Label: GLOSSA SACD 921611
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Messe à 8 Voix et 8 Violons et Flutes (H.3); Te Deum à 8 Voix avec Flutes et Violons (H.145)

Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet
For much of his career Hervé Niquet has been - as he acknowledges - infatuated with the sacred choral music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier. For Glossa his recordings go from strength to strength - in performance requirements too! In the fourth of his series of Charpentier recordings for the label he and Le Concert Spirituel have chosen the Messe à 8 voix et 8 violons et flûtes, H3 (according to the Wiley Hitchcock catalogue) and the Te Deum à 8 voix avec flûtes et violons, H145. Fascinating booklet notes covering the origins of these two works have been supplied by Thomas Leconte from the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

Label: GLOSSA SACD 921616
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Water Music, Suite I (HWV 348); Water Music, Suite II (HWV 349); Water Music, Suite III (HWV 350); Music for the Royal Fireworks (HWV 351); Joyeaux Anniversaire

Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet
“After half a century of musicological, organological and scientific investigation, the different guidelines we use for interpreting the Baroque repertoire have become very precise. If so, why are we still suspicious of the results of these investigations? It has been the intention of the hundred (!!!) musicians gathered here for the performance of the Water Music and Fireworks suites, in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Le Concert Spirituel, to put into practice, without any concessions, what they know of these early techniques, each one according to his or her field of specialization ... The sound is unusual in its colors and its energy; some ears, unaccustomed to mean tone temperament, can expect to be surprised. But our queries and intuitions have met with bold answers, transparent and enriching, and that, without a doubt, show respect for the work.” – Hervé Niquet 2 CDS FOR THE PRICE OF 1

Label: GLOSSA SACD 921623
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ARTISTS: Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet, musical direction

Label: GLOSSA SACD 922201
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L’Oiseau de Feu (Firebird)(Version 1910); Chant du Rossignol, Poème symphonique pour orchestre

Flemish Radio Orchestra/Yoel Levi
Glossa, primarily known for its outstanding early music productions, now presents two new releases and a new partnership with the Flemish Radio Orchestra (VRO) and Choir (VRK): two superb ensembles focusing primarily on repertoires from the 20th and 21st centuries. Technically speaking, this series also introduces Glossa’s first hybrid SACDs for high-end audio fans. This top quality surround audio approach makes the listening experience even more rich and pleasurable – an exquisitely balanced symphony orchestra and an elite contemporary chamber choir are certainly two examples where the extra production costs make sense. The Flemish Radio Orchestra’s chief conductor is Yoel Levi, who worked for many years with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. This new relationship will also involve frequent collaboration with guest conductors such as Gerd Albrecht, Hervé Niquet and others. In the past few years, strong relationships have been built with the film industry and with film composers such as Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, Ennio Morricone, Michel Legrand and John Debney. This line of work is also expected to yield some exciting results within the Glossa/VRO-VRK partnership in the coming months. The debut recording of the new series comprises Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird (complete 1910 version) and Chant du Rossignol, and was produced with the firm intention of putting benchmark interpretations on the market. For more than 70 minutes, the wide dynamic range, infinite timbrical nuances and expressive depth of Stravinsky’s orchestral music are explored and provide a deeply enriching listening experience. And, last but not least, the breathtaking beauty of the work of Glossa’s designer, Valentín Iglesias and his office, merits mention. It provides the perfect visual basis for this new adventure with two of Europe’s most exquisite and forward-looking ensembles.

Label: GLOSSA SACD 922202
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Flemish Radio Choir/Johan Duijck
All the conductors who have worked with the Flemish Radio Choir, or VRK, have no hesitation in ranking it along side the other two great European chamber choirs, Accentus and the RIAS Kammerchor. Its technical confidence, expressive capacity and profound knowledge of the repertoires, as well as its enormous vision and originality in putting together its programs, are the key factors that have led to the inclusion of this elite group in Glossa’s selection of artists. Apart from the regular work with its Belgian conductor Johan Duijck, there are already plans for concerts and recordings with maestros such as Paul Hillier and Hervé Niquet, in what will be, indeed already is, a new and fascinating line for our label. Composed during the Second World War (most of it at a Budapest monastery) and completed in 1944, Missa Brevis was first performed in 1945, just after the end of the war, at the Budapest Opera House (where Kodály and his wife had been forced to seek refuge during the final days of the conflict). In fact, it was actually performed in the dressing rooms, these apparently being the only part of the building that had not been damaged by the constant air raids on the city. It is one of his most notable choral pieces with accompaniment and subliminally conveys the suffering and uncertainty of that endless time during which Kodály risked his own life on more than one occasion. While all of this certainly helps to explain its powerful emotional and intensely dramatic qualities, more than anything else Missa Brevis is a hymn to hope, a musical poem of extraordinary transparency written in praise not only of the divinity that governs the destiny of humanity and nations but also, rooted as ever in the popular, of religious feeling, as manifested in believers for comfort and strength in the most difficult of circumstances. Let us end by remembering the following words pronounced by Kodály: “Our age of mechanization leads along a road ending with man himself a machine: only the spirit of singing can save us from this fate.” With its vigorous lyricism, its vibrant intonation, but also its alternation between restraint and jubilation, the Missa Brevis is a formidable exercise in sonorous refinement, an amalgam of singularly rich and sensitive musical impressions, a source of constant enjoyment for any listener who demands of a composition not so much the somewhat banal power of relaxation but rather the momentary suspension of what one philosopher has called the “world’s prose”, meaning, the general lines that generally govern the material world, “mechanization”, stripped of spirituality.

