Choral. .

Bradley Lehman

Franz Josef Haydn. Die Schopfung (The Creation). Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists. John Eliot Gardiner. Archiv 449217, $32.00.

Hearing Handel's oratorios (including Messiah), Haydn at age 65 was inspired to respond with this masterpiece about the creation of the world. He invested it with dramatic fire, stunning craftsmanship and some of his best tunes. This performance is bright, exciting, warm, clear--and it dances.

The Best of the Renaissance. Choral works of Allegri, Tallis, Byrd, Josquin, Lobo, Gesualdo, Palestrina, Lassus, Taverner, Cardoso. Tallis Scholars. Peter Phillips. Philips 462862, $14.00.

This is a two-disc survey of the exemplary dozens of, recordings by the Tallis Scholars: various motets, plus three complete settings of the mass. This a cappella music is for four to 40 (!) parts, and is sung here with clarity and devotion.

Arvo Part. De Profundis. Theater of Voices. Paul Hillier. Harmonia Mundi 907182, $16.00.

Here are nine of the most accessible and sensuous sacred choral works by this extraordinary Estonian composer (b. 1935), for whom "the human voice is the most perfect instrument of all." In his music and his words, "Time and timelessness are connected. This instant and eternity are struggling within us. And this is the cause of all of our contradictions, our obstinacy, our narrow-mindedness, our faith and our grief."

Edward Elgar. The Dream of Gerontius. Borg, Baker, Lewis, Choirs, Halle Orchestra. John Barbirolli. EMI Classics 73579, $22.00.

This classic 1964 recording has finally made it to CD, sounding better than ever. The conductor said of this performance, "I wanted to leave it as a kind of testament of my faith." This lavish dramatic work from 1900 is for three soloists, large chorus and orchestra, and traces the journey of a soul into the next world.

Francesco Cavalli. Vespro della Beata Vergine, 1656. La Fenice, Jean Tubery and Akademia. Francoise Lasserre. Pierre Verany 796042, $24.00. Claudio Monteverdi. Vespro per la Salute, 1650. Same performers. Pierre Verany 797031, $24.00.

These two sets are attempts to reconstruct plausible Vespers services from mid-17th century Rome: interspersing plainchant, motets, instrumental works, psalms, antiphons and a Magnificat in their liturgical functions. The results are grand and glorious, recorded in a resonant French abbey. Frankly, any CD of Jean Tubery playing cornetto is self-recommending.

Venetian Church Music. Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Grandi, Castello, Legrenzi, Lotti, Vivaldi. Taverner Consort. Andrew Parrott. Virgin/Angel 61934, $11.00.

St Mark's Cathedral in Venice has inspired some of the richest polychoral music ever written anywhere. This set surveys several centuries of this sensuous music: two generously filled CDs for less than the usual price of one. Appropriate instrumental and solo vocal works are also interspersed.

Gabriel Faure. Requiem (and Cesar Franck's Symphony in D Minor). Collegium Vocale, Orchestre des Champs Elysees. Philippe Herreweghe. Harmonia Mundi 901771, $16.00.

Herreweghe is a rare conductor who consistently reveals a very strong spirituality in performances of the sacred choral repertoire--and he does this in music spanning seven centuries. His players convey the words they're playing, and his singers have an otherworldly grace. Herreweghe has recorded the Faure Requiem twice, with different orchestrations, and both are gorgeous performances of this gentle, comforting work.

Steve Reich. Tehillim and The Desert Music. Alarm Will Sound, Ossia. Alan Pierson. Cantaloupe 21009, $18.00.

Tehillim is an energetic setting of texts from Psalms 19, 34, 18 and 150 (in Hebrew) for four female singers and a chamber ensemble. The music is both catchy and haunting. The Desert Music is a disturbing piece for chorus and orchestra, using poetry by William Carlos Williams about humanity's inclination to self-destruction. It is presented here in a new (2001) chamber version that gives the text and emotions a stark edge. Program notes and samples are at http://www.cantaloupemusic.com. Teenagers should like this one.

Bradley Lehman of Dayton, Virginia, is a harpsichordist and a composer of hymns. His own CDs of clavichord music are available at http://listen.to/bpl.

COPYRIGHT 2003 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning