- click here for the latest reviews of the discs below.
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| SDG715 | SDG712 | SDG711 | SDG710 | SDG707 | SDG177 | SDG114 |
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| SDG701 |
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SDG 715 (1 cd) contains:
Johann Christoph Bach Welt, gute Nacht
Herr, wende dich und sei mir gnädig, Dialogus
Mit Weinen hebt sich’s an, Aria
Wie bist du den, o Gott, Lamento
Der Gerechte, ob er gleich zu zeitlich stirbt, Motet
Ach, dass ich Wassers g’nug hätte, Lamento
Fürchte dich nicht, Motet
Es ist nun aus mit meinem Leben, Aria
Meine Freundin, du bist schön, Dialogus
(recorded: Cadogan Hall, London - 16 April 2009)
Soloists: Julia Doyle | Katharine Fuge
Clare Wilkinson | Jeremy Budd | James Gilchrist
Nicholas Mulroy | Matthew Brook | Peter Harvey
The English Baroque Soloists | Maya Homburger | John
Eliot Gardiner
Click
here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for the English sleeve notes.
“JC Bach’s brand of sober pietism really draws you in. The uncompromising honesty of the word setting, and its dense, dark fabric of gambas, cellos and basses, creeps into the nerves system in a rather delicious way.”
**** The Times
“Such is the individuality – even quirkiness – of his settings, with their expressive melody, distinctive harmony and often strikingly interventionist obbligato violin parts, that they absorb rather than repel.”
**** The Guardian
“A rewarding exploration of the little known music of Johann Christoph Bach” - The Sunday Telegraph
Recorded live at Cadogan Hall in 2009, this album features internationally acclaimed soloists, including Matthew Brook, Peter Harvey and Katharine Fuge.
Packaged in a hard back book similar to our other releases, it contains a 48 pages booklet with original notes by Richard Campbell, and texts in German, English and French.
The live concert was billed “Six funerals and a wedding”: the pieces evoke the dark theme of grief, as was fashionable in 17th century Lutheran Germany; though the last track “Meine Freundin” is a lighter amorous dialogue.
The music on this album is in turn dark, poignant, humane and witty. It features choral music (motets) as well as solo arias and laments, and two dialogues.
Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703) - not to be confused with Johann Christian Bach, was Johann Sebastian Bach’s older cousin. A respected composer in his lifetime, he greatly influenced JS Bach’s music making.
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SDG 712 (2 cds) contains:
Bach St John Passion - BWV 245
CD1 - Part I
CD2 - Part II
(recorded: Kaiserdom, Königslutter )
Soloists:
Mark Padmore, Evangelist
Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Jesus
Peter Harvey, Pilatus
Bernarda Fink | Joanne Lunn | Katherine Fuge
The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John
Eliot Gardiner
Click
here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for the English sleeve notes.
SDG is proud to release a new recording of Bach's St John Passion. Previous releases have received phenomenal press coverage and tremendous reviews for performance, sound quality and packaging.
Recorded in Königslutter in 2003, this two disc album features internationally acclaimed soloists, including Mark Padmore, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Peter Harvey and Bernarda Fink. Packaged in the same hard back book style as our other releases, it contains a 76 pages booklet with original notes by John Eliot Gardiner with texts in German, English and French.
Considered to be an expressive and intimate oratorio, the St John Passion was conceived by Bach both as a work of art and an act of worship in itself. It has a subtle balance between narrative and contemplative, juxtaposing vivid re-enactment and dramatic scene-setting in the ariosos and arias, with stretches of exposition of its meaning in chorales.
The music is in turns evocative, stirring, exultant and profoundly moving. It forces the listener to contemplate the complexities of the Passion story. Regardless of one’s religious view, it captures the listener’s attention from beginning to end.
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SDG 711 - Mozart Symphonies
(1 cd) contains:
1756-1791
Symphony No. 39 in E flat Major, K543
I Adagio- Allegro
II Andante con moto
III Menuetto: Allegretto
IV Finale: Allegro
Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K551, 'Jupiter'
I Allegro vivace
II Andante cantabile
III Menuetto: Allegretto
IV Molto allegro
(recorded: Cadogan Hall, London 9th February 2006)
English Baroque Soloists | Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Click
here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for the English sleeve notes.
SDG is proud to release its first Mozart CD, recorded live at Cadogan Hall.
This album made the headlines in 2006 as the UK’s first classical “on the night” recording. CDs were made during the second part of the concert for the audience to take home after the concert. This is the first time this CD has been commercially released.
