The religious Hildegard von Bingen was known as 'The Sybil of the Rhine' on account of her visions, translated into music with prophetic charisma. This disc presents two sides of Hildegard, an instrument and a mirror, reflecting her divine revelations, through the sound of her words both spoken and sung. The performances are from a specialised early-music ensemble, based in Florence, who have undertaken study of the original manuscripts and (perhaps more unusually) performed the music in public before making this testament to the art of one of music's most singular women, who is still perhaps more famed for her life than her music.

"Josquin was the most emblematic composer of his time, famous throughout Europe for his compositions both secular and sacred. This recording explores those two aspects of his output, which are more closely related than one might think. Here in a small line-up, Gli Angeli Genève deliver a virtuoso vocal performance that is sensitive and empathetic. With only two voices per part, they play on the timbre and individuality of each voice, and thus create an intimacy and a meditative mood that invite the listener to share with the singers in the deeply moving humanity of Josquin’s music."

“Full of fire, spirit and life.” is how Mozart described this work of his contemporary, presented here for the first time on this new 2CD set. Mozart’s positive verdict on Josef Myslivecek (1737-1781) was intended to make the listener aware, for the fact that the extremely critical Salzburg composer expresses himself positively about a colleague is an absolute exception. His oratorio Adamo & Eva, performed in Florence in 1771, was composed at precisely the time when contact with the Mozart family seemed to have been particularly close.

The setting of 13 sacred musical texts is natural territory for Grechaninov, a member of the so-called 'new Russian choral school’ that included Sergey Rachmaninov and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. They were all associated with the Moscow Synodal School of Church Music and its Synodal Choir.

Martin Neary and Westminster Abbey Choir, aided and abetted by the New London Consort, marked the tercentenary of Purcell’s death with this recording, a majestic album of the composer’s music for Queen Mary in life and in death. The Funeral Music opens here with Wood’s transcription of the ‘Old English March’ in procession through Westminster Abbey’s reverberant interior, then in company with the windband marches of Tollet and Paisible and Purcell’s Funeral March. For sense of place, history, and grandeur, nothing beats Neary’s recording. His choir are on peak form in Morley’s Funeral Sentences but hindered by indistinct recorded sound.

Mozart 250th Anniversary Edition: Complete Sacred Music by Harnoncourt / Mozart / Vienna Concentus Musicus was released Sep 19, 2005 on the Warner Classics label. Mozart 250th Anniversary Edition: Complete Sacred Music is a 13-disc set.

Within the Italian polyphonic repertoire for Holy Week of the first half of the 16th century, a group of works that particularly stands out for its organic, comprehensive and unique qualities are the two books of four-voice Lamentations and responsories for the office of Tenebrae from the Triduum sacrum composed by Paolo Aretino (Paolo Antonio del Bivi, 1508-1584). They were published respectively in 1544 (the responsories: a first printed edition of its kind, to the best of our knowledge) and 1549 (the Lamentations). Both books were reprinted in 1563, a rare occurrence for a collection of this type.

The music here was written for performance during Holy Week at the splendid Catholic court of Dresden in 1722. The example of Dresden stirred Johann Sebastian Bach to some of his most Italianate flights of opera-like music, and the composer of the Holy Week responsories heard here, the Bohemian-born Jan Dismas Zelenka (whom Bach himself admired), had an experimental, progressive spirit in much of his music. All the more of a surprise, then, to find that these pieces are written in an almost antique style. Each of the three Matins services is divided into three Nocturns, each of which is provided with three pairs of readings or lessons (given in chant) and three responsories, polyphonically set for a small choir (the two-singers-to-a-part forces heard here were apparently typical), with orchestral strings mostly doubling the vocal lines.

Harnoncourt offers us two wonderful religious works of the great Mozart: Missa K. 257 and Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento K. 243. Works of great musical beauty where the Arnold Schoenber Choir gives us an excellent interpretation. The soloists, especially the soprano Angela Maria Blasi, magnificent.

…Parrott parades his smooth and integrated forces with less instant theatricality. Instead we have here a typically homogeneous and unfolding scenario: how organically and gently "Tis Nature's voice" emerges, with Rogers Covey-Crump expressing the passions with a wonderful air of mystery. So too, "Soul of the world" — what a transcendent concluding passage — which has never been bettered for atmosphere and clarity of ensemble. The solo singing here is good (there is some exquisite work from Emma Kirkby and from tenors Charles Daniels and Paul Elliott in "In vain the am'rous flute").

In l769, Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart, who had already excited great wonder as a child prodigy, turned into an adolescent youth. As of 1770, he assumed the name Wolfgang Amadeo, and this had symbolic value: henceforth, he regarded himself definitively as an artist in his own right. The experiences of his travels as a wunderkind now belonged to the past. In addition to the marvellous church music of his native Salzburg, he had got to know the major European music centres, and had been able to familiarize himself with both traditional styles and the latest stylistic trends.

Come his last mass to be written in Salzburg, Mozart had an ulterior purpose: to annoy the Prince-Archbishop. Einstein highlights the Gloria. It features an extended "Amen". Its prolongation was designed to inflame the cleric who was no fan of florid church-music. Mention should also be made of the Kyrie with its droll interjections - penitential this ain't. The motif that Mozart uses to unify the Credo is a pale imitation of its counterpart in the Coronation Mass. The Salzburger is back to best form with the fugal Benedictus in A Minor; similarly, he later cannibalised the Agnus Dei when he came to write Figaro. Two other works feature on this disc. Note-spinning predominates in the Litany, K 125; it's sole redeeming feature is the high-spirited Kyrie which only Mozart could have written.

Handel's Dixit Dominus HWV 232 (1707) is certainly one of the most impressive compositions of his several years in Italy. With this extremely effective piece, the only 22-year-old obviously wanted to demonstrate all of his compositional skills. Il Gardellino and Bart Van Reyn accompany him on their recording with the breathtaking cantata Il Pianto di Maria, which was long attributed to Handel until recent research has shown that it was penned by the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Ferrandini (1710-1791).

Mozart’s Motet Exsultate, Jubilate was originally written in Milan in 1773 for the castrato Venanzio Rauzzini but is now frequently used as a showpiece work for the soprano voice. The motet is considered to be an excellent example of sacred music that is Baroque in structure and mood. Ruth Ziesak’s melting soprano voice sounds impressive throughout this exultant music especially in the brilliant concluding section which is spun elaborately around the single word Alleluia.

In their third disc for Hyperion, the acclaimed vocal ensemble Cinquecento continue their exploration of the rich repertoire engendered in the Habsburg court. The prolific composer De Monte, Kapellmeister to the Emperor Maximilian II, wrote over a thousand madrigals as well as hundreds of sacred works, and the expressive aspects of the madrigal infuse his sacred music delightfully. His Missa Ultimi miei sospiri contains the constant interplay between groups of voices and dramatic word-setting which are features of the madrigal genre. The motets recorded here cover many Biblical and liturgical subjects and demonstrate the wide range of techniques and styles used by the composer.