This set of choral pieces by Mendelssohn, all either unaccompanied or with organ (whose presence is too retiring here), shows the variety in his sacred output. Languages represented are German, Latin, and English; religions Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican. Some of the music reflects his encounter with Bach, not in the imposing mode of the oratorios but rather in the small, chorale-like settings of the opening Sechs Sprüche für das Kirchenjahr, Op. 79. Other pieces, including one each for all-male and all-female choirs, are ...
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This set of choral pieces by Mendelssohn, all either unaccompanied or with organ (whose presence is too retiring here), shows the variety in his sacred output. Languages represented are German, Latin, and English; religions Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican. Some of the music reflects his encounter with Bach, not in the imposing mode of the oratorios but rather in the small, chorale-like settings of the opening Sechs Sprüche für das Kirchenjahr, Op. 79. Other pieces, including one each for all-male and all-female choirs, are even simpler, with links to the tradition of secular choral song. And yet almost all of it has the everything's-good personality that's so characteristic of Mendelssohn's music and that so endeared him to Victorian England. Hear the two-section Laudate pueri, Op. 39/2, for female choir, with its delightful SSA trio. The soprano heard there, Rachel Bennett, also excels in the best-known work on the disc, Hear My Prayer, for soprano, choir, and organ; this slice of sentimentalist...
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