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A thread for great choral videos

tones

Tones deaf
It was the Handel thread that made me think of it. I love the great choral music of the Renaissance/baroque/romantic eras, and I thought I'd start a thread for such music. Please add your favourites!

I start off with a personal favourite, the famous performance of the Monteverdi Vespers by Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir in San Marco, Venice. This was made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Monteverdi Choir.


Of course, nobody actually knows where or even if it was performed in San Marco (or indeed anywhere), or whether it was just a musical CV to get a new job. We know the Venice city fathers insisted on a prova, which involved hiring extra musicians, but nobody has any idea what was played.

Note the presence of a young beardless Bryn Terfel singing one of the bass parts.
 
The Bach Foundation in eastern Switzerland has been going through the cantatas, and producing some wonderful performances. Here's BWV34:

 
A splendid performance of Lully^s Te Deum:


This piece has a certain notoriety, because in conducting it, Jean-Baptiste Lully became the first (and possibly only) conductor ever to kill himself with a baton. He was banging time with a large staff when he banged his foot rather hard. He refused amputation of the foot to get rid of the resulting abscess because it would have ended his dancing career, and the gangrene eventually killed him. I notice conductor Vincent Dumestre doesn't use a baton...
 
Gardiner and the Monteverdis do Handel's Dixit Dominus, written in his early 20s when in Rome:


Some of the solos are a bit shaky (being sung by members of the choir rather than star soloists), but the choral work is stunning, and Dixit is all about the stunning choruses - try from 17:38 - 22.39 - Handel at his dramatic best.
 
The greatest choral work of all? The Bach B Minor Mass, here conducted by Jordi Savall:

 
Two of the greatest of the Bach cantatas, performed by Ton Koopman and his group, first BWV140:

 
A nice performance of Mozart's Requiem by Gardiner and the Monteverdis, so old that Gardiner still wore a monkey suit and waved a stick...

 
A nice performance of Mozart's Requiem by Gardiner and the Monteverdis, so old that Gardiner still wore a monkey suit and waved a stick...

I love Abaddo’s Karajan tenth anniversary memorial performance at Salzburg Cathedral.
 
King's College Cambridge Choir perform the Allegri Miserere, with the famous high treble:


Not quite up to the celebrated Roy Goodman recording, but not bad at all.
 
The Rachmaninov Vespers (correctly The All-Night Vigil):


Famous particularly for Nyne otpushchayeshi (Nunc dimittis), where the basses (if they are up to it), descend to an astonishing low B flat, causing standing waves in the floor (20:51). The Ave Maria (Bogoroditse Devo) that follows it is toe-curlingly gorgeous. Pity about the distortion in the louder passages.

This is nice, but nothing ultimately touches the old Sveshnikov recording:

 
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Gardiner's knockout performance of cantatas 1-3 of the Bach Weihnachtsoratorium in the Herderkirche, Weimar.


This was the kick-off performance of Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, in which Gardiner and the Monteverdis performed all the surviving sacred cantatas on the appropriate Sundays of the Lutheran church year.
 
Now that is an edifying experience on an Autumnal morning!
The late Jack Bruce described Bach as the greatest bass player ever. Given the way some of the bass lines dance, I can see why. And I love how the final chorale uses Hassler's tune for the Easter hymn O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (O Sacred Head, sore wounded) - Bach was already gesturing towards the solemnity of Easter, while staying with the festive Christmas spirit.
 


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