Our knowledge of music in Iceland up until the 18th century is confined to the contents of various Icelandic hymnbooks. Hymnodia sacra is the best known of these. It is also the title of this Smekkeysa Records CD and forms the basis for its contents (Smekkeysa translates to tastelessness from...

Frank La Rocca’s music sounds as though it is simultaneously from two vastly different periods of music history. One foot is planted in contemporary art music, and the other in the ancient world of chant and early European polyphony. This is not new, of course. Mr. La Rocca joins the...

I have been listening to and enjoying this CD at intervals over the past several months. At some point, being so handily close by, it became my touchstone in the assessment of other choral albums that came my way. Of those that had to stand in comparison, few made the cut. The performances by...

The diverse choral music of Holst, Prokofiev, Beach, Rheinberger, Mendelssohn and Rossini makes for a very enjoyable program, sung by the seven women and one countertenor of the Etherea Vocal Ensemble. These eight young singers are led by their artistic director Derek Greten-Harrison on a...

This recording sets out to reconstruct the sense of excitement and grandeur that surrounded Spanish Easter celebrations in the 1580s at the Church of St. Giacomo degli Spagnoli and the adjacent square of the Piazza Navona in the heart of Rome. At this time, Spain had much political and...

The works of Giovanni Gabrieli and Heinrich Schütz on this Audite SACD embody an important historical step toward the emancipation of instrumental music from vocal models during a time of change from Renaissance to Baroque. The title of the album is “Polychoral Splendour”, and all of the...