Listen & tracks

16 works · 58:32

1 Ave Maria Josquin des Prez 4:09
2 Missa Pange Lingua Josquin des Prez Gloria 3:41
O Magnum MysteriumTomás Luis de Victoria 2 movements6:31
1. 3 O Magnum Mysterium (Victoria) 3:35
2. 4 O Magnum Mysterium (Gabrieli) 2:56
5 Resonet in Laudibus Johannes Eccard 1:37
6 Hodie, Christus Natus Est Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck 3:49
7 Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her Martin Luther 1:40
8 In dulci jubilo Samuel Scheidt 3:40
9 Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen Michael Praetorius 2:09
10 Singt und klingt Michael Praetorius :58
11 Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem Michael Praetorius 3:05
12 Halleluja, freuet euch, ihr Christen alle Andreas Hammerschmidt 4:28
13 O Jesulein süß, BWV 493 Johann Sebastian Bach 2:39
14 Pastorale in F Major, BWV 590 Johann Sebastian Bach i. Pastorale, iv. Allegro 6:25
15 Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden Johann Sebastian Bach 7:29
16 In dulci jubilo, BWV 368 Johann Sebastian Bach 3:25
17 The Angel Gabriel from heaven came Traditional 2:47

Appropriate for all-year-round listening. In Europe through the centuries, Christmas has been marked with vibrant and joyous music-making. Serious composers have competed to write music with maximum popular appeal for adults and children alike.

Reviews

This is a Christmas album with a difference, and is extremely welcome. Most of the works are little known, but they are full of beauty, serenity and elegance. They are superbly performed by the Australian Chamber Choir – a relatively new choir, but already one of Australia’s many choral treasures – whose 18 singers have been finely honed by artistic director Douglas Lawrence into a single pulse of unity and beauty. ★★★★

— Barney Zwartz, Sydney Morning Herald

The ACC is at the forefront of the European choral tradition and not just here in Australia but on its regular European tours ... There is a wonderful honesty and excitement to all the performances as they are recordings from live performances ... One of my favourite tracks is the totally happy and boppy Halleluja, freuet euch by Andreas Hammerschmidt. This is music to make you want to get up and dance and sing from the rooftops and there are delightfully appropriate solos from tenors Anish Nair and Stewart Webb and bass Lucas Wilson-Richter.

— Alan Holley, classikon

One of the significant virtues of the album is its presentation of familiar texts and melodies in settings that you don’t often hear. Christmas music lovers in this country are likely to experience In dulci jubilo through the R. L de Pearsall version, but Douglas Lawrence and his singers have wiped away much Victorian-era sentiment with their two readings: one by Samuel Scheidt, the other a mixture of Bach and Luther’s associate, Johann Walter. Likewise, the Resonet in laudibus that can be heard most often in enlightened churches is the setting by Lassus, so having the opportunity to enjoy Eccard’s work on this particular text is welcome. Most of us have been indoctrinated to accept the opening and closing of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols as giving the customary Gregorian shape to Hodie Christus natus est; but Sweelinck’s treatment offers a different type of richness. And our knowledge of the Von Himmel hoch tune has been conditioned by Bach’s chorale preludes, fughetta, and canonic variations (further complicated by Stravinsky’s orchestration of these last), so the Gumpelzhaimer revamp also served to crack away at pre-conceptions. The ACC’s clarity of delivery is apparent in the composer’s Gloria, recorded in a Hanover church with impeccable acoustic properties for this genre of choral work. As for the concluding Bach group, the level of musicianship here is exemplary, as you’d expect.

— Clive O'Connell, O'Connell the Music

There are riches to be found in obscure corners of the choral canon. A Baroque Christmas offered a program almost entirely drawn from these lesser-known seasonal works, championing a sublime repertoire that is all too often neglected.

— Maxim Boon, Sydney Morning Herald

Artists

Australian Chamber Choir

choir

The Australian Chamber Choir was founded by Douglas Lawrence in July 2007.

Douglas Lawrence

director

Melbourne organist Douglas Lawrence is Director of Music at The Scots' Church and Teacher of the Organ at the University of Melbourne. He founded the Choir of Ormond College and directed it from 1982 to 2006.

Johann Sebastian Bach

composer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.

Josquin des Prez

composer

Josquin des Prez shaped Renaissance vocal polyphony into something keenly expressive: independent voices that imitate, answer and lock around the text. Masses, motets and chansons still sound alive in the throat.

Giovanni Gabrieli

composer

Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557–1612) was a Venetian composer and organist of the late Renaissance, a central figure of the Venetian School at the turn toward early Baroque sacred and instrumental music.

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

composer

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621) was a Dutch composer, organist and teacher whose keyboard and sacred vocal music stand at the turn from Renaissance to Baroque. His organ works and psalm settings remain central to the early keyboard and choral repertory.

Johannes Eccard

composer

Bartholomäus Gesius

composer

Bartholomäus Gesius wrote choral Passions in German and Latin and hymn settings for the Lutheran church. His melody for the Easter hymn Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn was later taken up by Buxtehude and Bach, and his name also stands on arrangements of In dulci jubilo.

Adam Gumpelzhaimer

composer

Adam Gumpelzhaimer (1559–1625) was a Bavarian composer and music theorist, best known for sacred music written during a long tenure as cantor at Augsburg Cathedral.

Andreas Hammerschmidt

composer

Martin Luther

composer

Martin Luther’s Christmas hymns sit at the heart of the Lutheran chorale tradition: plain-spoken texts and sturdy tunes written for congregations to sing, still heard in seasonal programmes from the Renaissance through Bach and beyond.

Michael Praetorius

composer

Samuel Scheidt

composer

Samuel Scheidt’s early Baroque organ and sacred vocal music helped define the north German style. Chorale preludes grow through patterned variations; dances, fantasias, echo pieces and Christmas settings keep the tune clear while the texture thickens.

Tomás Luis de Victoria

composer

Tomás Luis de Victoria wrote almost exclusively sacred polyphonic music to Latin texts: motets, Marian antiphons and Holy Week offices whose intensity and direct emotional line set him among the principal voices of the late Renaissance.

Johann Walter

composer

David Willcocks

composer

David Willcocks’s carol arrangements and descants give traditional Christmas melodies a clear, ceremonial lift: bright upper lines, firm harmony, and textures built for choir and congregation. On these discs his settings sit among the season’s most familiar favourites.

Digital booklet

Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDF

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$25.00 AUD

Compact disc

Buywell Music Australian Music Centre

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Also available to download from the iTunes Store.

Performers

Australian Chamber Choir · choir
Douglas Lawrence · director
Elizabeth Anderson · organ · tracks 12–14
Elspeth Bawden · soprano · track 13
Anish Nair · tenor · track 12
Stewart Webb · tenor · track 12
Lucas Wilson-Richter · bass · track 12

Technical credits

Recording Engineer Blake Stickland
Martin Wright
Tanum Shipp
Editing Engineer Martin Wright
Mastering Engineer Martin Wright
Venue Christuskirche, Hannover
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle Park
St Andrew’s, Brighton
Credit Dianna Wells
Emma Phillips
Leighton H.G. Triplow
R.J. Stove

Details

List price: $25.00 AUD
Total playing time: 58 minutes 32 seconds
Release date: 9 Nov 2020
Categories: Choral, Christmas, Classical
Genres: Baroque, Choral & Sacred, Christmas
Catalogue: MCD 607
EAN: 9314574060720

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