Mozart - Litanies, K195 & K243
£9.98
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Label: Australian Eloquence
Cat No: ELQ4825041
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 6th October 2017
Contents
Artists
Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)Nancy Evans (contralto)
William Herbert (tenor)
George James (bass)
Ralph Downes (organ)
The St. Anthony Singers
Boyd Neel Orchestra
Conductor
Anthony LewisWorks
Litaniae Lauretanae, K195Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento, K243
Artists
Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)Nancy Evans (contralto)
William Herbert (tenor)
George James (bass)
Ralph Downes (organ)
The St. Anthony Singers
Boyd Neel Orchestra
Conductor
Anthony LewisAbout
Sung at afternoon services on feast days, the Litany was a favourite form of Catholic devotional music in the eighteenth century. In the first complete recordings of two such litanies, a quartet of English soloists make contributions notable for beauty of both line and tone. ‘Jennifer Vyvyan sings with pure tone, sensitivity and admirable phrasing’ was Gramophone’s verdict on her leading role in the Litaniae Lauretanae, K195, of 1774, and the more extensive Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento, K243, of 1776. Like much of Mozart’s Salzburg church music, the Litaniae Lauretanae, K195 (not to be confused with his earlier setting of the same text, K109) is in a cheerful, Italianate style, indebted as much to dramatic gestures familiar from concert-hall and opera house as to the pleading or prayerful idiom of the cathedral.
The line between sacred and secular is blurred in a gently lilting ‘Sancta Maria’, whose opening soprano solo is exquisitely floated by Jennifer Vyvyan. She won critical acclaim early in her career for the poise and grace of her singing in Mozartian roles such as Constanze and Ilia which test the singer with precipitous leaps and florid embellishment. The opening solo of the concluding ‘Agnus Dei’ has a similarly flamboyant vocal line which Vyvyan sings here with ringing tone and vividly expressive attention to each phrase. Vyvyan displays what The Daily Telegraph, in a review of the original LP, called her ‘serene artistry and soaring clarity of line’. She is joined by three colleagues who also made regular appearances on London’s operatic stages in the mid-1950s when these two LPs were first issued.
‘Jennifer Vyvyan sings with pure tone, sensitivity and admirable phrasing, and William Herbert, everywhere excellent, darts up and down his scale passages with great agility ... Anthony Lewis conducts the two works with perception, fervour and affection, and the recording gives a very good balance and string tone with a nice bloom on it.’ – Gramophone, August 1955
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