Highlights include ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, with the opening verse sung by treble Adam Banwell, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, solo performed by bass Hugo Herman-Wilson and ‘Hark! the herald angels sing’.

It provides at once a survey of the King’s Christmas tradition and a snapshot of the choir as it is today. Recording of the Month – Friends of Cathedral Music – BBC Music Magazine

Choir of King’s College Cambridge
Stephen Cleobury, Conductor
Douglas Tang, Organ
Tom Etheridge, Organ
Parker Ramsay, Organ

The post Favourite Carols from King’s appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

Heinrich Schütz continued to set himself challenges throughout his long career. Of all the genres of sacred music that he undertook, the oratorio offers us his most contrasting ideas. His Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi is in many respects the model for the genre that would later be employed by the musicians of Johann Sebastian Bach’s generation.

The score that Vox Luminis uses for this recording has been reconstructed from manuscript sources in the Düben Collection in Uppsala. The album is completed with a number of particularly festive motets for the Christmas period by Heinrich Schütz and his illustrious contemporary Andreas Hammerschmidt.

Vox Luminis
Lionel Meunier, Musical Director

The post Schütz: Weihnachtshistorie (A Christmas History) appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

Recorded, mixed and mastered in Stereo and Immersive Surround Sound DXD by multi Grammy Award winner Jim Anderson. The album is being released at NativeDSD in Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD from the 32 Bit DXD Edit Master Source this year.  With the Immersive Surround Sound edition of the album arriving in 2025.

The 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and Juilliard Professor Donald Vega shared his inspiration behind the album. Echoing the traditions of holiday albums by Oscar Peterson and Nat King Cole, and taking inspiration from Vince Guaraldi’s holiday classic, Vega set out to make an album that families will enjoy for years to come.

Donald Vega Trio
Donald Vega, Piano
Clovis Nicolas, Bass
Pete Van Nostrand, Drums

The post All Is Merry And Bright appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

The inspiration for Hugo Distler’s Die Weihnachtgeschichte Opus X, a gem of a Christmas narrative can be found in the German-language protestant sacred music of the early baroque era, especially the music of Heinrich Schütz.

Drawing on Schütz’s example, Distler composed his Christmas story exclusively for vocalists – soloists and a 4-8-voiced ensemble – in what is, in Distler’s own words, described as an “Oratorium mit kammermusikalische Charakter [Oratorio with a chamber music character]”. We also hear parts of the beautiful choral Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, which appears seven times during the course of the narrative – every time in a new harmonic colour.

The story of Hugo Distler’s life is a tragic one. Born in Nuremburg in 1908, he would go on to teach at the School for Church Music in Spandau before being appointed professor of church music in Stuttgart in 1940. Distler, who was a deeply religious man, has been recognized as a forerunner of the New German Church Music, an important musical movement which developed in the 1930s. The Nazis stigmatized Distler’s compositions as “degenerate art”, and when he received his conscription papers, he took his life. Sadly, Distler’s music is seldom performed outside of Germany even to this day.

Hailed by Gramophone as “a choir worth listening to for their beautiful singing, which can deliver performances of pure, natural eloquence,” the 16 voices of the award-winning vocal ensemble Concert Clemens, founded by conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen in 1997, has established itself as one of the leading vocal ensembles in Scandinavia. Their stylistic versatility has been seen in numerous collaborations exploring the connections between jazz and classical music as well as note-perfect interpretations of standard repertoire. The evangelist, tenor Adam Riis, is one of Denmark’s leading voices.

Recorded in the DXD format by the Danish “Wizard of Sound”, Preben Iwan, in the in the resonant sonics of Skt. Markus Kirken, Århus.

Concert Clemens – vocal group
Adam Riis – vocals
Carsten Seyer-Hanses – conductor

The post Hugo Distler: Die Weihnachtgeschichte Opus X appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

Matthew Guard, the Artistic Director of Skylark tells us “In the Summer of 2019, we recorded our album Once Upon a Time, our first recorded version of a “story concert.” Although we had explored this concept for several years prior with storyteller Sarah Walker, Once Upon a Time was our first collaboration with Benedict Sheehan, who composed incidental music (almost like a choral movie score) to accompany Sarah’s dialogue and to connect the musical dots between existing works by an array of composers.

That summer, it became clear that we had stumbled onto something unusual and special. First, the idea of a continuous choral story score – combining elements of classical performance, storytelling, film scoring, and theatricality – seemed to be a rich new idiom for choral performance art. Second, the collaborative team of the project seemed like a dream come true. There was a strong sense of mutual respect for everyone’s unique talents, and a rare ability for creative push and pull.

