Oiga el Orbe

Enjoy :)
Here

Vèpres de San Ignacio - Zipoli

Enjoy :)
Here

Musica Virreinal Mexicana - Ars Nova

The mexican group "Ars Nova" leaading by Magda Zalles is one of the best in its genre."The group's sound is beautiful and warm, which emanates from smooth and white voices as from the early music style is needed. Its deep work as ensemble shows an almost telepathic link between them, not to mention they posses an unique and fascinating repertoire" -Quoting the Washimgton post-.

This album is extraordinary. The ensemble added various prehispanic wind and percussion instruments to some pieces which perhaps leads to less formal interpretation (in some cases), but at the same time gives deeper prehispanic ambiance, whereupon the ensemble is worthy of all kind of considerations.

Enjoy :)
Here

Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe 1764 - Jerusalem

"Matins is the monastic nighttime liturgy, ending at dawn, of the canonical hours. In the Roman Catholic pre-Vatican-II breviary, it is divided into three nocturns. The name "matins" originally referred to the morning office also known as lauds. When the nocturnal monastic services called vigils or nocturns were joined with lauds, the name of "matins" was applied at first to the concluding morning service and later still to the entire series of vigils." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matins

Musically speaking, matins (mornings) refers to a composition of sacred character intended to be performed from late night until before dawn. Its structure is quite simple: An introduction (Deus in adjutorium), ensuing by an alternation of antiphonies sung in plain chant and responsories constructed in a more elaborated way sung with instrumental accompaniment by soloists. For finishing is sung the salm "Te DEUM". In this recording were added intentionally two works of Sumaya; as interludio "Albricias mortales" (mortals, good news) and as ending "Angélicas milicias" (heavenly militias).

Enjoy :)
Here

La Música de la Catedral de Oaxaca, México

Let's continue our journey through hispanoamerican baroque music with this release of Sumaya's sacred music.

Enjoy :)
Here

México Barroco Vol II - Navidad

This cd is really a jewel (though, I only retrieved the cd among a bunch of cd's I had forgotten beneath my bed). I tried to do a little research on the web, but I only succeeded to find this: http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/urt2002.htm. It is a shame that not only in the main page of the label "URTEXT" exist this album, and much less about its predecessor.

The value of this recording not only resides on its fine interpretation and sound, or on the great quality of the pieces selected, but in that it represents one of the first Echenique's recordings of mexican baroque, being Echeniques a pioneer in this kind of repertory (though already existed by then previous recordings; e.g. Chanticleer's), making of this cd a piece of collection.

If someone has the booklet or knows about the previous recording of this series "México Barroco (1990-1991)" (that is different from the series of the same name already posted) please let me know.

Enjoy :)

Here

México Barroco Vol II

And here friends the second volume and final of the series "México Barroco", tat it is in it most, an ovation to Jerusalem y Stella, one of the most great musicians in all history that inhabited Viceroyal Mexico, and at the same time, one of the most unjustly beaten by the cruelty of time.

Note: Pay special attention to my favorite aria of this disk, track 6 "Si aleve fortuna", a trace of the most beautiful music of Baroque Mexico that hopefully came to our days.

Enjoy :)
Here

Mexico Barroco vol I

My favorite "Te Deum's"?  Purcell's in first place and then Delgado's. Both fascinating, charming and opulent, but away from each other by half a world (both literally and metaphorically) and by a century. Perhaps Delgado's "Te Deum" is a little more interesting due to its source of exoticism which renders it  in the category "must-listen".

Jerusalem works are also worth to listened, considering his great fame among his contemporaries who referred to him as " The musical miracle".

Enjoy :)
Here

Sonatas Novohispanas II

And here another jewel of music played in the main musical centers of Mexico.

NOTE: Just for you to be a little more high listening to this, skip tracks 5-8 since these sonatas are better played here: "Musica Barroca Mexicana I"

Enjoy :)
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Música Barroca Mexicana II

Here the second of the "Música Barroca Mexicana" series. Though less spectacular than the first volume (with special mention to the sonatas for flute, cello and continuo), this cd gives once again a sample about sacred music in New Spain, and the glorious it was manifested.

