The Monteverdi Choir excels during the a capella selections (Opus 42 and 104) due to their precision tuning and group sensitivity. Brahms's deep, romantic textures and mounds of sound are most vividly experienced when no instruments join in the blend. But in the accompanied pieces (Opus 92, 17, and the Liebeslieder Waltzes, Opus 52), the chorus sounds mechanical, metronomic. The Waltzes are pleasant, but the group can't find a personal identity to enliven the expressiveness of the material; they are simply a poetic mural. Still, this disk, chock full of music, is a lot of worthwhile Brahms for your bucks.

The genre accompanied him for almost his entire creative career: the sacred choral song op. 30 was written by the 23-year-old Johannes Brahms in 1856, the Fünf Gesänge for mixed choir a cappella are his late legacy in the field of secular choral song, composed between 1886 and 1888. In between lie the Drei Gesänge, composed at a time when Brahms was also very practically involved with choral singing as a choirmaster, then the Sieben Lieder for four to eight-part choir and finally his large-scale Mottete op. 74, No. 1 Warum ist das Licht gegeben from 1877 and the sister work O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf op. 74 No. 2. Over the course of more than 30 years, the composer showed a fascinating development which – of course always in the most demanding style – led from the romantic opulence of the six- to eight-part movement to more reduced austerity. Chorwerk Ruhr traces this development with fascinating intensity.

From Schütz to Bräutigam by way of Schumann, Reger, Mauersberger, Poulenc and Werner – this recording by the Chamber Choir of the Freiburg University of Music under the direction of Morten Schuldt-Jensen takes the listener through the entire history of the motet. All of these compositions have one thing in common: their uniquely personal expressive force. The Drei Paulusmotetten by Fritz Werner, a contemporary of Poulenc, appear for the first time on HIGHRESAUDIO. These brilliant motets reflect the period and events of the time of their creation. The works by Werner and Mauersberger, for instance, were composed during the horrors of the Second World War.

For its final concert of the 2021–22 season and Osmo Vänskä’s last as artistic director, the Minnesota Orchestra chose to present Mahler’s mammoth Eighth Symphony, which calls for one of the largest complement of performers in the history of music, a symbol of the communitarian spirit of collective cultural, social and religious-philosophical endeavour in what has been referred to as a ‘Mass for the Masses’.

Luminous Voices presents Brahms’ "Ein deutsches Requiem" alongside contemporary pieces by Zachary Wadsworth in the album 'Fire-Flowers.' Exploring themes of loss, grief, and hope, the album is led by Timothy Shantz. Laura Brandt (soprano), Jonathon Adams (baritone), Cheryl Emery-Karapita (piano), and Leanne Regehr (piano) collaborated to bring these pieces to life. Wadsworth's "Battle-Flags," is inspired by Walt Whitman’s Civil War experiences. Brahms’ iconic Requiem reflects personal tragedies and calls for empathy. The album concludes with "Fire-Flowers," where Wadsworth captures E. Pauline Johnson’s poem in a musical tale of optimism and renewal.

Roderick Williams heads up the cast for this new recording of Delius' A Mass of Life with the Bergen Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Mark Elder. Accompanied by soloists Gemma Summerfield, Claudia Huckle and Bror Magnus Todenes, the Bergen Philharmonic Choir and Edvard Grieg Kor join Collegium Musicum Choir to complete the tour de force needed to perform and record this monumental work.

Under the baton of the new chief conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann, the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin are performing famous Motets by Johann Sebastian Bach, interspersed with some fine instrumental works of the composer. Founded in 1948, the choir enjoys today a worldwide reputation as one of the best ensembles of its kind.

This is the second album pairing Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. The first, released in 2018, brought the group a Gramophone Award, and the BIS label and conductor Kaspars Putniņš have apparently decided to stick with what works. Both albums are superb. Schnittke and Pärt haven't often appeared together on recordings, Schnittke's stylistically allusive language being miles away from Pärt's minimalism, a fine example of which is provided by the Seven Magnificat Antiphons heard here.

The Brahms vocal compositions (for their quality and abundance – over 400 of them) made Brahms a “worthy heir to Beethoven” in Germany, throughout Europe, and finally in France, where Ravel was the first and one of the few to admire “the beauty in his melodic ideas, their quality of expression and above all the brilliance of his orchestral language”. Schoenberg also later praised the innovation of his musical language in his Style and Idea.

The Netherlands Radio Choir and its chief conductor Benjamin Goodson bring together choral works by Josef Rheinberger and Felix Mendelssohn, presenting some of the greatest choral compositions of the nineteenth century. This recording begins with Rheinberger’s rarely-recorded Mass in E-Flat Major and closes with the composer’s stirringly beautiful Abendlied. Four of Mendelssohn’s most expressive and original psalm settings are paired with his lesser-known Sechs Sprüche, powerful choral miniatures that reflect on key moments in the church year. These pieces are performed in a warm, intimate acoustic, allowing the words and remarkable detail in this music to be heard and relished.

In the Revelation of James, an apocryphal gospel that was not included in the Bible, events and details surrounding the birth of Christ are reported that do not appear in the better-known versions of the Christmas story from the gospels of Matthew and Luke. In particular, it portrays very real people, full of emotions and conflicting feelings. Mary, not Jesus, is the focus of the narrative.

Tenebrae bring their trademark passion and precision to this live performance of music by J. S. Bach and Sir James MacMillan, to be recorded live at Snape Maltings in May 2023. Renowned for their technical difficulty, Bach’s motets are pillars of the choral repertoire, requiring minute attention to detail as well as a full emotional range. Here, Tenebrae performs the three most well-known of the set, culminating in the joyful Singet dem Herrn. Like Bach, Sir James MacMillan has written much of his music for the church, and his settings of the Tenebrae responsories paint a vivid picture of the events of Holy Week. This album also features the premiere recording of I saw Eternity the other night, which MacMillan composed for Tenebrae in 2021 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the London Bach Society.

Together with a horn quartet led by the renowned horn player Marc Gruber and the Schubert expert Paul Sturm on the fortepiano, a companion from a time with the Windsbacher Knabenchor, as well as a string ensemble, Sonat Vox present a compilation of selected romantic choral movements by composers such as Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Sonat Vox illuminate motifs such as friendship, love, closeness to home and nature, but also address their opposites: longing, separation, loneliness and loss.