In agreement that we were eager to explore something even more intentional, Christmas was a topic of great interest to all of us. Choral music seems to have a special appeal during the holidays, and Christmas is a time when stories seem to have a unique ability to move people. In some ways, the Dickens is both the best and worst choice for our nascent art-form. The best because it is so well known and beloved by many; familiarity creates an entry point for many listeners. The worst because it has been done so many times, it has the danger of being seen as a holiday trope (who doesn’t see a poster of an old man in a stocking cap?).

Writing this now, on the day that I’ve heard the final mastered recording for the first time, it’s hard to believe that this particular arrangement of words and music has never existed before. Like many great works of art, it feels to me as though this has always been there waiting to be discovered, like a beautiful figure carved from a single piece of wood whose form is revealed by a master wood carver. As Benedict’s early vocation was as a carpenter, this analogy feels particularly apt.

Looking forward to our debut concerts in a few months, I cannot wait to share this dramatic experience with the world. Yes, it’s a story that has been told before. Frequently. Yes, it calls to mind images of early Victorian England – not a particularly modern story to bring the table in 2021. But, the story is ultimately a story of redemption – how one human is transformed to see the world differently; to open eyes and hearts to others, to offer love and joy rather than bitterness and contempt. It’s a journey we all should contemplate. My greatest hope for this recording is that this collaborative labor of love will encourage many people to contemplate such a journey each and every year.”

Skylark Vocal Ensemble
Sarah Walker – Storyteller
Matthew Guard – Artistic Director

The post A Christmas Carol appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

This is a Pure DSD 256 Stereo album. It is available in its original recorded format of Stereo DSD 256 as well as other DSD bit rates created in the DSD Domain from the Stereo DSD 256 master. It is a DSD Exclusive, Not Available on SACD release.

Gabor Benda tells us “The first time I was touched by the story of Jesus was in my early childhood in elementary school at about the age of six. I remember we had a wise, elderly and very elegant Bible class teacher. She spoke about five languages and often read to us from foreign books, not only translating but simplifying themes as well. Somehow, she was always able to connect these different books, these different tales to Jesus; through his teachings and deeds.

Once, during a school event I played J.S. Bach’s Prelude in C minor (BWV 999). I had a terrible stage fright, after all the whole school was watching, and it was my first public performance. My teacher was really touched by my humble piano playing and said that I played the keys like Jesus walked on water. She told me that Bach is the most important composer in music history and the closest person to God, the closest person to Jesus. At that moment somehow, I understood at this very young age that our whole cultural existence is based upon the existence of Jesus Christ: music, literature, fine arts; everything is connected to him.

From that moment J.S. Bach became my favorite composer. The way his melodies, his polyphonous leads develop in his compositions is like a never-ending energy that moves nature; as the leaves grow on trees and die and grow again in an infinitive circle in a time-lapse video recording. His music imitates the whole eternal cycle of life that is being triggered by an irresistible outside force.

This is the essential moving force I wanted to represent in my music. Not to imitate Bach but to follow the substantive nature of things that Bach followed and tell stories to modern humankind in a traditional way through an up-to-date language.”

Gábor Benda, Piano

The post The Story Of Jesus [Pure DSD] appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

The trio of female singers is accompanied by harp, fiddle, bells, and wind instruments. Together they touchingly evoke all the tenderness, hope, and joy of medieval Christmas songs.

The roots of this recording go back to 1974-75, when the Boston Camerata and its director (now Director Emeritus) Joel Cohen performed in concert and then recorded a new production entitled A Medieval Christmas. That vinyl LP quickly became a best seller, confirming Camerata’s status as a leading ensemble in the early music world.

In the years following, the program remained in Camerata’s repertoire. The ensemble toured extensively in North America and Europe, including one particular appearance at a festival in the Languedoc. There, Camerata’s present director, Anne Azéma, then a student and aspiring professional, first succumbed as an audience member to the charm of the repertoire, and in particular of the Aquitanian polyphonic pieces! Later, as a Camerata singer, she performed this program many times. Over the course of the years, it has been re-imagined, augmented, and re-evaluated.

On this album we bring you an updated version of A Medieval Christmas. Quite different in many ways from the 1970s production. But, with its pluri-disciplinarity and diversity of sources, it is still close to the original in its underlying spirit.

Three female voices and two instrumentalists, each with many years of experience performing medieval music, all at the peak of their art, place themselves at the service of these works. This five-person group has recently presented in concert the current, revised program on the East and West coasts of the United-States, and in Canada.

