Several draws helped propel this recording by the Dunedin Consort onto classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023. One is that it is the first to use a new edition of the massive but incomplete Mozart Mass in C minor, K. 427, by Clemens Kemme, which fills in some holes but otherwise leaves the music as Mozart wrote it without inserting large-scale additions. Another is the pair of soprano soloists, Lucy Crowe and Anna Dennis, who effectively realize the showcase nature of the vocal writing (for Mozart's intended, Constanze Weber). Further, the Dunedin Consort under John Butt has honed an exceptionally attractive historical-instrument sound, and this work showcases his winds and brass nicely. They do, it is true, come out a bit over-prominent in comparison with the 18-voice choir, which is enthusiastic but underpowered; Leopold Mozart specified a choir of 44 singers in Salzburg in 1757, and choirs had only grown by the younger Mozart's time. Yet another attraction here is a motet by C.P.E. Bach (whom Mozart is known to have admired). This is a typically wild work from C.P.E., with harmonic experiments and a unique treatment of the double choir texture Mozart uses in the Sanctus of the Mass; he might easily have known the earlier work. The marketplace for versions of the Mass in C minor is crowded, with many approaches available and done well, but this one has abundant points of interest. © James Manheim /TiVo

This spectacular new release of Maurice Duruflé’s complete choral output uncovers hidden gems of French classical music. Infused with modal harmonies and plainsong, Maurice Duruflé's choral works look back to Gregorian chant. The composer also found inspiration in the likes of Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy, incorporating definite lines and close harmonies into his music, and the result is astonishingly simple. His works were part of a whole stylistic movement in the 20th century (one that was far removed from neoclassicism) that tried to trace music back to its origins, separating itself from all the trappings of theatre and performance, and moving away from the highly abstract tendencies that characterised much of the music in the post-war period. Is Gregorian chant the “mother” of all music? Quite possibly. Duruflé aimed to create a serene, gentle mood all the while echoing a contemporary trend, one that was still emerging yet already rather developed, centred around harmony and floating atmospheres in the hope of bringing people together in communion. With little to show by way of recordings yet much by way of talent, the Houston Chamber Choir give a beautiful performance of the French composer's works. Their radiant singing is well worth discovering, made all the more breathtaking by the generous acoustics of the Edythe Bates Old Recital Hall at Rice University, which allow the conductor Robert Simpson to use broad phrasings. The conductor adds an especially touching quality to these naturally expressive works, making this recording – which is as moving as the composer's earlier recordings (Erato) - an ideal gateway into Duruflé’s hypnotic universe (Messe “Cum Jubilo”). It should be noted that despite his relatively long life, Duruflé’s composed only fourteen works. His final composition Notre Père (which lasts just ninety seconds!) was written especially for the Catholic Church though was never performed due to its sheer difficulty. This modest number of compositions reflects Duruflé’s crippling self-criticism and continuous search for perfection. This Houston Chamber Choir recording is a wonderful opportunity to rediscover one of the best kept secrets of the 20th century. © Qobuz

The title of the two-disc album, Vivaldi: Vespro a San Marco, implies that the composer wrote a set of pieces comparable to Monteverdi's Vespro della beata Vergine, but the title needs to be interpreted somewhat loosely. The program notes describe the collection of psalms, canticles, motets, and prefatory chants recorded here as an evocation of a service of vespers Vivaldi might have assembled rather than a reconstruction of one he actually ever did. These vespers are distinctly Vivaldian in idiom, but they resemble Monteverdi's in the use of some common texts and in the diversity of musical styles, genres, and performing forces assembled; there is not much of a sense of unity in the traditional sense, but a profusion of delightfully varied musical vignettes, including a cappella chants, solos, ensembles, choruses, and instrumental pieces. The bugaboo of run-of-the-mill Vivaldi performances is most frequently a squared-off regularity that makes the music come across as undifferentiated and blocky. The superlative performances by Leonardo García Alarcón leading Choeur de Chambre de Namur and the chamber orchestra Les Agrémens (also based in Namur) are anything but run-of-the-mill. Alarcón consistently finds the musical individuality of Vivaldi's lines and invests them with unambiguous emotional meaning. He creates elegantly shapely contours even in the most rhythmically severe movements like the fugal counterpoint of "Donec ponam" from the Dixit Dominus, and consistently heightens the music's expressive lyricism. The soloists are also terrific, singing both with distinctiveness in their solos and with a gorgeous blend in the many ensembles. Sopranos Maria Soledad and Mariana Flores and bass Alejandro Meerapfel stand out for their especially sumptuous timbres and the musicality of their interpretations. All the singers and players sound like they are having a wonderful time performing this music and their enthusiasm is infectious. The sound of the live performances is clear, warmly present, and mostly clean except for some page turning and shuffling.© TiVo