Symphonies 39 & 41 are among the last composed by Mozart. They use the full eighteenth-century orchestra, complete with trumpets and timpani.
Symphony 39 (K543) shows Mozart at his most exalted in the orchestral passages, while some passages remain intimate and touching, with more delicate themes. The Minuet features the orchestra’s guest artists, the clarinets, in a waltz-like Trio.
The “Jupiter”, Mozart’s final symphony (no 41, K551), belongs to a sequence of grand ceremonial works in C major.
Typically for Mozart it juxtaposes a number of different contrasting musical characters and ideas, from the formal and aristocratic to the heartfelt and soulful.
In the finale, the composer’s compositional virtuosity is on display. Through the whole runs an extraordinary spirit, a mixture of intellectual excitement, the feeling of a grand design, and a sense of fun.
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SDG 710 - Santiago a cappella (1 cd) contains:
Music from the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat:
Mariam matrem virginem
soloist: Elin Manahan-Thomas
and by composers Francisco Guerrero:
Ave Virgo Sanctissima
Duo Seraphim
soloists: Grace Davidson, Elin Manahan-Thomas, Samuel Evans
Alonso Lobo:
Lamentationes Ieremiae Prophetae
Versa est in luctum
John IV of Portugal:
Crux Fidelis
Tomás Luis de Victoria:
O lux et decus Hispaniae
O vos omnes
Manuel Cardoso:
Non mortui qui sunt in inferne
Philippe Rogier:
Salva nos, Domine
(recorded: St Alban the Martyr, Holborn, London)
The Monteverdi Choir | John
Eliot Gardiner
Click
here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for the English sleeve notes.
Soli Deo Gloria is proud to release a sequel to its best selling album to date, Pilgrimage to Santiago (SDG701).
This CD is a journey through medieval and renaissance Spain. It takes listeners from the 14th century polyphonies of the Llibre Vermell (Red Book) of Montserrat - one of the only surviving manuscripts, from a time when music was transmitted orally - to elaborate 16th and 17th century choral music which travelled internationally thanks to the recent invention of print.
During the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods, pilgrimage routes formed part of a broader network of cultural and commercial connections between ecclesiastical institutions in Spain, Portugal and the rest of Europe.
This is an anthology of Golden Age “classics” which would have been performed throughout Europe for centuries. In turn moving, intimate, spectacular and awe inspiring, this sacred music is always uplifting and deeply spiritual.
This is the oldest of two recordings made around the 2004 Pilgrimage to Santiago - a project undertaken by the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner for their 40th anniversary. The musicians travelled through France and Spain to perform sacred polyphony of the Iberian peninsula along the route to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela.
The CD features the same luxurious packaging as Pilgrimage to Santiago. It includes detailed notes by musicologist Tess Knighton.
This album was previously released internationally by Universal Spain also under the title Santiago a cappella.
Click here to view the three-part series of Brandenburg Mini-documentaries.
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SDG 707 (2 cds) contains:
Bach Brandenburg Concertos
Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046
Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050
Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051
Kati Debretzeni | The English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner
Click
here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for the English sleeve notes.
“You can hand the palm to Vivaldi for the mysterious pathos of [Bach's] slow movements and the surface brilliance of his foot-tapping rhythms, but when it comes to hitting a propulsive rhythmic groove, no-one is a match for JS Bach." - John Eliot Gardiner (excerpt from John Eliot Gardiner’s notes)
John Eliot Gardiner and his superb period-instrument chamber orchestra, English Baroque Soloists, record their unique interpretation of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos for the very first time.
Gardiner only conducts two of the six concertos. The responsibility of performing the remaining four is left to the hand-picked musicians of the English Baroque Soloists led by the brilliant, Kati Debretzeni, a true Konzertmeisterin and the inspirational presiding virtuoso of this project.
This recording follows a phenomenal 11-concert residency at the Spitalfieds Music Winter Festival in December 2008 and January 2009. John Eliot Gardiner led the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir in performances of JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Brandenburg Concertos and Motets. Every concert was well received by public and press alike, with standing ovations from the sell-out audiences and high critical acclaim:
“Gardiner encouraged rampaging exuberance from his excellent horns, subtle dynamic variations from oboes and strings, and some unusually complex phrasing…delivered with such conviction.” – The Times
The six “Brandenburg” Concertos, described by Bach as ‘Concertos for several instruments’, are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque. Now considered a benchmark of Baroque music, the concertos still have the power to move people almost three centuries later.