Merry Christmas from The Boston Camerata, Anne Azéma, harmonia mundi and NativeDSD!

The Boston Camerata
Anne Azéma – Voice, Hurdy-Gurdy, Bells, Direction
Camila Parias – Voice
Deborah Rentz-Moore – Voice
Christa Patton – Harp, Winds
Shira Kammen – Vielle, Rebec, Harp

The post A Medieval Christmas: Hodie Christus Natus Est (Today Christ Is Born) appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

Beate Strømme Fevang says “Colours of Christmas” contains a collection of beautiful carols that arise out of the Christmas message of hope, anticipation, and joy. Together with the girls in the choir we have selected 15 carols that mean a lot to them and for which they have a special fondness.

More than half the music is Norwegian, written by composers Kim André Arnesen, Svein Møller, Tove Knutsen and Fredrik Sixten. The last-mentioned is Swedish but was formerly Director of Music of Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, where he also lives. Many of the carols have never been recorded, and in this process, we have had an exciting collaboration with several of the composers.

The tracks on the album vary between a cappella choir and choir with instrumental accompaniment. Working with the instrumentalists has been very inspiring and an enriching experience for the choir and has contributed to the growth and development of the young singers. The recordings have been made in the marvelous acoustic setting of Bragernes Church, which is the choir’s regular venue.

The recording of this Christmas album began in the spring of 2019 but stopped entirely due to COVID-19. The remaining tracks were recorded in the spring of 2021.

Colours of Christmas is exclusively available in Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD at NativeDSD Music.

Bragernes Church Youth Choir (Bragernes Kirkes Ungdomskor)
Beate Strømme Fevang, Conductor

The post Colours of Christmas appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

Cantate Domino is a remarkable album.  It has been an audiophile favorite for many years.  Appreciated for its exquisite sound quality in the recording of choral and solo voices. Setting a new standard in sound engineering. It features Oscar’s Motet Choir. organist Alf Linder, soprano Marianne Mellnas and is conducted by Torsten Nilsson.

Recorded by legendary sound engineer Bertil Alving in 1976, the album is widely regarded as one of the greatest audiophile masterpieces ever recorded. Opening with Enrico Bossi’s “Cantate Domino” for choir, organ, trumpets and trombones, the choral album includes several Swedish folk songs as well as pieces by Handel, Otto Olsson, and others.

Cantate Domino is now made even better with this new Stereo DSD and DXD edition from 2xHD Mastering and Naxos.  NativeDSD makes the album available to our listeners in Stereo DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD plus Stereo DSD 256 and Stereo DSD 512 editions – found only at NativeDSD Music.

Words from the Book of Psalms, the foremost treasure of Jewish psalms since ages ago, even at the time of Jesus. The psalms were recited and sung in the homes, in the synagogues and, not least, in the Temple of Jerusalem at the great festivals.

The Christian church appropriated the Book of Psalms; its significance is precious. Seldom has the agony and assurance of the soul been expressed more truly and profoundly. The features of the Saviour emerging ever clearer. And the praises to the Lord of Creation have never been sung more genuinely!

Many authors have mined the Book of Psalms for gems and paraphrased them. Still, more composers have drawn inspiration from it. One of the best-known works is the Italian romanticist Enrico Bossi’s magnificent “Cantate Domino”. The piece is titled “Westminster Abbey” in tribute to the grand English cathedral, albeit we know it from its first performance in 1920 for its opening words in Latin. “Sing and make music to the glory of God!” Organ, brass and woodwind, and choir, whose voices, in ever widening harmonies, grow into a jubilant crescendo, culminating in the eight-part Gloria (Glory)! “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”

Oscar’s Motet Choir
Torsten Nilsson – Conductor
Alf Linder – Organ
Marianne Mellnas – Soprano

The post Cantate Domino appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

The Ludus Danielis is part of the Christmas cycle of liturgical dramas. It belongs, that is, to the group of texts which originated as figures to speech, or annotations, of the Christmas religious office, wherein they evolved with specific features of their own, if not as independent spectacles. (Luigi Bellingardi)

Frederick Renz is a unique figure in the early music movement. Equally adept in all forms of music and music drama from the 11th through the 18th centuries, he has reaped international acclaim for his work as conductor, producer, director, and performer while leading EARLY MUSIC NEW YORK to preeminence in the field.

New York’s Ensemble for Early Music
Frederick Renz, Director

The post Daniel And The Lions (Ludus Danielis) appeared first on NativeDSD Music.