Label: GLOSSA SACD 922203
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Flemish Radio Choir/Kaspars Putninsh
Throughout the history of music, few composers have had such (almost systematic) recourse to feelings as Rachmaninov and used them as the main sustenance for their works. Generally, even the most identifiably Romantic authors occasionally hide or disguise their feelings behind more abstract concepts, which can be summarized by terms such as “thematic construction”, “motif material” and “expressive power”. Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943), however, was not afraid to make eloquent, unambiguous and direct references to the feelings that pervade his pieces in a mixture of agitation and urgency, turning them into moving radiographs of his innermost artistic and human sentiments. Neither does he hesitate to assert the eminently nationalist nature of his output. His Liturgy of St John Chrysostom was composed in 1910 when, at the age of 37, Rachmaninov had just returned from his first American tour, having given a series of recitals in which his Concerto Nº 3 for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 30 had been enthusiastically received.

Label: GLOSSA SACD 922204
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Symphony No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 55; The Kingdom, Op. 51: Prelude

Flemish Radio Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins
Elgar on Glossa? And why not, when it brings together one of the UK’s leading conducting talents in Romantic music, Martyn Brabbins with the committed advocacy of an orchestra rising superbly to the technical challenges of the First Symphony with both spontaneity and energy: the Flemish Radio Orchestra, who here make there second appearance on the label. Brabbins is an ideal director to be at the helm of a work that sits comfortably in the Late Romantic European tradition of orchestral music and for marshalling the forces which can shed new light on a work from outside the grand performing practice of the British orchestras. In this 150th anniversary year of Edward Elgar’s birth it is surely right – as well as artistically exciting – to hear how musicians from outside the UK approach one of the masterpieces of the composer, the son of a piano-tuner and born in the village of Broadheath outside Worcester in England. Indeed, Colin Anderson’s perceptive booklet article has more to say on the positioning of Elgar in the general scheme of European musical history. To accompany the First Symphony conductor and orchestra have added an engaging rendition of the Prelude to The Kingdom, Elgar’s oratorio, completed in 1906, two years before he finished his First Symphony; both mature statements from Britain’s finest.

Label: GLOSSA SACD 922205
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Singet Dem Herrn Ein Neues Lied BWV 225; Komm, Jesu, Komm BWV 229; Der Geist Hilft Unser Schwachheit Auf BWV 226; Jesu, Meine Freude BWV 227; Ich Lasse Dich Nicht, Du Segnest Mich Denn BWV Anh. 159; Fürchte Dich Nicht, Ich Bin Bei Dir BWV 228; Lobet Den Herrn, Alle Heiden BWV 230

Flemish Radio Choir/Bo Holten
This coming together of two current dynamic musical forces in the Flemish Radio Choir and the Danish conductor Bo Holten in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach signals the latest development in Glossa’s association with the Brussels-based professional choral ensemble, which has already seen the artistry, versatility and flexibility of the 24 singers displayed in Zoltán Kodály’s Missa brevis (GLOSSA SACD 922202) and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (GLOSSA SACD 922203). The greatness of Bach’s music – and here it is his motets – is mirrored by its approachability from a kaleidoscopic range of performance styles. The Flemish Radio Choir (FRC) has the intention, in this repertoire, of presenting an alternative to the authentic early performance style. In an interview within the CD booklet Bo Holten acknowledges his awareness and appreciation of the scholarly developments of recent decades concerning the singing of such music with one voice to a part whilst stressing his own artistic impulses as a choral director, and also as a composer himself. This Bach recording represents the fruit of many months of preparation by Holten working with the FRC in rehearsal and in concert and it is no real coincidence that the Flemish Radio Choir has just announced the appointment of Bo Holten as its new Principal Conductor.