One feature that covers both volumes is the fact that were recorded in churches (San Agustín of Valleristhal, Moselle, France), so that the sound echoed by the walls helps to perceive a deeper sensation of being insitu.

Enjoy :)
Here

Música Barroca Mexicana I

Back in 2004 when I had just became interested in classical music (Still I didnt grasp any special attachment to baroque music), I bumped into a magazine in whose front were the picture of  Horacio Franco been given an award of gay merit "Premio al mérito gay" in Mexico. Few months later I was given away as part of Christmas gifts between highschool buddies this marvel of recording whose charming I will never give up. 

Thanks very much Luis Angel Franco, I' will never forget your friendship once you offered me.

Enjoy :)
Here

Aires del Virreinato II

Baroque's music world is full of neglected musician, thus making music even more interesting in a certain sense in which it resembles a totally new music coming out from an exotic period of time where the ways of being and thinking are just now present in books.

Enjoy :)
Here

Mexican Baroque (Music from New Spain)

With this Jewel of Music Composed During the Domination of Spain over the Americas I start a cycle of Mexican Baroque and in general, hispanoamerican music in the viceroyalty time, composed of more or less 15 releases  that complement some early posts of this kind of music (Search back to previous posts). Each day "I swear" will be posted one till we ran out all of them. You are welcome to download and listen this astonishing music made a half world apart from the main music centers of Europe.

Enjoy :)

Here 

Cantatas - W. F. Bach

W. F. Bach was the most neglected of the three main Bach's offspring musicians. The other two were C. P. E. Bach and J. C. Bach. His writing in the genre of the "cantatas" is quite alike to his father J. S. Bach, but is not merely that W. F. is copying his father, but making that style his own and filling it with all of his talent and rendering his cantatas true masterpieces.

Enjoy :)
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Combattimento - Monteverdi

This album wasn't  a sure bet, since Haïm didnt use plain voices for the recording, as for the repertoire is intended. In its place, she uses the voices from 19th century opera well known singers as are Villazón and Ciofi, in fact, for this recording Villazón was completely new about baroque affairs, it is perhaps this fact that gives another touch specifically to "Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda" where his declamatory is just exceptional (of course his singing too), while Ciofi impregnates with great sentiment the beautiful lament-song "Ohimé ch'io cado, ohimé". Lehtipuu's career  spans various perios of music, including baroque, nonetheless his voice never quits being operatic.

At the end this recording overpassed my expectations because I naively thought this could'nt be a so serious baroque interpretation, but it was, at least from a different point of view.  

Enjoy :)
Here

Selva Morale e Spirituale - Monteverdi

The "Selva Morale e Spiritule" (Moral and spiritual jungle) it is in fact a wide stylistically speaking  jungle of sacred compositions spanning around 30 years, the time Monteverdi was appointed as Musical Director at St Marc. This includes Masses, Psaulms, Motets, Madrigals, etc., in a wide musical spectrum range  that only Monteverdi could achieved in his time.

I must say nevertheless that this is MY FAVORITE ALBUM EVER, and I believe also that this masterpiece represents the peak of Cantus' Cölln discography. The sublime chanting aside with extraordinary instrumental accompaniment that supports the emotional status of this art has reached deep in my soul a place to stay all my life, and more if it's possible. 

Enjoy :)
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German Organ Music

The so known said that states: "Never judge a book by its cover", never ceases to amaze me. In fact this recording is one of my favorites for the organ, I can listen it again and again and never get bored. Its brillian execution by Joseph Payne, an not so known organist as it's Bolliger or Gillian Weir, but not less virtuoso at all. Virtuoso not just in the sense of having a brave technique, but to have likewise a great intuition that allows to go deeper in the scores. That is what makes the music be the music captivating by itself .

Enjoy :)
Here

Historic Organs from 5 Centuries

Im really delighted upon posting this cd interpreted by Albert Bolliger. A man deeply fascinated by the world of organs, whose long career has given fruits all along his life and the places he is being at. 

