Month: March 2020

This Scepter’d Isle

An all-English playlist. We start with a sequence from Sir Patrick Stewart in the soliloquy John of Gaunt speaks in Richard II…and we’re off! This Scepter’d Isle The first work up is Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis – a work written to be performed in Gloucester Cathedral as...

Flatten the Curve

In a fun play on “Flatten the Curve”, I thought I’d include two preludes and fugues  (in “F” and “C” – get it) from Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier – Book 2 as played by the incomparable Edward Aldwell. Ed was my counterpoint teacher at Curtis (he also taught for many years...

The First of Many…

This week’s playlist starts out with a work that I think is one of the most beautiful and moving of recent a cappella choral works: Eriks Ešenvalds’ Only in Sleep – in a gorgeous performance; and the video itself is so creative…love this! The First of Many Then follows William Byrd’s stunning a cappella motet...

Hidden Mass

The concert opens with Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Chorus, now recognized as one of the great masterpieces of 20th century a cappella choral music. Swiss-born Martin was an extremely self-critical composer who would lock away his manuscripts for long periods, often hobbled by a belief that his work would never measure...