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English soprano Grace Davidson is a member of The Sixteen who has also appeared on film soundtrack recordings. Here she makes her solo orchestral debut with a logical program bound together by the fact that all the music is extremely virtuosic, and on top of that little-known. Particularly interesting is the Gloria, HWV deest, of Handel; the only reason this counterpart to Vivaldi's famed Gloria, RV 589, is not better known is that it was rediscovered only in 2001. Start your sampling with its opening movement to hear both the recording's strengths and its more questionable aspects. In the former column is the engineering, getting a nice, bright clarity from the All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London. And likewise the music, so redolent of the competitive vocal atmosphere in which both Handel and Vivaldi worked. The venerable Academy of Ancient Music under Joseph Crouch is a good fit for Davidson here with its light, restrained affect. And it is easy to imagine Davidson in the small chapels for which several of these works were probably composed. Which brings you to the issue you'll have to evaluate for yourself: Davidson is a chamber-sized soprano, and it's easy to imagine these works sung with more power. In the Handel Gloria, note how she takes the runs precisely, blooming into vibrato only on longer notes. It's a chamber cantata sound in music that's a bit operatic, although sacred, and it may or may not ring your bell. In either case, the album is worth your time and money for bringing these neglected vocal works out of the shadows.© TiVo

These performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem in D minor, K. 626, and his Mass No. 15 in C major, "Coronation," K. 317, date from September 1975, and though the recordings are decent for Deutsche Grammophon's analog technology of the time, listeners who are accustomed to the full digital experience may find they are a bit limited in range, soft-focused, and spatially shallow in this remastered edition. This doesn't really aid an appreciation of the performances by the Wiener Singverein and the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, which already tend toward a rich, overly Romantic tone and heavy textures that have become quite thickened here. Of course, devotees of Karajan will be familiar with the fat sound and will want to have this disc in spite of its lack of crispness and its excessive weightiness. As part of the 2008 celebrations surrounding the centennial of Karajan's birth, this reissue is also included as the ninth volume in the 10-CD Master Recordings box set, so aficionados of the conductor will likely snap it up without question. Others may wish to have it for the vocals of soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow, contralto Agnes Baltsa, tenor Werner Krenn, and bass José van Dam, who form a finely blended and warm quartet that brings some much-needed light and clarity to the otherwise ponderous and murky-sounding performances.© TiVo

This is one of a pair of albums devoted to Bach's Missa Brevis settings by French ensemble Pygmalion. Both are strongly recommended. These settings, with Kyrie and Gloria only, were repurposed by Bach from various earlier works, mostly cantatas; they're not among his unquestioned monuments, but they do bespeak his genius. The presentation here by France's Alpha label is compelling. The label packages works from the 16th to the 19th centuries inside high-quality reproductions of paintings that related to the given music in some way, explained by an art-historical essay. Here the painting is The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, of 1566; it is not chronologically matched to Bach, but the correspondences are nevertheless fascinating. Both drew religious scenes out of the cultural materials of ordinary folk. And both were, in the words of essayist Denis Grenier, "ecumentical": Bach was a Protestant who was at the very least influenced by styles of Catholic regions and wrote Latin masses, while Brueghel lived in the Catholic-controlled Habsburg Netherlands but depicted religious events in the down-to-earth way that would emerge under Protestant belief systems. The appeal of the music lies partly in the ways Bach adapts Protestant cantatas for the Catholic mass. The Gloria in excelsis movement of the Missa Brevis in G major, BWV 236, is based on the opening chorus of the Cantata No. 79, "Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild" (God the Lord is Sun and Shield), BWV 79: not a total stretch, but also not precisely the same thought, and Bach reworks the music rather than simply resetting it. Similar processes occur in several other movements, and they're fascinating for those well acquainted with Bach's choral music. The general listener may prefer to simply luxuriate in Pygmalion's coolly elegant sound, in the singing of a consistently strong group of soloists headed by soprano Eugénie Warnier, and in the superb Kyries of both masses, each embodying Bach's contrapuntal perfection on a modest scale. The program is rounded out by a short work sometimes known as a cantata but designated by Bach himself as a motet: O Jesu Christ, meins lebens Licht, BWV 118, a funeral work with two parts written for instruments designed by Bach with the name lituus. The booklet goes into a good detail about efforts to decide just what these were supposed to be; the players make the unadventuresome choice of a pair of oboes, but the musical execution is gorgeous. An exceptional Bach release.© TiVo

Julie Roset, a young French soprano from Avignon, immediately attracted attention with her first recital for Ricercar ("Nun danket alle Gott", with Clematis) and went on to record a recital of works by Sigismondo D'India with Mariana Flores that met with great critical acclaim. In this new recording she tackles several of Handel’s masterpieces on religious themes: his Salve Regina, Gloria and the motet Silete venti were all composed at the time when the young Handel had been inspired to new heights by his discovery of Roman musical life. © Ricercar