The series "Historic Organs" unveils his true art, the ties his mind has with the organ, making up an extraordinary interpretation in all the different organs he has played, just briefed in the present disk. Just as example is the so tender interpretation of the BWV 754  "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier" which has no paragon and that I love.

Enjoy :)

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Organ Music - Bach Family

The nearly two hundred years, the Bach's made their mark on musical history through the efforts and achievements of around 50 family members, some of them essentially instrumentalists, and others whose main focus was composition. The best known of them was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), who began to make a detailed record on his family's history, a task that was later completed by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788). From this it appears that for at least seven generations the family, which originated in Slovakia before moving permanently to Thuringia, had always comprised several musicians.

Because I wanted to provide an overall view of the genius of the Bach family over the centuries, I sought out scores of proven authorship with the aim of bringing stylistic  and historic changes to the fore. The anthology is an eloquent testament  to the unusual concentration of musical talent in a single family. From chorale to variations, from prelude to fugue, from rondo to toccata, the listener is thus able to witness the development of different musical forms and inventions from the 16th to the 20th century.    Sergio Militello 

Enjoy!  :)
Here

Organ Works - Bach

Absolutely beauty, powerful interpretation and astonishing sound. When it comes to the organ, Bach's music deserves a keen understanding. His music expresses not only Bach's music skills, but his own self as something astral covering every single note so that when it listened, shivering. It is a so diligent music that is in many senses self-understandable, and will-less we are just free-sheets  at the mercy of the even the smallest wind. But it can be the opposite as can be noted in the so famous Toccata and Fugue BWV 565 whereupon by force we are lead off our minds.

Enjoy :)

Here

The Organ (The Instruments of Classical Music)

Everyone is acquainted with its imposing external form in the interior of churches. But is more difficult to define the instrument. What about this definition?: "The organ is a stationary instrument which is played with hands and feet on one or more keyboards, and in which the sound is produced by pipes (flue or reed pipes) arranged in ranks (voices or registers), which can be switched on individually by the player at will, placed over an apparatus for distributing wind (wind chest), this wind being provided by a special machine (bellows or blower)". After its "invention" by the Greek engineer Ktesibios (around 250 BC), the organ became established in the Hellenic and Roman Empires and, from there, throughout the whole of Europe. The decadent emperor Nero (54-68 AD) used it as plaything, and it was regarded as a symbol of entertainment and as the worldly showpiece of princes' courts until the early 14th century. It was only in the 15th century that this instrument, which had previously been condemned by the high dignitaries of the Church, started to be used for sacred functions as a kind of "machine for accompanying the choir" and took over the rule of the cult and church instrument par excellence.  Different methods of construction and sound ideas developed in the various countries and regions, stemming mostly from the fancies of some prominent organ builder and his successors. With a zeal of almost Olympic proportions organs were constructed which were "bigger and bigger", "more and more beautiful", "more and more sonorous", in some of which it was impossible to use all the registers. In the largest church organ in the world, the five-part organ in Passau Cathedral, the organist could theoretically play on 231 registers with exactly 17,388 pipes, the biggest of which is more than 11 meters long and 47 centimeters in diameter, and the smallest only 6 millimeters long.             U.K.

Enjoy :)
Click here

Harpsichord Concertos I, II and III - Bach (Cologne Chamber Orchestra)

Virtuosos, lively, armonious, enchanting, etc. etc., are some of a big positive characteristics that applies to Bach's harpsichord concertos. Concertos that reveal a new face of Bach's astonishing imagination.

Fair and passionate playing of the soloist and of the full accompaniment make of this recording one of the best I've heard, whose well appreciation of the tempo allows them to a better exploit of the music.



Enjoy :)
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Most of the concertos were first conceive for oboe and violin. Although you'll recognize plenty of them,  give a try to this recording.




                                                               Enjoy :)
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Enjoy :)
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Anna Magdalena Notebook - Bach

"The Leipzig choirmaster' s household was a beehive of activity". It is also a quite good characteristic that can be assumed to the notebook dated of 1725 written by the second wife of the Thomasschule cantor. A notebook full of exquisite miniatures by Bach's sons, J. S. Bach himself and a series of musicians closed to Bach's Family, that explains in part the colorful range to these enchanting pieces which brightened up once Bach's household.

