With the Mass op. 54 for five solo voices and two five-part choirs and the Three Psalms op. 85, we present Spohr's sacred a cappella choral music. Spohr has also achieved something new and extraordinary in this field In the 1821 mass, for example, there are echoes of the Russian Orthodox liturgy which Spohr had become acquainted with during an early trip to Russia. Nothing academic adheres to the works collected here; it is rather expressive music of the highest content, and only Mendelssohn and Brahms were later to write choral music of similar perfection It is sung by the Rundfunkchor Berlin under the direction of Michael Glaeser and Dietrich Knothe.

These CDs have been issued by Decca in their "Legendary Performances" series; the recording was originally issued on the Ace of Diamonds label in 1960. Fritz Reiner belonged to that era of revered authoritarian conductors (including Toscanini, Klemperer and Beecham) who dominated the pre-Second World War orchestral scene. His reputation was achieved very largely through his interpretations of Wagner opera in America and Europe and his orchestral directorships in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Chicago. This recording of the Verdi Requiem came towards the very end of his conducting career and only 3 years before his death.

After the celebrated Stabat Mater, already recorded to great acclaim by the RIAS-Kammerchor, here is Rossini’s other masterpiece in the domain of sacred music, the last of his “sins of old age”. This Petite Messe solennelle is indeed “small” in terms of the forces deployed - the instrumental accompaniment is limited to two pianos and a harmonium - but it also well deserves the adjective “solemn” for its ample scale and its formidable dramatic power. In many respects, this work may be seen as its composer’s musical testament. Dazzled, like all his critical colleagues, Filippo Filippi wrote after the first performance in March 1864: “This time, Rossini has surpassed himself, for no-one can tell what is the more impressive, his learning or his inspiration.”

Apollo’s Fire has won critical acclaim and enjoyed Top 10 Billboard Classical chart success with their half-dozen releases on AVIE. Returning to their baroque roots, they offer a selection of works by Handel that showcase the Apollo’s Fire chorus. The centerpiece of the album is the grand Dixit Dominus, written during the composer’s early days in Rome. In a gesture to Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee year, Sorrell has chosen two works written for the monarch’s forbearers: the “Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne” and “Zadok the Priest.” As a bonus, Sorrell includes “The Lord Shall Reign” from the epic Israel in Egypt.

The religious Hildegard von Bingen was known as 'The Sybil of the Rhine' on account of her visions, translated into music with prophetic charisma. This disc presents two sides of Hildegard, an instrument and a mirror, reflecting her divine revelations, through the sound of her words both spoken and sung. The performances are from a specialised early-music ensemble, based in Florence, who have undertaken study of the original manuscripts and (perhaps more unusually) performed the music in public before making this testament to the art of one of music's most singular women, who is still perhaps more famed for her life than her music.

"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."

“Full of fire, spirit and life.” is how Mozart described this work of his contemporary, presented here for the first time on this new 2CD set. Mozart’s positive verdict on Josef Myslivecek (1737-1781) was intended to make the listener aware, for the fact that the extremely critical Salzburg composer expresses himself positively about a colleague is an absolute exception. His oratorio Adamo & Eva, performed in Florence in 1771, was composed at precisely the time when contact with the Mozart family seemed to have been particularly close.

The setting of 13 sacred musical texts is natural territory for Grechaninov, a member of the so-called 'new Russian choral school’ that included Sergey Rachmaninov and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. They were all associated with the Moscow Synodal School of Church Music and its Synodal Choir.

Martin Neary and Westminster Abbey Choir, aided and abetted by the New London Consort, marked the tercentenary of Purcell’s death with this recording, a majestic album of the composer’s music for Queen Mary in life and in death. The Funeral Music opens here with Wood’s transcription of the ‘Old English March’ in procession through Westminster Abbey’s reverberant interior, then in company with the windband marches of Tollet and Paisible and Purcell’s Funeral March. For sense of place, history, and grandeur, nothing beats Neary’s recording. His choir are on peak form in Morley’s Funeral Sentences but hindered by indistinct recorded sound.

Mozart 250th Anniversary Edition: Complete Sacred Music by Harnoncourt / Mozart / Vienna Concentus Musicus was released Sep 19, 2005 on the Warner Classics label. Mozart 250th Anniversary Edition: Complete Sacred Music is a 13-disc set.

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.

The music here was written for performance during Holy Week at the splendid Catholic court of Dresden in 1722. The example of Dresden stirred Johann Sebastian Bach to some of his most Italianate flights of opera-like music, and the composer of the Holy Week responsories heard here, the Bohemian-born Jan Dismas Zelenka (whom Bach himself admired), had an experimental, progressive spirit in much of his music. All the more of a surprise, then, to find that these pieces are written in an almost antique style. Each of the three Matins services is divided into three Nocturns, each of which is provided with three pairs of readings or lessons (given in chant) and three responsories, polyphonically set for a small choir (the two-singers-to-a-part forces heard here were apparently typical), with orchestral strings mostly doubling the vocal lines.

Harnoncourt offers us two wonderful religious works of the great Mozart: Missa K. 257 and Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento K. 243. Works of great musical beauty where the Arnold Schoenber Choir gives us an excellent interpretation. The soloists, especially the soprano Angela Maria Blasi, magnificent.

…Parrott parades his smooth and integrated forces with less instant theatricality. Instead we have here a typically homogeneous and unfolding scenario: how organically and gently "Tis Nature's voice" emerges, with Rogers Covey-Crump expressing the passions with a wonderful air of mystery. So too, "Soul of the world" — what a transcendent concluding passage — which has never been bettered for atmosphere and clarity of ensemble. The solo singing here is good (there is some exquisite work from Emma Kirkby and from tenors Charles Daniels and Paul Elliott in "In vain the am'rous flute").