Composition / Choral

A selection of compositions for choir spanning from 1904 to 1982 by the two Hungarian masters, performed by the DR Vokalensemblet conducted by Marcus Creed and released by OUR Recordings on CD-only in 2022.

Enno Poppe's Körper (2021) for big-band ensemble, played by Ensemble Modern under the composer, and Gold for mixed choir a cappella on texts by Arno Holz, sung by the SWR Vokalensemble under Marcus Creed.

The ten symphonies of Hans Werner Henze (1947-2000), including the choral Ninth after Anna Seghers, played by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Rundfunkchor Berlin under Marek Janowski, recorded 2008-2014; first box of Wergo's Henze centenary Edition.

The English composer's second album: choral writing, honkytonk piano, flutes, bells and electronics in minimalist patterns and anagram titles, a reflective, mystical record.

Portrait of Bengt Hambræus, no. 20 of the Caprice Composers Series: Rota II for multi-channel loudspeakers, made from processed bells and organ, the orchestral Ricordanza and Symphonia Sacra for choir, winds and percussion.

Three compositions from the early 1960's mixing avant-garde techniques and sacred tradition released in 1962 on Cantate.

Powerful choral peace mass by choir conductor relased on DGG in 1977.

First volume of new music for choir by by some of the most inportant XXth Century composers (Anton Webern, Henri Pousseur, Dieter Schnebel, Luigi Nono, Sylvano Bussotti, Hans Otte, György Ligeti) performed by Schola Cantorum Stuttgart and released on Wergo's great "Studio Reihe Neuer Musik" experimental music series in the 70's. With insert.

Second volume of new music for choir by by Heinz Holliger, Dieter Schnebel, Krzysztof Penderecki and Friedrich Cerha, performed by Schola Cantorum Stuttgart and released on Wergo's great "Studio Reihe Neuer Musik" experimental music series in the 70's. With insert.

Choral music by Xenakis and Messiaen composed between 1938 and 1969, performed by the Groupe Vocal De France and released on Arion's "Musique française d'aujourd'hui" series in 1984

Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel is a hushed yet monumental soundscape that resonates with the spiritual austerity of Mark Rothko’s paintings. Combining solo viola, voices, celesta, and percussion, the LP explores silence and timbre with a reverence that transforms listening into a meditative experience, while the composition For Frank O'Hara offers a tender lyrical counterpoint to its profound stillness.

This very special CD Book presents John Zorn’s evocative musical setting of the Biblical love poem The Song of Songs, with singer/conductor Barbara Hannigan and film director/actor Mathieu Amalric narrating. Featuring extensive notes, the full text of Jeremy Fogel’s passionate new translation (commissioned expressly for this project), and 35 illustrations by Zorn himself, this limited edition one-of-a-kind CD Book is an absolute treasure.

"Speechless (2019) is an opera for 4 vocal soloists, bass orchestra and community choir, and is intended as a personal response to the plight of refugees worldwide. It inspired by the Australian Human Rights Commission report, ‘The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention,’ overseen by Gillian Triggs. When this report was tabled in the Australian Parliament in 2014, I was overcome with the cruelty of the debate around the future of detained asylum seekers. Spee…

*300 copies limited edition* Valby Vokalgruppe returns with Solids for Voices — a new album landing on 7th November 2025 via Hands in the Dark. Initiated in 2008 by Anja Jacobsen, the Danish collective’s current line-cup is completed by Lil Lacy, Sonja LaBianca, Cæcilie Trier and Laura Marie Madsen. The group has written and performed a large number of cross-aesthetic pieces over the years, including an album Bah New Era released in 2012 on Eget Værelse. Sharpened to its core, the group dives de…

Estonian vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis and their leader Jaan-Eik Tulve have established themselves among the leading interpreters of Arvo Pärt’s music over a quarter-century of close collaboration with the composer – a relationship that builds on the almost half a century long artistic partnership between Pärt and producer Manfred Eicher. Of the ensemble’s ECM New Series recording The Deer’s Cry, the BBC Music Magazine wrote that “the level of artistry necessary to achieve the kind of living, bre…

A dismal moment, try not to think about it so many of us, so restless, a dull chapter worth skipping, mind numbing. Constantly talking, when all we really wanted to do was… As usual perhaps, daily impressions of unremitting danger make people seek refuge in futile obsessions with furniture, food and clothing. Endless words, irritating until we stopped saying them, then sorely missed. A conjunction of multiple evils that could have been avoided, had it only been seen as profitable to do so. Naggi…

