Beautiful Music

O SACRUM CONVIVIUM (O Sacred Banquet) is a Latin text about the Christian Eucharist: O sacred banquet! in which Christ is received, the memory of his Passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory to us is given. Alleluia. Today’s Beautiful Music features two uplifting settings of O […]

There is evidence that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote more PASSION settings than the two we know today, MATTHEW and JOHN. Today’s Beautiful Music is a PASSION setting once attributed to Bach that is now considered to be by an unknown composer. This Apocryphal PASSION ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE is performed by Alsfelder Vokalensemble and the

I realized that too late that Siblings Day was on Sunday, April 10. So today’s Beautiful Music is a belated celebration of the occasion featuring some talented musical siblings: Iona Brown leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields playing the Romanze section of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Horn Concerto #4 with her brother Timothy

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150 is thought to be Bach’s earliest surviving cantata, written while he was organist at the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt from 1703–7. Today’s Beautiful Music is a performance of this lovely music by VOCES8 with the Academy of Ancient Music.    

Italian baroque composer Giovanni Legrenzi composed his musical drama LA DIVISIONE DEL MONDO (The Division of the World) in 1675 in Venice. Today’s Beautiful Music is a duet from it — Lumi, potete piangere — sung by two outstanding sopranos, Ana Torbica and Tara Venkatesan. You can read more about Legrenzi using the link below.

Today’s Beautiful Music is ancient, dating back to the 15th century. From a 2017 performance in Cambridge, MA, Blue Heron singers Jason McStoots, Laura Pudwell, and Sumner Thompson perform DUEIL ANGOISSEUX (Anguished Grief) by Gilles de Bins, dit Binchois, who lived from approximately 1400-1460. The music is captivating, and so is their performance.    

I hope today’s Beautiful Music will put a smile on your face. Spanish soprano Maria Bayo and Les Talens Lyriques, led by Christophe Rousset, perform baroque zarzuelas — a type of Spanish operatic/dramatic musical form. Enjoy her colorful, fluid voice as it blends with the instrumental lines of composers including 18th c. Spaniards José Melchor

I only learned about Antonia Bembo within the past year or so, and I’m enjoying getting to know more about her and her music. She was a Venetian-born singer and composer who spent most of her career in France. Today’s Beautiful Music is by Antonia Bembo. Les Graces: Ha, que l’absence is from her Produzioni

I’m always heartened to witness young talent, and today’s Beautiful Music features Early Music America’s Young Performers Festival. The 2019 concert in Bloomington, Indiana featured the virtuoso emerging artists of McGill Baroque Orchestra performing a varied and interesting program of baroque music.  

This complete performance of Giovanni Pergolesi’s STABAT MATER is today’s Beautiful Music. Even better, it features the marvelous conductor Nathalie Stutzmann — a singer herself — leading countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, soprano Emöke Barath, and Orfeo 55 from a performance recorded at the Château de Fontainebleau.