The booklet includes a long note by John Eliot Gardiner entitled ‘A conductor-less slant on the Brandenburg Concertos’ and entries by each member of the English Baroque Soloists where they discuss their personal experience of recording the Brandenburg Concertos.
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SDG 177 - Eternal Fire (1 cd) contains:
Bach Choruses
BWV 34 - O ewiges Feuer
BWV 103 - Ihr werdet Weinen
BWV 80 - Ein feste Burg
BWV 178 - Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns haelt
BWV 101 - Nimm von uns, Herr
BWV 39 - Brich den hungrigen dein Brot
BWV 12 - Weinen Klagen Sorgen Zagen
BWV 176 - Es ist ein trotzig
BWV 19 - Es erhub sich ein Streit
BWV 27 - Wer weisst wir nah emir mein Ende
BWV 20 - O Ewigwkeit du Donnerwort
BWV 186 - Aergre dich, o Seele, nich
BWV 95 - Christus der ist mein Leben
BWV 8 - Liebster Gott
The Monteverdi Choir | The English Baroque Soloists | John
Eliot Gardiner
Click
here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for the English sleeve notes.
SDG is proud to present its first compilation, featuring a superb collection of the greatest choruses from the award-winning Bach Cantatas series, hand picked by world renowned conductor John Eliot Gardiner.
On Christmas Day 1999 a unique celebration of the new millennium began in the Herderkirche in Weimar, Germany: the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner set out to perform all Johann Sebastian Bach’s surviving church cantatas in the course of the year 2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death.
The fourteen choruses heard here were recorded during the course of the Pilgrimage and each exhibit clearly Bach’s depth, originality and incomparable genius.
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood in the booklet note describes each chorus as a masterpiece in its own right and that each displays “an almost unfathomable emotional range wedded to intellectual depth and layered with tireless invention, meaning and beauty.”
‘Eternal fire’ is the perfect introduction to the glory and grandeur of Bach’s wonderful choral universe. An essential purchase for lovers of Bach and classical music.
ALLES MIT GOTT
The most exciting Bach discovery in 70 years! Found in a box of miscellaneous
documents saved by chance from the fire that destroyed the Anna Amalia Library
in Weimar in June of this year, the first complete vocal work of J.S. Bach to
be discovered since 1935, an aria for soprano and strings celebrating the birthday
of Wilhelm Ernst, Prince of Saxony, is here given its premiere CD release, coupled
with a selection of as yet unreleased Cantata arias and choruses recorded on
the 2000 Bach Cantata Pilgrimage.
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SDG 114 (1 cd) contains:
Alles mit Gott BWV 1127
Soloist: Elin Manahan Thomas
Arias and Choruses from Cantatas:
BWV 71 / 78 / 151 / 155 / 159 / 182 / 190
Soloists: Joanne Lunn | Malin Hartelius | Gillian Keith
Nathalie Stutzmann | Robin Tyson
James Gilchrist | Peter Harvey
Monteverdi Choir | English Baroque Soloists | John Eliot Gardiner
Click
here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for the English sleeve notes.
PILGRIMAGE TO SANTIAGO
In 2004, its fortieth anniversary year, the Monteverdi Choir under the direction
of Sir John Eliot Gardiner undertook a pilgrimage in song through France and
Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, performing in the great abbeys and
cathedrals along the way. The choir’s pilgrimage programmes focussed on the
sacred polyphony of the Iberian peninsula during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, these works being set in a broader European context through the inclusion
of pieces by composers who worked outside Spain and Portugal, but whose music
was probably known there. This recording, the second of two made on the choir’s
return to London, offers a chance to share their experience of living inside
the music along El camino de Santiago.
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SDG 701 (1 cd) contains:
Music from the twelfth-century Codex Calixtinus:
Dum pater familias
Congaudeant Catholici
Alma perpetui
Psallat chorus celestium
O Venerande Apostoli
O lux et decus Hispaniae
from the Llibre Vermell:
O virgo splendens
and by composers Tomás Luis de Victoria:
Missa O Quam Gloriosum
Motet O Quam Gloriosum
Vadam et Circuibo
Jacobus Clemens non Papa:
O Maria vernans rosa
Sanctus
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina:
Jesu Rex admirabilis
Guillaume Dufay:
Rite majorem
Cristobal Morales:
Parce mihi Domine
Orlande de Lassus:
Iustorum animae
and Jean Mouton:
Nesciens mater
(recorded: All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London - May 2005)
The Monteverdi Choir | John Eliot Gardiner
Click
here for a French Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for a German Translation of the sleeve notes.
Click
here for the English sleeve notes.
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