The vocal music on this recording documents three generations of American music, each characterized by its own ideals yet shaped by its relationship to the past. Heard together on one disc, this music provides a glimpse of the rapid and often radical aesthetic upheavals that American music has undergone during the twentieth century. The three settings by Arthur Shepherd (1880-1958) - Golden Stockings,” “To a Trout,” and “Virgil - were composed shortly before World War II and exhibit a sensitive …

Choral music has always held and continues to hold a prominent position in American musical life. The three works presented here take their place in a tradition that stretches back to the Puritan Fathers. The title composition, Americana, is one of the most popular works of Randall Thompson, America's finest and most-performed composer of choral music. In a prefatory note in the score the composer commented: The [five] different parts of the work are satirical and, at moments, mirth-provoking, …

Chant 1450 Renaisance Ensemble sings and plays the sacred and secular repertoire of the 15th and 16th century. Including musicians trained at the widely renowned college for early music Schola cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, chant 1450 appeared live in January 2005 and sang then a highly acclaimed first tour in Switzerland with La contenance angloise - sacred music of the 15th century, followed by more than 250 live performances in Germany, Italy, Czech Republic and Switzerland until today. chan…

Rough Magic features premiere recordings of four works created for and (significantly) with the group, is an explosive departure from their previous recordings, leading listeners through the beauty and struggle of language while showcasing, once again, the band’s unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of vocal music. From high-gloss, 80s-style synth-charged passages to early Steve Reich tape-piece-type sounds, Rough Magic articulates a grand experience of language, its limits, and its r…

Samuel Andreyev’s music is incredibly varied, from the sparse resonance of the Sonata da Camera, the ‘cartoon music’ – as the composer puts it -of Vérifications, characterised by primary colours and strong instrumental timbres; the Sextet in Two Parts which in contrast focuses on minute timbral shadings; and of course the cantata for solo voice and ensemble which is the title track of the album. Performed by Ensemble Proton Bern, conducted by Luigi Gaggero with the magical soprano voice of Peyee…

Since the nineties, Elisabeth Harnik’s work as an artist is characterised by two aspects: improvisation and composition. For Harnik, these two activities, which are usually treated as entirely separate entities in music, are two sides of the same coin. This already becomes evident in her improvisational playing, in which she frequently works with piano preparations and extended playing techniques. Exploring, juxtaposing, merging and fusing sounds, she marks out different paths through the sounds…

2024 stock. Pärt's long-form The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. John dramatizes the apostle John's account of the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. The form he adopts sounds as though it were centuries old, with its choral orchestration. But his choice of instruments, his choice of chords, his phrasing, and the basic construction of the piece itself are all based on 20th century ideas, most notably his own innovation, the "tintinnabuli" method. The overall sound is significantl…

Following on from their successful last recording, Josquin the Undead (GCDP32117) this new recording of Antione Brumel's Earthquake Mass is a welcome addition. Graindelavoix is an Antwerp-based music and art ensemble founded in 1999. Helmed by founder-director Bjorn Schmelzer, it is committed to offering a contemporary and critical interpretation of mainly historical, vocal repertoires. It would be difficult to find a composition that resembles the twelve-part mass Et ecce terrae motus by Antoin…

*2024 stock. Deluxe packaging* Although by now almost habitually referred to as Britain’s foremost early music vocal group, the Hilliard Ensemble (founded 1974) has long had an equal, and complementary, commitment to contemporary music. Its members have sought out new music that adapts itself to the group’s blend of voices and, where necessary, commissioned works from composers they admire. In their recitals, century-spanning leaps – from John Cage, say, to Josquin Deprez (or vice versa), from P…

Born in 1933, with a career spanning over 65 years, the American composer Philip Corner has explored the most diverse artistic and musical expressions: as a pianist and trombonist, he performed historic and contemporary authors such as Ives, Cage, Cacioppo, Hellerman (in 1963 he also took part in the first integral performance of Vexations by Satie curated by Cage in New York). As a composer and performer, he was a member of Fluxus (defining with his Piano Activities the most iconic performance …

"Commenting on the folly of war, eight independent voices and texts compete for attention, reflecting the tumult of emotions...The impeccable recording quality allows us to appreciate the fine..." — Gramophone Magazine

*In process of stocking* "Magna Mater for voices, ensemble and video installation (2013) is one of Maria de Alvears most important recent works. It constitutes a ritualistic invocation of all-nourishing Mother Nature. Sounds, words and images evoke her power and wisdom, the destructive power of earthquake, asteroid impact, drought and firestorm, and the life-giving elements of soil, sun, water, air, sky, clouds, rain.  In this decidedly visceral music, Maria de Alvear explores archetypal human c…

Ark Hive of A Live is a 4 CD set of recordings by Andrew Poppy, along with a 128 page book, including writing by Andrew Poppy; an introduction by Paul Morley; other writing by Leah Kardos, Nik Bärtsch and Rose English; and archival photographs.

