The Organ Loft - Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra at Trinity Lutheran; Duruflé Mass 'Cum Jubilo'

The Organ Loft - March 6, 2011
Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra at Trinity Lutheran; Duruflé Mass 'Cum Jubilo'
Webcast and Broadcast Schedule

This week on the Organ Loft, we're featuring music for the end of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra plays Bach and Improvisations on Lutheran choral themes (at Trinity Lutheran in Lynnwood), followed by Maurice Duruflé’s Mass cum jubilo for men’s voices and organ (Trinity College, Cambridge).

Program

1. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra: Improvisation: Dance Suite on “Wie Schön leuchtet der Morgenstern”¹
2. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra: Improvisation: “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden”¹
3. Gabriel Fauré: Cantique de Jean Racine¹
4. J. S. Bach: Fantasia and Fugue in a, BWV 904¹
5. J. S. Bach: “Erbarm dich, mein, O Herre Gott” BWV 721¹
6. J. S. Bach: “Fantasia super “Komm, Heiliger Geist” BWV 651¹
7. Maurice Duruflé: Messe 'Cum jubilo' Opus 11²

Recordings Used:

1. “Bach, Improvisations and the Liturgical Year” Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, organ. ReZound RZCD-5016
2. “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works” Choir of Trinity College, Richard Marlow, dir. Chandos CHAN 10357

Listen Online:

KING-FM Seattle's Classical Choice — Sundays at 10:00 PM

OREGON: KWAX-FM and the University of Oregon radio network — Sundays at 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM

Eternal Light and the East Carolina University Chamber Singers

Yesterday we told you about our new release Eternal Light by the East Carolina University Chamber Singers. So today we wanted to tell you a little more about the album and the ensemble.

Eternal Light
East Carolina University Chamber Singers
Christopher Grymes, clarinet
Christine Gustafson, flute
Christopher Uiffers, bassoon
Daniel Bara, director

One of America's great university choirs premieres new sacred works for choir and single instruments. Recorded in the sumptuous acoustics of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Greenville, NC.

Hymn to the Creator of Light — John Rutter
“O Thou Great Power in Whom I Move” * — Anthony Maglione
Veni Sancte Spiritus — Mark G. Sirett
Ave Maria — Cary Boyce
Cedit, Hyems (Be Gone, Winter!) * — Abbie Betinis
O quam gloriosum — Howard Helvey
De profundis — Ildebrando Pizzetti
Agnus Dei, (concerto for bassoon and mixed choir a cappella), Op. 167 * — Egil Hovland

1. Agnus Dei
2. Qui tollis peccata mundi
3. Miserere nobis
4. Dona nobis pacem

“I’ve Been in the Storm So Long” — Spiritual, arr. Jefferey L. Ames
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen” — Spiritual, arr. Gail B. Poch
“Eternal Light” — Leo Sowerby
* World Premiere Recordings


American Record Guide says of The East Carolina University Chamber Singers after their recording of the Gothic Records album "Greater Love":

The East Carolina University Chamber Singers is the cream of the school's four choral ensembles-mainly undergraduate music majors... The choral tone is extraordinarily fine: warm, solid, well blended, and superbly disciplined. These qualities are enhanced by the friendly acoustic of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Greenville. I am inclined to think that the freshness and purity of sound we hear on this recording can only be obtained from well-trained young voices... Daniel Bara directs performances that are thoughtful and sensitive, with remarkable care over phrasing and nuance.

Some Fun Things for our Fans

We came across a couple of things on Twitter today that we just had to share with you. We hope that you not only enjoy reading them, but let us know your thoughts and feedback!

This first is from an education website and they are asking for information on Church Choral music. So we thought we would pass it on to you so that maybe if you'd like you could help them out some! And feel free to suggest any choral music from The Gothic Catalog!

Click here for the request of Church Choral Music resources from educationhottips.com

The second one is the one that we find a little more interesting. This is a new study on the effects of music on our health, and it addresses choral music specifically. So we thought we would share and get your reactions on whether you think the findings seem legitimate, or if you think it's another "Mozart Effect" kind of idea. Also, we find it intriguing that singing Choral music is supposed to make you feel more positive, but listening makes you feel worse. We mainly find this intriguing because we wholeheartedly disagree.

Check out "7 Ways Music Breaks Can Improve Your Health" here.

Greater Love: The English Choral and Organ Tradition Reviews

The Gothic Catalog is all about both Choral and Organ music. So it is always fun when we get to combine the two! And today we were inspired from some Twitter users espousing their love for both of these genres (including the combination), and we just had to share some information about and reviews of our 2007 release Greater Love: The English Choral and Organ Tradition.

Greater Love: The English Choral and Organ Tradition
Janette Fishell, organ
East Carolina University Chamber Singers
Daniel Bara, director

Quite possibly the best-sounding organ/choral disc we have ever recorded! The ECU Chamber Singers and organist Janette Fishell are conducted by Daniel Bara in these monuments of the English choral tradition. The choir’s sound is greatly enhanced by the sumptuous acoustics of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville, and its large, new Fisk organ.

