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Like the boys' choirs of the old English cathedrals, that of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig has survived until the present day. In the nineteenth century it faced something of an identity crisis but was helped by the rediscovery of the music of the Thomaskirche's former cantor: Johann Sebastian Bach. It was specifically Bach's unaccompanied and technically brutal motets that exerted an influence on the directors of this 60-voice boys' choir and cemented its reputation -- with the Bach motets as regular performance fare, the group developed impressive intonational precision. Most of the music here is actually by a succession of Thomaskirche cantors of the nineteenth century -- Bach's successors, most of whom are still unknown. The works on the album provide some background for the unaccompanied motets of Brahms and Mendelssohn that appear on the album, and for other unaccompanied choral music of the time that took its thorny contrapuntal density and chromaticism from Bach -- directly in Mendelssohn's case, but perhaps with composers like these as intermediaries in others. The pieces, mostly termed motets, are short and closely tied to the texts without being programmatic; they are attractively economical and serene, with none of the bombast that sometimes afflicted Mendelssohn when he turned to Baroque models. Many of the texts are biblical; those of Arnold Mendelssohn, a distant relative of Felix whose music was banned by the Nazis (the annotators do not see fit to tell us why, unfortunately), use fascinating poems by the seventeenth century mystic writer Angelus Silesius. They're real finds for any choral group. Those six pieces, from 1925, are the latest works on the album, which fills in some holes in our understanding of how the Romantics heard Bach -- and offers any lover of boys' choirs a unique German take on the tradition to complement a collection of English music.
© TiVo
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Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Johannes Brahms, Composer - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Johannes Brahms, Composer - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Johannes Brahms, Composer - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Benedek Csalog, Flute, Artist, MainArtist - Hartmut Becker, Cello, Artist, MainArtist - Claus-Peter Nebelung, Double Bass, Artist, MainArtist - Ullrich Bohme, Organ, Artist, MainArtist - August Eberhard Muller, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher - Konstanze Beyer, Artist, Other, MainArtist
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Johann Gottfried Schicht, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Benedek Csalog, Flute, Artist, MainArtist - Almuth Reuther, Organ, Artist, MainArtist - Hartmut Becker, Cello, Artist, MainArtist - Claus-Peter Nebelung, Double Bass, Artist, MainArtist - Christian Theodor Weinlig, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher - Konstanze Beyer, Artist, Other, MainArtist
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Composer - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Moritz Hauptmann, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Richard Mauersberger, Boy Soprano - Ernst Friedrich Richter, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Richard Mauersberger, Boy Soprano - Ernst Friedrich Richter, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Richard Mauersberger, Boy Soprano, Artist, MainArtist - Ernst Friedrich Richter, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Richard Mauersberger, Boy Soprano, Artist, MainArtist - Ernst Friedrich Richter, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Richard Mauersberger, Boy Soprano, Artist, MainArtist - Ernst Friedrich Richter, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Gustav Schreck, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Gustav Schreck, Composer - Mathias Monrad Moller, Artist, Alto, MainArtist - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Arnold Mendelssohn, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Arnold Mendelssohn, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Arnold Mendelssohn, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Arnold Mendelssohn, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Arnold Mendelssohn, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Traditional, Lyricist - Thomanerchor Leipzig, Choir, Artist, MainArtist - Georg Christoph Biller, Conductor, Artist, MainArtist - Arnold Mendelssohn, Composer - Rondeau Production, MusicPublisher
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
Album review
Like the boys' choirs of the old English cathedrals, that of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig has survived until the present day. In the nineteenth century it faced something of an identity crisis but was helped by the rediscovery of the music of the Thomaskirche's former cantor: Johann Sebastian Bach. It was specifically Bach's unaccompanied and technically brutal motets that exerted an influence on the directors of this 60-voice boys' choir and cemented its reputation -- with the Bach motets as regular performance fare, the group developed impressive intonational precision. Most of the music here is actually by a succession of Thomaskirche cantors of the nineteenth century -- Bach's successors, most of whom are still unknown. The works on the album provide some background for the unaccompanied motets of Brahms and Mendelssohn that appear on the album, and for other unaccompanied choral music of the time that took its thorny contrapuntal density and chromaticism from Bach -- directly in Mendelssohn's case, but perhaps with composers like these as intermediaries in others. The pieces, mostly termed motets, are short and closely tied to the texts without being programmatic; they are attractively economical and serene, with none of the bombast that sometimes afflicted Mendelssohn when he turned to Baroque models. Many of the texts are biblical; those of Arnold Mendelssohn, a distant relative of Felix whose music was banned by the Nazis (the annotators do not see fit to tell us why, unfortunately), use fascinating poems by the seventeenth century mystic writer Angelus Silesius. They're real finds for any choral group. Those six pieces, from 1925, are the latest works on the album, which fills in some holes in our understanding of how the Romantics heard Bach -- and offers any lover of boys' choirs a unique German take on the tradition to complement a collection of English music.
© TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 22 track(s)
- Total length: 01:04:23
- Main artists: Thomanerchor Leipzig Georg Christoph Biller Arnold Mendelssohn Gustav Schreck Heinrich von Herzogenberg Wilhelm Rust
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Rondeau Production
- Genre: Classical
2021 Rondeau Production GmbH 2021 Rondeau Production GmbH
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