{"id":14990,"date":"2022-04-13T20:10:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T18:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=5702"},"modified":"2022-04-13T21:05:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T19:05:06","slug":"the-best-choral-music-for-easter","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/the-best-choral-music-for-easter\/","title":{"rendered":"The best choral music for Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By BBC Music Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 13 April 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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For hundreds of years, composers have been inspired by the Easter story to write some of the most beautiful and heart-rending classical music ever created. We asked some of Britain\u2019s top choral conductors to choose their favourite\u00a0choral works\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

JS Bach <\/a>\u2013 Mass in B minor<\/h2>\n\nThis work is the ultimate piece to celebrate the Resurrection, but some recordings of <a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/topic\/js-bach"\">Bach<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/a-guide-to-bachs-mass-in-b-minor-and-its-best-recordings\/"\">B minor mass<\/a><\/strong> seem to simply throw everything at the fortissimo passages and muddy the texture. Forceful yes, clear no.<\/p>\n<a href=\""https:\/\/monteverdi.co.uk\/"\">John Eliot Gardiner<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0manages the balance of precision with raw power just brilliantly. He creates the most exquisitely delicate orchestral textures, contrasting with explosive bursts of energy but never lacking in clarity. Every part is in perfect balance and the ensemble skills are stunning.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s one of those very rare recordings where a large ensemble sound like they are totally inside the piece rather than just reacting to a histrionic beat being thrashed out in front of them by some overly physical conductor. There are some recordings which are similarly neat but often they go too far and sound mannered, with nothing spontaneous about the performance.<\/p>\nOn this recording a particular highlight is when choir and orchestra launch into \u2018Et resurrexit\u2019. It is electric, and you can hear absolutely every detail. Hearing this on Easter Day itself would be the perfect way to end Lent and celebrate the Resurrection.<\/p>\n\u2013\u00a0<a href=\""https:\/\/www.tenebrae-choir.com\/about\/nigel-short"\">Nigel Short<\/a>, Tenebrae<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/six-best-pieces-classical-music-easter\/"\">Six of the best classical works for Easter<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\""standard-card-newarticle-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-easter-hymns\/"\">Best Easter hymns: our top five choices<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>John Taverner \u2013 Dum Transisset<\/em><\/h2>\n<iframe title=\""John\" taverner:=\"\" dum=\"\" transisset=\"\" sabbatum=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RNu2ix51Wn8?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nThis work is an almost incomparably beautiful and haunting depiction of the moment (at sunrise) immediately before Mary Magdalen discovers that the stone of Jesus\u2019s tomb has been rolled away.<\/p>\nAs with most of my favourite choral music, I first encountered it through performing it as a child. There is no way to explain what such an experience does to the soul. The music (particularly a piece of such compact perfection) enters your bloodstream and every subsequent encounter, as a listener, singer or conductor, produces a heady feeling of elation mixed with the deepest familiarity.<\/p>\nCompositionally, this piece is so skillfully wrought that it manages to evoke the feeling of dawn, the echoes of the crucifixion and sunrise beyond the tomb. The crowning Alleluia is the embodiment of joy and hope.<\/p>\n\u2013\u00a0Suzi Digby, ORA Singers<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/article\/six-of-the-best-great-works-with-chorales"\">Six of the best great works with chorales in them<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/topic\/gustav-mahler"\">Gustav Mahler <\/a>\u2013 Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection)<\/h2>\n<iframe title=\""Gustav\" mahler=\"\" symphony=\"\" no.=\"\" iv.=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1kRWbd9sAHg?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/topic\/gustav-mahler"\">Mahler<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s \u2018Resurrection\u2019 symphony has always seemed to me to be the perfect vehicle for the sophisticated, blended sound of the leading orchestras in the German tradition. The latest from the Berlin Philharmonic features<a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/listen\/podcast\/qa-sir-simon-rattle\/"\"> Simon Rattle<\/a><\/strong>, with Kate Royal and Magdalena Kozena as soloists.<\/p>\n<ul><li><a class=\""standard-card-newarticle-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/which-is-the-best-mahler-symphony\/"\">Which is the best Mahler Symphony?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>But perhaps the archive recording of choice is the one made in 1975 by the Vienna Philharmonic under Mehta, with Christa Ludwig and Ileana Cotrubas as soloists. In both these <a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/topic\/gustav-mahler"\">Mahler<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s extraordinary sound-world is so beautifully conveyed that the listener may well be left longing for Klopstock\u2019s \u2018Unsterblich Leben\u2019.<\/p>\n\u2013\u00a0<a href=\""https:\/\/www.thetallisscholars.co.uk\/peter-phillips"\">Peter Phillips<\/a>, Tallis Scholars<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-choral-works-passiontide\/"\">The best choral works for Passiontide<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Orlande de Lassus \u2013 Aurora <\/em>lucis<\/em> rutilat<\/em><\/h2>\n<iframe title=\""'Aurora\" lucis=\"\" rutilat=\"\" by=\"\" the=\"\" choir=\"\" of=\"\" clare=\"\" college=\"\" cambridge=\"\" graham=\"\" ross=\"\" conductor=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cOCLpHpBKp4?