Listen to a sound sample from the album: Tu es Petrus (Pearsall).

Reviews:

“At St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville, NC, the East Carolina University Chamber Singers met to record this small yet mighty compilation of organ and choral music in the English tradition. The hallowed walls of the well-chosen venue truthfully captured both the tenor and the spirit of such 20th-centry stalwarts as Howells, Tippett and Ireland.

The Interlochen- and Eastman- trained baton of conductor Daniel Bara produces a choral sound that is lovely and clean. The texts are understandable and the viratos are mostly in check—exactly how this music is supposed to sound. St. Paul’s new Fisk organ and the organist, Janette Fishell, are as good as they come.” —The Living Church

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“The disc title comes, of course, from the beloved John Ireland anthem, the penultimate selection on this program, and all of the repertory is English. Our colleague Janette begins the recording with a fiery performance of the Howells Psalm Prelude II/3 and accompanies effectively in the rest of the program.

Two major works are the Howells Requiem and Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. Both are very well sung, though most of us likely have multiple recordings of these standards in our libraries already. The choir is to be commended for including all of the Five Negro Spirituals from Michael Tippett’s pacifist oratorio A Child of Our Time; the singers are especially effective in these pieces.

The choir negotiates the interweaving textures of Robert Pearsall’s Tu es Petrus with aplomb, and the program concludes with a charming North Country folksong arranged by Philip Wilby. The choral sound is a bit darker than is generally heard in most of this repertory, but mellifluous and nicely blended; for the Tippett selections it is just perfect. All of the soloists are very professional, though the choice of a talented but rather operatic soprano for the Ireland anthem is jarring when the pure sound of an English treble is needed. As always, Roger W. Sherman has made a superb project of the recording, mastering and editing.” —Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians

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Daniel Bara, director of choral activities at East Carolina University at Greenville, North Carolina, acknowledges that the idea for this recording came from a shared affection for 20th-Century English choral music by him and his colleague, Janette Fishell, who is the organist for the program.

She opens with an animated and exuberant performance of the sixth and last of the Psalm-Preludes (Set 2:3) by Herbert Howells (1892-1983). This is followed by his Requiem for unaccompanied voices. It is not a liturgical Requiem-there is no such thing in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer-but a highly personal musical meditation by the composer on the untimely death of his son Michael from spinal meningitis in 1935. The composer suppressed the work until 1980, and since then there have been several recordings. The text is drawn from the offices for the Visitation of the Sick and the Burial of the Dead from the Prayer Book, Psalms 23 and 121 from the Prayer Book Psalter (Coverdale), and the Latin antiphon "Requiem aeternam dona eis..." in two settings placed after the psalms.

The eight-part motet 'Tu Es Petrus' by Robert Lucas Pearsall (1795-1856) is an 1854 reworking to sacred words of a madrigal written in 1840. Sir Michael Tippett (1905-98) included a series of unaccompanied arrangements of traditional spirituals in his oratorio A Child of Our Time on the model of JS Bach's use of Lutheran chorales in his oratorios. The spirituals are often sung by themselves as a suite. Rejoice in the Lamb by Benjamin Britten (1913-76) was commissioned in 1943 for St. Matthew's Church, Northampton, by the church's vicar Walter Hussey, one of the most enterprising patrons of religious art of his time. It has since become a classic. 'Greater Love Hath No Man' by John Ireland (1879-1962) dates from 1912 and is one of the staples of the English cathedral repertory. The program concludes with an arrangement for unaccompanied voices by Philip Wilby (b 1949), current professor of composition at the University of Leeds, of the northern English folk song 'Marianne'. It is a tender and quiet song of love and loss.

The East Carolina University Chamber Singers is the cream of the school's four choral ensembles-mainly undergraduate music majors. For this recording there are 39 singers (10-10-10-9). The choral tone is extraordinarily fine: warm, solid, well blended, and superbly disciplined. These qualities are enhanced by the friendly acoustic of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Greenville. I am inclined to think that the freshness and purity of sound we hear on this recording can only be obtained from well-trained young voices. Their diction is not affectedly British, but neither is it incongruously American. Daniel Bara directs performances that are thoughtful and sensitive, with remarkable care over phrasing and nuance.

There are many fine recordings of the Howells Requiem and Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, but I believe this one can stand with the best of them. The undergraduate soloists have secure and agreeable tone; but in some cases, most noticeably in Britten, they are not able to take the longer phrases in a single breath. This is a minor quibble and should not deter anyone. The organ is a recently completed Fisk (Opus 126) with all the warmth and gravity needed for the romantic heft of Ireland's 'Greater Love Hath No Man' and the palettte of colors for Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb. — American Record Guide

Purchase this album from http://gothic-catalog.com!