Label: GLOSSA SACD 922207
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KURT WEILL (1900 – 1950) – DAS BERLINER REQUIEM
Vom To dim Wald
DARIUS MILHAUD (1892 – 1974): Cantate de la Guerre; Cantate de la Paix
PAUL HINDEMITH (1895 – 1963): Der Tod
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882 – 1971): Octet for Wind Instruments

I Solisti del Vento; Flemish Radio Choir; Paul Hillier, conductor
After Jean Cocteau had issued tracks such as Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918) and Le Rappel à l’ordre (1926), arguing against French Impressionism and German Romanticism and in favour of art for art’s sake and with prominence being given to accessibility, simplicity and structural clarity, many composers responded to his clarion call. The devastation and emotional misery caused by the First World War and the fear of an impending further cataclysm also struck hard at existing artistic certainties. Through their music Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud and Kurt Weill all endeavored to make sense of this “new Europe” which they were experiencing around them. For its latest Glossa release the Flemish Radio Choir (VRK) has selected an ideal quintet of works to demonstrate these tendencies as well as highlighting the vocal talents of this leading European choral formation.
Kurt Weill’s 1928 secular mass for the dead, Das Berliner Requiem, represents the jewel in this crown, and the VRK is accompanied by I Solisti del Vento, who also offer Stravinsky’s 1923 Octet for Wind Instruments. Both ensembles are performing here under the direction of one of the leading choral directors of today in Paul Hillier, who is as exacting in his interpretation of music from the 20th century onwards as he is in compositions from distinctly earlier periods.

Label: GLOSSA SACD 922208
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VIKTOR ULLMANN (1898 – 1944)
Symphony No. 1 “Von meiner Jugend”
Don Quixote tanzt Fandango; Der zerbrochene Krug – Overture; Symphony No. 2

Brussels Philharmonic/Gerd Albrecht
The composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) could not have predicted, fortunately, that his name would come to be inseparably linked to the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto. Not only does this recollection of a particularly black page in Western history continue to accompany his music, but the label “degenerate music” (Entartete Musik) is evoked time and again.
In recent years, Ullmann’s largely unknown body of work has once again attracted interest. His opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis has since been performed numerous times, and his other works are also making their way on to concert programs. It seems odd at first that mention is made here of two symphonies. In the strict sense Ullmann did not write any symphonies. His notes on the 5th and 7th Piano Sonatas suggest, however, that he intended to transcribe these works for orchestra.
After his horrible death, the composer and conductor Bernhard Wulff did that in his place.
Gerd Albrecht brings a real understanding and commitment to compositions of Viktor Ullmann in directing the Brussels Philharmonic (previously called Flemish Radio Orchestra), providing us with an interpretation of music which is both fascinating in its own right and of the highest quality, whilst being the more poignant for being composed when Ullmann was being held captive in one of the most infamous concentration camps established during the course of the Second World War.

Label: GLOSSA SACD 922209
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Stokowski Transcriptions
BACH /STOKOWSKI: Tocata and Fugue in D minor; CESTI/STOKOWSKI: Tu mancavi a tormentarmi; HANDEL/EGARR: Water Music Suite; PURCELL/STOKOWSKI: Suite of Five Pieces; PALESTRINA/STOKOWSKI: Adoramus te; OCKEGHEM/STOKOWSKI: Intemerata Dei Mater; TCHAIKOVSKY: Slavonic March (Marche Slav)

Brussels Philharmonic / Richard Egarr, conductor

The charm and sheer full-blooded pleasure offered by Leopold Stokowski’s transcriptions continues to hold sway today – complete with opulent and resonant strings – some three decades after the dynamic conductor’s death. The “Stokowski Sound” was particularly, indeed deliberately, well-suited to the possibilities offered with the development of stereo recording of the maestro’s day, a challenge which Glossa’s engineer Manuel Mohino has happily embraced as much as the Brussels Philharmonic, whose members have taken to the style like ducks to water in this modern-day “Evening with Leopold Stokowski”. Leading the way with a classy swagger in transcriptions of Bach, Purcell and Palestrina is a conductor in Richard Egarr, perhaps better known for his work with the unadorned originals (he is the Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, after all), but in reality equally at home in much later music – and he makes no bones about his appreciation of the Stokowski style. About the transcription of Dido’s Lament Egarr says, “It is still Purcell, even in Stokowski's fur coat.” and, for added emphasis, he conjures up his own orchestral confection of Handel’s Water Music. It is an evening’s entertainment of unalloyed pleasure culminating in a triumphant rendition of the Slavonic March by Tchaikovsky, à la Stokowski, naturally.