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nA setting of an anonymous 4th century text \u2013 the Hymn for Lauds on Easter Sunday \u2013 Lassus\u2019s motet begins by tenderly depicting the dawn of Easter morning, but soon leads to a double-choir celebration of the triumph of the resurrection, full of word-painting, jubilation and a brief triple-time passage proclaiming the joy of Easter day (\u2018in hoc pascali gaudio\u2019).<\/p>\nWritten late in Lassus\u2019s life, the work is a unique example in the Franco-Flemish composer\u2019s output of Venetian polychoral technique, with harmonic completeness in each choir.\u00a0I programme this whenever possible during Eastertide with my <a href=\""https:\/\/www.clarecollegechoir.com\/"\">Choir of Clare College, Cambridge<\/a><\/strong>, when I often pair it with the equally-magnificent Magnificat of the same name which borrows some material from the motet.\u00a0Sung antiphonally by two choirs of youthful voices, it makes for a thrilling celebratory start to a liturgical service or concert.<\/p>\n\u2013\u00a0<a href=\""https:\/\/www.grahamross.com\/"\">Graham Ross<\/a>, The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/hallelujah-story-handel-s-messiah\/"\">Hallelujah! The story of Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Diogo Dias\u00a0Melgas \u2013 Lamentations\u00a0<\/em><\/h2>\n<iframe title=\""Harry\" christophers=\"\" on=\"\" diogo=\"\" dias=\"\" melg=\"\" salve=\"\" regina=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/41KUpw62R6k?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nIt is a constant joy for us as performers to discover remarkable compositional feats and champion them in performance and on disc. Diogo Dias Melgas is a Portuguese composer from the country\u2019s17th-century Golden Age when the Braganza court was flourishing and had in Dom Joao IV a man who encouraged excellence in the arts and allowed the likes of Melgas to mature and develop his individuality.<\/p>\nMelgas\u2019 eight part Lamentations are fascinating: at times sparse and solitary, at other times rich and sonorous. The score is unique as it actually specifies individual harp, archlute and organ parts to accompany the voices.<\/p>\n\u2013\u00a0<a href=\""https:\/\/thesixteen.com\/about-us\/meet-founder-conductor\/"\">Harry Christophers<\/a>, The Sixteen<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/article\/six-best-20th-century-british-choral-works"\">Six of the best 20th-century British choral works<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/anton-bruckner\/"\">Anton Bruckner<\/a> \u2013 Christus <\/em>factus<\/em> est<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<iframe title=\""King's\" college=\"\" cambridge=\"\" easter=\"\" christus=\"\" factus=\"\" est=\"\" bruckner=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T64TkRZRFg0?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nAmong the finest motets written for Holy Week is this Gradual for Maundy Thursday. From its quiet, mysterious opening to its dramatic triple forte climax it leads the listener on a symphonic journey, full of pathos and gravitas. It is nothing short of a miniature masterpiece, encompassing some extraordinary modulations and sinewy, chromatic lines which are captured beautifully in the recording by Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short.<\/p>\n\u2013\u00a0Esther Jones, National Youth Choir of Great Britain<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/article\/five-essential-works-bruckner"\">Five essential works by Bruckner<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Ralph Vaughan Williams \u2013\u00a0Five Mystical Songs<\/em><\/h2>\n<iframe title=\""Five\" mystical=\"\" songs=\"\" williams=\"\" king=\"\" cambridge=\"\" willcocks=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6wXyWz7VSLo?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nI love the personal and meditative qualities of George Herbert\u2019s poetry that is a constant thread through the first four poems, with the warmth and comfort of a solo baritone voice being a perfect protagonist. The triumph of Easter is then released in a glorious blaze in the Antiphon, the final song: \u2018Let all the world in every corner sing\u2019.<\/p>\n<a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/topic\/ralph-vaughan-williams"\">Vaughan Williams<\/strong><\/a> was inspired by the visionary qualities in Herbert\u2019s poetry and conjures up great variety\u00a0in moods, pictures and colours from the beginning to the end of the cycle. The way Herbert constantly refers to the heart and soul is met by the composer with passionate, beautiful music along with moments of incredible intimacy and delicacy.<\/p>\n\u2013\u00a0<a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/bbc-symphony-chorus-appoint-new-director\/"\">Neil Ferris<\/a>, BBC Symphony Chorus<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/article\/which-your-favourite-ralph-vaughan-williams-work"\">The best works by Vaughan Williams<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\u00a0<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By BBC Music Magazine Published: Wednesday, 13 April 2022 at 12:00 am For hundreds of years, composers have been inspired by the Easter story to write some of the most beautiful and heart-rending classical music ever created. We asked some of Britain\u2019s top choral conductors to choose their favourite\u00a0choral works\u2026 \u00a0 JS Bach \u2013 Mass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":14991,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/04\/the-best-choral-music-for-easter.jpg",625,350,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/04\/the-best-choral-music-for-easter-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/04\/the-best-choral-music-for-easter-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/04\/the-best-choral-music-for-easter.jpg",625,350,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/04\/the-best-choral-music-for-easter.jpg",625,350,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/04\/the-best-choral-music-for-easter.jpg",625,350,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/04\/the-best-choral-music-for-easter.jpg",625,350,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By BBC Music Magazine Published: Wednesday, 13 April 2022 at 12:00 am For hundreds of years, composers have been inspired by the Easter story to write some of the most beautiful and heart-rending classical music ever created. We asked some of Britain\u2019s top choral conductors to choose their favourite\u00a0choral works\u2026 \u00a0 JS Bach \u2013 Mass…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/14990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}