento was formed with a speciality: composers working in the Hapsburg courts of the sixteenth century. Their latest gives us another of the fine northern French composer who worked in Prague, Vienna, and Innsbruck.

This week, Peter Phillips returns with works by Jean Mouton, more John Taverner, and Josquin once again.

A rare Mass by Heinrich Isaac, Sacred Treasures of Spain, and music for the King of Scots: Inside the Pleasure Palace of James IV.

In early spring of 1963, John Elliot Gardiner’s mother created an Easter play for their small church in Dorset; for the 55th anniversary, it was recreated for a special recording project we hear this week.

The director of the Ora Singers returns to share music from the Passion and into Easter; part 2 takes us from Good Friday to Easter day itself.

Views of the L’homme armé, rarely-recorded sacred works, and arrangements of Marian motets for lute.

Music for the Mayflower, ayres of Henry Lawes, and “In Chains of Gold” Volume 2 with the Magdalena Consort, Fretwork, and His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts.

The superb West Coast ensemble gives us music of Renaissance Crete and Cyprus, plus music as it would have been heard in the Hagia Sophia.

Motets from Saxony in 1603, music from the Thirty Years War, and Le Petite Bande performing Heinrich Schutz.

Motets of Melchior Vulpius, sacred concertos of Rosenmuller, and rare choral cantatas by Johann Samuel Welter.

The longest-serving conductor of this world-famous ensemble looks back on his work, and the service King's College has done for early music.

NOTE: All of the music on this program is features the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and our guest Stephen Cleobury. For more information: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/choir/index.html

Somehow we missed the brilliant Brigitte Lesne and her Discantus ensemble with sacred chant in Prague from the 12th through the 14th centuries (including hymns to Good King Wenceslaus).

This recent release by the ensemble Vox Luminis helps remind us of the neglected 17th century German composer, with sacred works for Passiontide.

While not related to the more-famous Michael (who he actually visited), this Praetorius has recently been championed with a series of recordings, including Manfred Cordes’ excellent ensemble.

We continue our series dedicated Monteverdi’s teacher Marc-Antonio Ingegneri and his long-neglected sacred settings with the Choir of Girton College, Cambridge and their director, Gareth Wilson.

The latest from the London Oratory Schola Cantorum gives us familiar figures from Venice (the Gabrielis, Monteverdi) as well as the less-often heard works of Giovanni Croce and Giacomo Finetti.

Two recent releases we have featured earlier this year have extensive seasonal works we've saved for the holidays: world-premiere recordings from Isaac’s Choralis Constantinus, and extensive 13 part motet by Johann Rosenmuller.

The huge collection of motets by Heinrich Isaac (more than 375 works!) were a compendium of appropriate pieces for the entire church year; the new release on the Carus label features many first-time recorded examples.

The famous sub-label under the Musical Heritage Society has been revived with some lost rarities. This week: “John Dunstable: Sacred and Secular Music" with the Ambrosian Singers, and “Henry Purcell: The 12 Sonatas in Three Parts."