*Includes a 40-page booklet with full text of the work, introductory texts and photos.* Giovanna Marini is an almost unique figure in Italy: a classically trained musician (graduated from the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, perfected as a guitarist with Maestro Andres Segovia, then a lutenist with Maestro Quaranta's "Concentus Antiqui" ensemble), from the early 1960s she began a work of studying and transcribing songs from the Italian folk oral tradition. Beginning with "Bella Ciao" in 19…

*111 copies limited edition. 2022 stock* ‘Light Colours In Jyderup’ is a trademark Marta Forsberg composition – in a relatively short space of time, the Swedish composer is able to transform the simplest of sonic materials into the most magical, transcendent experience. Using only vocals and some effects, she makes a handful of students from a tiny Danish town sound both alien and medieval; the way the piece unfolds is graceful, its tone and feeling is sacred yet warm, like a Christmas carol fro…

*2022 Stock.* This is a 2 CD presentation of a new recording of Momente from 1998. Momente has a "mobile-form", which means that the individual segments can be rearranged from performance to performance (typically pre-arranged at the conductor's discretion). Therefore this version is again unique from the 1965 and 1972 versions of Momente found on The Stockhausen Edition no. 7. Like the 1965 version, it does start with the "clapping" sequence, but in this performance the transition from "audienc…

*2022 Stock.* Hoch-Zeiten (High-Times, 2001/02, 5th scene of Sonntag aus Licht) for orchestra and choir. The 5th scene of Sonntag aus Licht is actually a 2-part conception. One part is staged as an instrumental orchestral work, and the other is a simultaneous a cappella choral work performed in another room. However, sounds from the orchestral part are piped into the choral work, and vice-versa. This CD presents the orchestra point of view (WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne), followed by that of th…

*2022 Stock.*  Hoch-Zeiten für chor (High-Times for choir) features each of the choral sub-groups from Hoch-Zeiten, 5th scene of Sonntag aus Licht (presented in its staged normal form on the Stockhausen Edition no. 73) as individual, isolated tracks. These tracks essentially allow the listener to hear the choral parts more clearly in smaller ensembles. A version for the complete ensemble (all together as a "tutti") is also included. Musically, each ensemble explores static harmonies but with a d…

*2022 Stock.* Düfte - Zeichen (Scents – Signs, 4th scene of Sonntag aus Licht (Sunday from Light) for 7 vocalists, boy’s voice, synthesizer (2002). This Scene features six vocalists grouped as soloists, in duets, and in trios, supported and bracketed by rhythmically-free (aleatoric) background ensemble text and glassy synthesizer harmonies. At the end are two additional songs featuring a youth "from the audience". The vocal texts (included in the booklet) describe the themes behind each of the s…

Katharina Rosenberger's Tempi Agitati, a vocal work for Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart that sets Petrarch's texts alongside madrigals by Willaert and Rore, using extended vocal techniques. Complete Petrarch texts are included.

With the legendary “Studio Reihe Neuer Musik” series, Wergo created a trademark of advanced contemporary music in the Sixties of the past century already. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the label now releases these highlights of 20th-century music history in an excellent sound quality on CD for the first time."Studio Reihe” now continues with a work by Karlheinz Stockhausen:  His “Momente” [Moments] for soprano, four choral groups, and thirteen instrumentalists have not been designed a…

Nicholas Bussmann was born in 1970 and is a very diversified artist. He first made a name for himself in the real-time music scene as an improvisational instrumentalist, then he devoted himself to electronic music and now he moves quite freely between artistic styles. His works are usually highly praised and are mostly part of exhibitions or other types of total artworks.The News Triology fills the first page of this work and is thus the first part of this extraordinary project released on vinyl…

Perennially bewildering polymath Akira Rabelais unveils the most impressive durational work of his career thus far with a 4 hour smudge of classical works by the musical zeitgeist of the late 19th and early 20th century Belle Époque. It’s a highly enigmatic erosion x sublimation of the familiar in a way that’s by now etched into modern canon thanks to works by The Caretaker, but Rabelais has been weaving his own uncanny shroud of infidelity over our collective memory for over two decades now, wi…

Thirty-seven miniatures by Howard Skempton, interleaving solo piano pieces played by Daniel Becker with choral settings of Mary Webb, Edward Thomas, Emerson and others sung by EXAUDI under James Weeks; several are first recordings.