Every month a member of the Carus team introduces his or her favorite work, whether it be a choral piece, a CD, a songbook or an instrumental work. The recommendation for September 2018 was contributed by deputy chief editor Julia Rosemeyer.
A chance encounter with musicologist and singer Christoph Koop in Leipzig when Liz Robinson was working on the Hofmeister XIX Project introduced her to the Vocal Concert Dresden and their energetic and enterprising conductor Peter Kopp. Kopp is the conductor of her favorite CD with cantatas by Homilius – a recording which greatly expanded her view of choral music.
Dr. Mirjam James grew up with church music and over the years her interest in (church) music has developed considerably: the musical interests of her English family have left their traces. Browsing through the collection English Choral Music Mirjam James and the men in her life (husband and son) also discovered some of their favorites: Stanford in C! one of them calls out, before both simultaneously sing Charles Villiers Stanford’s Magnificat from memory.
Music, Italy, wine … anyone who loves all these things shouldn’t miss Puccini’s Messa a 4 voci con orchestra (Messa di Gloria). Puccini was occasionally criticized for composing “simply”, yet it is often forgotten how long he struggled with subject matter. Despite this the Messa di Gloria is a work which any choral director is grateful for.
The first thing which struck Susanne Keck was the unusual, large, square format of the song book Die schönsten Lieder (The most beautiful songs). Followed by the colorful cover with the cuckoo and the donkey – that was one of her favorite songs in her childhood! Of course she wanted to explore further!
In the course of Fux research, which had its beginnings in the mid-19th century with the catalogue of works by Ludwig von Köchel, some works were rediscovered, including orchestral compositions recorded here by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra conducted by Gottfried von der Goltz. The favorite piece of Luise Schrumpf in this first-class recording is the Ouverture in D minor, which she cannot hear too much of…
The mezzo-soprano Helene Schneiderman has been a member of the ensemble at the Stuttgart Staatsoper for many years. Ulla Sachse loves her and her voice. So when the CD with her singing Yiddish songs, sensitively accompanied by Götz Payer at the piano, was released in 2013 by us at Carus-Verlag, Ulla Sachse bought herself a copy straight away. Only at second glance did she come to realize what a moving story les behind these recordings…
Where does a parody or musical quotation end, and where does plagiarism or music theft begin? In the case of the musical The Three ??? Kids: Music Thieves by Boris Pfeiffer and Peter Schindler it is quite clear. A song by the singer Modena is stolen from the recording studio and distributed via the internet…
Amongst Rheinberger’s 14 mass settings, the Mass in E flat major op. 109 (Cantus Missae) composed in 1878 undoubtedly holds a special position. This mass must, in the opinion of Tristan Meister, count as one of the most important church music compositions of the Romantic period and is worthy of a place in the repertoire of every ambitious choir.
Mendelssohn’s Wedding March combined with the Birds’ Wedding? When we played this audio sample from the accompanying CD to the new Loreley choral collection in a workshop given by the editor Volker Hempfling at chor.com in Dortmund earlier this year, some people in the audience could hardly suppress their smiles. By this point at the latest, two things were clear to all the participants: namely, that folk songs are not in the slightest bit boring, and that three-part settings with just one male voice part can sound just as good as their four-part equivalents.
