New York Polyphony – Sing thee Nowell (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:17 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Nowell, Nowel, Noel – on their new release, Sing thee Nowell, New York Polyphony sing of and to the birth of Christ. They do so in a typically sophisticated programme which fuses the ancient with the modern into a seamless whole: seven centuries of Christmas passes before the listener, with new works composed for these performers by Michael McGlynn, Andrew Smith and John Scott alongside traditional medieval and Renaissance carols and motets by Clemens ‘non Papa’, Philippe Verdelot and Tomás Luis de Victoria. The wide-ranging sequence is anchored by Richard Rodney Bennett’s Five Carols, in which the sopranos Sarah Brailey and Elizabeth Baber Weaver join the four members of New York Polyphony in celebrating ‘the joyful birth’ and in praising ‘Mary mild’. The wondrous events related to the Nativity and the joy they bring to mankind naturally dominate, but intimations of Christ’s death on the cross also surface in the course of the disc, as in Peter Warlock’s Bethlehem Down: ‘they will clothe him in grave-sheets, myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown.’ Formed in 2006, New York Polyphony has rapidly emerged as one of the leading vocal chamber ensembles, applying a distinctly modern touch to repertoire that ranges from austere medieval melodies to cutting-edge contemporary compositions. Two previous recordings for BIS have received critical acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for the 2013 release Times go by Turns, interleaving masses by Byrd and Tallis with works from the 21st century.’
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New York Polyphony – Lamentationes (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:41 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Renaissance music from Spain has come to mean the works of composers such as Tomás Luís de Victoria or Francisco Guerrero rather than their predecessors. But composers such as Francisco de Peñalosa – who died in 1528, the same year that Guerrero was born – were musicians of genuine imagination and skill, whose work often shows a formidable individuality. The most recent edition of Peñalosa’s oeuvre lists 22 works as genuine: masses, lamentations, hymns and motets. From these, New York Polyphony have selected two highly expressive Lamentations, intended for services held during Holy Week and setting biblical texts bemoaning the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Besides two brief motets, Peñalosa is also represented by sections from his Missa L’homme armé, one of the many examples from the 15th to the 17th century of cyclic masses based on secular melodies. These pieces by Peñalosa are brought into relief by shorter works by his near-contemporary Pedro de Escobar – a deeply haunting setting of the beginning of the hymn Stabat Mater – and the aforementioned Francisco Guerrero. Guerrero is represented by Quae est ista, a setting of words from the Song of Songs which have inspired the composer to ecstatic cascades of notes. In contrast his Antes que comáis a Dios, with a text in Spanish, is simple but effective, in a propulsive triple time.
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New York Polyphony – And the Sun Darkened: Music for Passiontide (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:16 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
GRAMMY-nominated vocal quartet New York Polyphony today announced the release of And the sun darkened, a new album out Friday, March 5, 2021 on BIS Records. The album marks a return to form for the ensemble – a 58-minute program of new and ancient works organized around texts appropriate for Passiontide, the last two weeks of the Lenten season in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Champions of rare and rediscovered works of antiquity, New York Polyphony presents the world premiere recording Loyset Compère’s Officium de Cruce, an elaborate, multi-movement motet cycle that rivals the masterpieces of Franco-Flemish contemporaries Pierre de la Rue and Josquin des Prez, both of whom also appear on the album. Additional works include Andrew Smith’s Salme 55, Adrian Willaert’s Pater noster-Ave Maria, and Cyrillus Kreek’s Taaveti laul 22.
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New York Polyphony – Roma Aeterna: two Roman masses (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:07 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: eClassical | Digital Booklet | © BIS Records
Recorded: August 2015 at St Cecilia Cathedral, Omaha, USA
The widely acclaimed vocal ensemble New York Polyphony has on its previous recordings for BIS focussed on Franco-Flemish polyphony (endBeginning, BIS-1949), the English Renaissance (Times go by Turns, BIS-2037) and Christmas (Sing thee Nowell, BIS-2099). Each of these discs – which have been highly praised by the critics, receiving no less than two Grammy Award nominations – has also included contemporary works, resulting in striking resonances between music from across more than half a millennium. With their new album, Roma aeterna, the ensemble follow the example of so many musicians before them and go on a pilgrimage to the Eternal City, but this time they remain in the 16th century throughout the disc, constructing a programme centred on two of the greatest composers of the era – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria. Palestrina’s polyphonic art has influenced composers throughout the ages and continues to do so today, and his Missa Papae Marcelli is often regarded as the crowning glory of vocal music from the era. His slightly younger colleague Tomás Luis de Victoria was born in Spain, but went to Rome to study in 1765 and remained there for two decades. During that time he published a number of works, including Missa O quam gloriosum and the motet Gaudent in cœlis. The programme includes works scored for four as well as for six voices, in which the four members of New York Polyphony are variously joined by Tim Keeler (countertenor), Andrew Fuchs (tenor) and Jonathan Woody (bass-baritone).
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