Enjoy :)
CLICK HERE

Suittes pour le Clavessin - Bustijn

Very little is known about Bustijn because misfortune doesn't look behind persons, and this composer is one of  many whose oeuvre was almost completely lost. Just these nine suites for harpsichord survived, and its discovery dates just to 20 years ago. 

No doubt this pieces show special value to its composer be reconsidered for further research.

Enjoy :)
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Goldberg Variations, Italian Concerto, French Overture, ... - Bach

Too many people critizise Pieter-Jan Belder because of his ulter rapid playing, aluding that in that way the poetry inside music cant be displayed. I must admit that in some sense they are right, but at least for this recording those critics do not apply since the Belder's skillful playing adjusts perfectly to the masterpieces in this recording, as example, one of the most difficult pieces to be played in the harpsichord is the ouverture of the of the "French Ouverture BWV 831", where virtuoso playing is needed in order to attain the perfec speed, so, Belder does and it is outstanding. In the other hand, the "Goldberg Variations" claim to measureness and Belder does perfectly, proving that Belder not only is brave in technical means, but exploding out tender emotions that Bach's Goldberg Variations are full of .

In general,  It is perhaps Belder's maximum recording success. Listen and you'll see.

Enjoy :)

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Pièces de Clavecin - Fiocco - Balbastre

Fiocco is another very gifted composer whose early death impeded his name be spread all around as is dued. But sometimes fortune plays in our favor, which in this case was the lucky printed of his suites for harpsichord. In this suites, Fiocco stands out his musical skills by flawless writing in both styles, french and Italian, and in some movements combining them as in the Gigue of the second suite.

There are also four pieces for harpsichord of Calude-Bénigne Balbastre, also a gifted musician and also a virtuoso in the organ and harpsichord, that unlike Fiocco, he lived a quite longer.

Enjoy :)
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12 Violin Concertos (La Stravaganza) - Vivaldi

After the Op3  Vivaldi's "L'estro Armonico", the concertos "La Stravaganza", is the set of Vivaldi's violin concertos more outstanding. Vivaldi's imagination is unlimited and once again he premiered  music unique in its kind and in style, but even so, Vivaldi's music suffered the same fate as many of his contemporaries and many others before them, obivlion. 

All the set comprises an extraordinary well balance display of harmony where the soloists interact vividly with the  orchestra, and this last one acquires a role much more participative, not just a mere base for the ongoing movement.

"Thanks to the original releaser"

Enjoy :)
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Violin Concertos BWV 1041-1043, BVW 1064R - Bach

Part of the few surviving orchestral works, these Four violin concertos constitute  part of the little instrumental Bach's output that have survived posterity. After their revival in the early nineteen century their permance have been continously uninterrupted; and with the advenience of the recording equipment, many recordings occupy the stalls of the cd stores, but just few make the difference, specially this one, whose sound quality is unparallel, apart of the extraordinary virtuoso playing of Goltz, Müllejans and Screiber as part of the Freiburger Barockorchester.

"Thanks to the original releaser"

Enjoy :)

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Oboe Concertos and Sonatas - Handel

Here is all Handel’s music for solo oboe – three concertos, four sonatas, and one recently discovered in-between piece scored for oboe, two violins and continuo. Handel writes for the instrument sympathetically, especially in the slow movements. Sarah Francis has an appealing way with these, though her tone can tend towards the fulsome. If the music is sometimes undercharacterised, the ensemble’s playing is nevertheless neat. Forward sound.                                   George Hall 

Enjoy :)

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Der Liebreiche und Geduldige David - Mattheson

Dear Friends, here another masterpiece by one of the most renown baroque masters, Johann Mattheson, friendly attached to Telemann and at some point, rival to Haendel.

Enjoy Greatly :)

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Oster Oratorium BWV 249 BWV 66 -Cantata BWV 56 and BWV 200 -- Bach

Two interpretations, two different epoques, two styles, two different sounds and one masterpiece (Bach Oster Oratorium BWV 249).

