From the mid-seventeenth century to the first two decades of the eighteenth century, Rome experienced one of the most brilliant musical periods in its history. In this recording, the Ensemble Jacques Moderne works composed for a Vespers service, one of the principal moments of the Liturgy of the Hours, which consisted of a sequence of psalms and antiphons concluding with a Magnificat.

Previous BIS releases of works by John Pickard have mainly featured instrumental compositions. This recording presents another facet of the British composer’s work, with compositions for choir under the expert direction of Martyn Brabbins as well as two instrumental pieces. The five short Latin motets as well as Ozymandias, Pickard’s opus 1, can be described as ‘occasional pieces’ composed during the composer’s student years or for the choir he conducts at the University of Bristol.

Caritas Chamber Choir, directed by Benedict Preece, releases its next album, All Shall be Amen, on 6 October 2023, in partnership with Platoon. All Shall be Amen is Caritas' sixth album: it presents music by composers including Cecilia McDowell, Eric Choate, Benedict Preece, Gabriel Jackson, Sarah Cattley, Phillip Cooke and Neil Wright, that Caritas has regularly performed and recorded, alongside new exciting collaborations with David Conte and Andrew Smith. The album’s sacred theme is broad, demonstrating an omnium-gatherum of new works, and contemporaneously, championing many fantastic living composers. The majority of its works are world première recordings.

World premiere recordings of sacred music by a forgotten master of the Spanish Baroque.

Given that not one of the Masses by Jacques Arcadelt was included in our boxed set that revealed his immense musical personality to the world, we now remedy this situation with an indispensable addition. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon chose the Missa Noe Noe, which is presented here in the context of the Christmas liturgy. We have also included motets not only by Arcadelt but also by Josquin Desprez, as he was the great model for musicians of his generation. The recording ends resoundingly with Josquin's imposing Benedicta es coelorum regina for six voices, although in an expanded version for twelve voices by Jean Guyot de Chatelet (1512 - 1588): another Walloon composer to be discovered!

PURE CHANTS is exactly what the title promises. True to the motto: “In tranquility lies strength,” Gregorian recorded half of the songs on PURE CHANTS completely without instrumental accompaniment and the other half largely without instrumental accompaniment, relying entirely on the power and beauty of the human voice.

Cuban virtuoso pianist Roberto Fonseca, former member of the Buena Vista Social Club, announces his new album 'La Gran Diversión'. A voyage into Cuba's roaring twenties, an invitation to party and dance, in a subtle blend of traditions drawn from his training with the greats, his incomparable talent, and wild modernity. 'Together we'll laugh, cry and enjoy the mystery and magic of the rhythms and melodies I bring from my roots'.

"Josquin was the most emblematic composer of his time, famous throughout Europe for his compositions both secular and sacred. This recording explores those two aspects of his output, which are more closely related than one might think. Here in a small line-up, Gli Angeli Genève deliver a virtuoso vocal performance that is sensitive and empathetic. With only two voices per part, they play on the timbre and individuality of each voice, and thus create an intimacy and a meditative mood that invite the listener to share with the singers in the deeply moving humanity of Josquin’s music."

The Choir of St George’s Chapel, world famous through its royal patronage, is one of this country’s foremost, participating in daily services throughout the year at its Windsor Castle home. Here the choir performs a wide range of music appropriate to the seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.

Maistre Jhan (also Jehan, Jan, Ihan) (c. 1485 – October 1538) was a French composer of the Renaissance, active for most of his career in Ferrara, Italy. An enigmatic figure, of whom little biographical information has yet emerged, he was one of the earliest composers of madrigals as well as a prominent musician at the Este court in the early 16th century.

The Ensemble Esquisses is the result of a shared desire to explore the repertoire for equal voices, with the aim of discovering (or rediscovering) composers (men and women) and little-known works of the modern and contemporary periods.

Within the Italian polyphonic repertoire for Holy Week of the first half of the 16th century, a group of works that particularly stands out for its organic, comprehensive and unique qualities are the two books of four-voice Lamentations and responsories for the office of Tenebrae from the Triduum sacrum composed by Paolo Aretino (Paolo Antonio del Bivi, 1508-1584). They were published respectively in 1544 (the responsories: a first printed edition of its kind, to the best of our knowledge) and 1549 (the Lamentations). Both books were reprinted in 1563, a rare occurrence for a collection of this type.

Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Sir Stephen Hough combines a worldwide career as a pianist with those of composer and writer. "My father said that I had memorised seventy nursery rhymes by the age of two. This sounds suspiciously like parental exaggeration to me, but I do know that such singing was my first form of musical expression, especially as we had no classical music in my childhood home. Then, by the age of six, the piano took over… but song remained in the background." "My first twenty years were filled with composing. Then followed almost twenty years of blank paper, writing virtually nothing except concert transcriptions for me to use as encores. Until, in my early 40s, I returned to composition with a passion…" This release celebrates Hough’s compositional output in works for choir and organ performed by the London Choral Sinfonia, with organist James Orford and conductor Michael Waldron.

The female perspective on the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the starting point of SPECTRAL's extremely attractive compilation of numerous vocal and instrumental gems from the Italian early baroque, which are reflected in the touching and moving interpretation by Simone Schwark (soprano) and Jürgen Banholzer ( Harpsichord and organ) begin to sparkle again.

This album marks the culmination of a landmark project to re-imagine new works from old for saxophone, choir and organ. Celebrated saxophonist Sam Corkin is joined by Canterbury Cathedral Choir to bring a fresh perspective to some well-loved repertoire, recorded within the iconic surroundings of Canterbury Cathedral. Featuring fifteen specially commissioned works by leading composers including Gabriel Jackson, Errollyn Wallen and Roderick Williams.