Our Favorite Holy Week Recordings

The week leading up to Easter is usually referred to as Holy Week, and encompasses many major days of celebration. We have many great recordings of choral and organ music that is appropriate for these celebrations, but this week we thought we would feature some of our favorites!

Easter—Hymns, Carols and Anthems
Choir of All Saints' Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills, California
All Saints' Brass Ensemble
Craig Phillips, organist
Thomas Foster, director
World Premier Recordings!

Tom Foster and the choir of All Saints' present a program of Easter music, including a significant number of first recordings. Supplemented by an eleven member brass ensemble and the organ playing of Craig Phillips, this CD shows why this choir is among the most highly regarded in Episcopal churches. Intentional, focused, spiritual singing.

Includes "Jesus Christ is risen today", "Now the Green Blade Riseth", and Britten's Festival Te Deum.


J.S. Bach: St John Passion (1725 version)
Derek Chester, Evangelist
Douglas Williams, Jesus
Ilya Poletaev, organ
William Perdue, violoncello
Abigail Haynes and Mellissa Hughes, soprano
Ian L. Howell and Sylvia Aiko Rider, alto
Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor
Joshua Copeland, bass
Yale Collegium Players (Robert Mealy, director)
Yale Schola Cantorum
Simon Carrington, director

The rarely performed 1725 version of Bach’s St. John Passion is presented by Yale University’s premier early-music ensembles. Simon Carrington, who initiated his illustrious musical career as cofounder of the King’s Singers, directs this live performance.

Click to view all of our Holy Week Recordings!

March Madness Choral Sale - New Releases

For those of you out there that were hesitant to get our most recent choral releases, now is the time!

Dominick Argento: Evensong: Of Love and Angels
The Cathedral Choral Society
Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Futral, soprano
Nelson James LePard Reed, treble
The Very Reverend Samuel T. Lloyd III, reader
J. Reilly Lewis, conductor

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING!

Commissioned by the Society in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Washington National Cathedral, this piece also serves as a moving tribute to the memory of Argento's wife, Carolyn Bailey Argento, who died in 2006.

Threnody—orchestra prelude
Preces: Phos Hilaron—treble (an Angel), chorus (the Afflicted)
Psalm 102—chorus a cappella
The Lesson—reader
Sermon—solo sprano (Homilist)
Meditation—orchestral intermezzo
Canticle: Nunc Dimittis—chorus
Prayer/Lullaby—solo treble (the Angel)
Anthem—chorus

List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $9.98
You save $9.00!
Buy it Now

Hymn to Potatoes and other choral masterworks from
A Prairie Home Companion
Garrison Keillor, Philip Brunelle and the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers

Who knew a choir could be this funny? Garrison Keillor, Philip Brunelle and the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers dish up a generous helping of Potatoes a la Schubert, run away to Europe to indulge their “Shenandoah” habit, and enlighten us on the T.U.L.I.P. doctrine. This two-CD set of the best choral skits and bits from 10 years on A Prairie Home Companion includes the often-requested “Julia” (John Lennon) and a rare choral interpretation of “Karma Chamelon” (Boy George). With Charles Kemper and Richard Dworsky at the piano, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band and guest appearances by Tom Keith and Tim Russell.

Now available nationally for the first time—on Clarion Records from The Gothic Catalog!

List Price: $26.98
Our Price: $14.98
You save $12.00!
Buy it Now

Over the River & Through the Woods
VocalEssence, Garrison Keillor and The Hopeful Gospel Quartet

On a chilly November evening, the Hopeful Gospel Quartet — Garrison Keillor, Mollie O’Brien and Robin & Linda Williams — traded musical moments with the VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers in a concert at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis. The evening seamlessly blended American folk traditions with choral masterpieces old and new, from “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” to “Now Thank We All Our God.” Garrison Keillor shared his Thanksgiving memories in a hilarious yet poignant monologue. Thanks to Minnesota Public Radio, the evening was captured for posterity in this charming two-CD set.

Now available nationally for the first time—on Clarion Records from The Gothic Catalog!

List Price: $26.98
Our Price: $14.98
You save $12.00!
Buy it Now

March Madness Sale - Choral Edition

It’s March, and our $9.98 March Madness organ CD sale has ended...But it was so successful, we decided to do a choral CD sale just like it!

This week, for one week only
All single $18.98 choral recordings are $9.98
All double $29.98 choral CDs are $14.98

Includes new releases!

Offer limited to stock on hand on the labels:

Loft Recordings, Gothic Records, reZound and Clarion
Offer expires midnight Friday March 19, 2010

Check out all of our March Madness Choral Sale Here

More Audio Samples from OTRTW

Again, simply click the "Play" button to listen to excerpts from our album Over the River & Through the Woods with VocalEssence, Garrison Keillor, and The Hopeful Gospel Quartet.

A Thanksgiving to God, For His House
O Herbst
I am a Pilgrim