Enjoy :)

DWNLOAD

 Enjoy :)

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More info

Die Geburt Jesu Christi - Hertel

Johann Wilhelm Hertel (1727-1789)

 

Christmas Oratorio  "Die Geburt Jesu Christi"

Kölner Akademie, Michael Willens

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Upl: Part1

Enjoy!

Orpheus - Telemann

The mythological tale "Orpheus" set to music by many composers, between them are: Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi of course, Lully, Telemann, Gluck, etc. as the more famous and more studied among musicologists. 

The rediscovery of this masterpiece  placed a landmark regarding Telemann's operatic output, and this recording directed by Renè Jacobs is between his finest.

Enjoy :)

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Six Concertos - Telemann

Here Six concertos that appeared also in my last post (Telemann's Concerts and Suites). 

You may say that in fact are Sonatas, and in fact they are since there is no tutti (orchestral) part that contrast and imitates the solo parts, in this case the flute that goes along the harpsichord in which both are in the same status. 

I found this interpretation higher in sound quality and in performing, flawless and more lively in comparison with the interpretation of camerata koln of my last post. Take a look (sound look indeed) to both posts and judge by yourself..

Enjoy :)

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Concerts and Suites - Telemann

Sublime music that always one expect from a genius of the gauge of Telemann, a musician that mastered maybe everything on the field of his time, a very special time by the way, because it was the time in which baroque attained its pick, and when the galant style started to gain force, but telemann always was an step in advance.

"Thanks to the original releaser"

Enjoy  :)

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Venus and Adonis - Handel

Very enchanting interpretations of the Handel's sonatas op. 2 HWV 388, 390a, 392 and 393; the cantata "Mi palpita il cor" HWV 132b and the air "Meine seele Hort im Sehen" HWV 207; whose softness and clarity give a parallel view alike from other recordings.

Special mention must be done to the first world recording "Venus and Adonis" and the great work that sure it was its reconstruction carried out by Luca Guglielmi. Although the voice part was extent, wasn't the most part of the instrumental passages and likewise were the recitatives, but at the end his work resulted exceptional

"Thanks to the original releaser"

Enjoy  :)

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Arianna - Marcello

‘Arianna’ was first performed in Venice, in the winter of 1726, when Marcello had turned forty and was at the height of his fame. He had just published his ‘L’estro poetico-armonico’, and enjoyed the success in Vienna of a eulogising serenata commissioned for the birthday of the emperor Charles VI.

Marcello was a high-born amateur musician, who had a clear competitive streak in him, he wanted to shine in everything that he did, particularly in the field of music and against the professional musicians with whom he felt he was competing. His ‘Canzoni madrigalesche’, for example, were written with the objective of perfecting the style of Antonio Lotti’s ‘Duetti’, and the title of his own magnum opus (‘L’estro poetico-armonico’) not only recalls, but also goes one better than, Antonio Vivaldi’s Op. 3 (‘L’estro armonico’). It is striking that in the year following his important Viennese commission coincidences can be observed which link his most important works to events that occurred in the Austrian capital. In 1726 Antonio Caldara’s oratorio ‘Joaz’ had been performed at court, and at almost the same time Marcello set the same text.

‘Arianna’ is almost contemporary with ‘Joaz’, and here too the subject is identical to a stage play performed in Vienna the same year, ‘La corona d’Arianna’, with music by the court Kapell-meister Johann Joseph Fux. It was typical of eighteenth-century librettists to insert a wealth of references to contemporary life which frequently resulted in the accretion of many layers of motifs around a single dramatic nucleus, enriching it to the extent that the survival of the work was guaranteed despite the changes in public taste and that of the commissioning patrons.

Enjoy  :)

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Cantate da Camera - Domenico Scarlatti

Hi! my friends. All this time I've been too busy, an state that have impeded me to post some wonderful cd's that I want you to know.

Now it is the turn of Domenico Scarlatti, a very prolific composer that composed mainly for the harpschord, his favorite instrument. He also traveled through the cantata genre, a genre that attained its climax in the final stages of his father's life, Alessandro Scarlatti. Domenico composed about sixty cantatas (not at all inconsiderable number) even though his father composed more than 10 times more than him. 

Domenico Scarlatti had nothing to envy others composers since his skillfulness for writing music was unique. In particular, his cantatas have not much to do with the antique stile in which the bass continuo parts were very contrapunctual. In another hand,they  have very little to do with the classical stile also, since the violins and vocal parts are merely harmonious rather than melodious. But at any rate, we all now how big his Domenico's Scarlatti print in music and in his developing.

Enjoy   :)

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Acis y Galatea - Literes

The complicate fable which narrates the love between the shepherd Acis and the nymph Galatea and the rivalry with Polyphemus is more than a Zarzuela narrating a mythological topic, but a parody about the events that were happening in the Spain of Felipe V. 

Al Ayre Espanol and Eduardo López Banzo bring back to light a masterpiece of the great master Literes with the stylized music that he represents, an interpretation with lots of freshness and points with remarkable energy, denotes the irony suggested.

Enjoy :)

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Concertos - Johann Gottlieb Graun (Wiener Akademie)

Concerning the requirements of posterity, the work of German court composer Johann Gottlieb Graun has spent much of its time trying to extract itself from the long shadow of the music of Graun's much better-known younger brother, Carl Heinrich Graun. In addition, this is the reverse from the usual modus operandi of historic valuation; Carl Heinrich Graun was primarily known as a composer of opera and vocal music, whereas Johann Gottlieb Graun concentrated on instrumental music, and led the band for the court King Frederick the Great in Berlin. This distinction does not help much in some cases, as both brothers belonged to the court of the Prussian King, and surviving manuscripts are often signed "Graun" without any additional distinction as to which of the two produced a given work in question. However, there are some clues -- Carl Heinrich Graun's instrumental music is precious, courtly, and reflects the influence of operatic melody, which was his strongest suit. By comparison, Johann Gottlieb Graun's orchestral and chamber music is more muscular, sinewy, and demonstrates that he was a true master of instrumental forms in a way that his brother never could be.

Martin Haselböck and the Wiener Akademie make a splendid case for the enduring qualities of the elder Graun with the CPO disc Johann Gottlieb Graun: Concertos. Actually, it contains a symphony, as well, one of 97 or so that Graun wrote, and this Sinfonia Grosso in D major is widely believed to be the best work that Graun has to offer in the genre of symphony. It is succinct, rhythmically propulsive, and engaging, but the Violin Concerto in D minor that follows is an extraordinary, turbulent, and deeply emotional work. The Violin Concerto in A major is scarcely less so, and the concluding Concerto per la Viola da Gamba in A major is practically a riot of instrumental color, brimming with variety of texture. Haselböck, the Wiener Akademie, and soloists Ilja Korol, Daniel Sepec, and Vittorio Ghielmi all put their backs into this music and once in the player, this disc never lets you go.

It is a well-ingrained idea that little of the music of the Classical Era beyond the "big three" (Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart) has much to offer in terms of heterogeneousness. Johann Gottlieb Graun: Concertos is an entry in an ever-growing field of recordings that blow the lid off that myth, but this one is especially exciting and revelatory.                               Uncle Dave Lewis

Enjoy :)

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Cantatas for the Esterházys - Haydn

A world premiere recording of festive cantatas to the glory of Prince Nicolaus esterházy. Two of these three works have never been played since their first performances in 1763 and 1764. Haydn composed them in the relative isolation of the princely court, and they display the full artistic resources of the Vice-Kapellmeister, and he then was. "There was nobody in my vicinity to confuse and annoy me in my course, and so I had to become original". (Joseph Haydn)

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Grosse Passion - Graun

Although Der tod Jesu is the most popular Graun's passion, he composes three more, one of which is represented her under the title “Grosse Passion” or Grand Passion, whose expressiveness and great diversity in the instrumentation, allowed it to be regarded as a masterpiece. 

Enjoy :)

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Sonatas and Trio Sonatas - Hasse

Hasse compositions are among the finest of all history. In his lifetime Hasse dominated great part of the musical scene in Europe, especially for his operatic output. His grace and spontaneous melody render the music astonishing pleasant.

Enjoy :)

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