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Track(s) taken from CDA66062

Ave Maria

composer
WAB6; 1861; 7vv
author of text
Antiphon for the Blessed Virgin Mary

Corydon Singers, Matthew Best (conductor)
Recording details: May 1982
St Alban's Church, Holborn, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: April 1986
Total duration: 4 minutes 0 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Polyphony, Stephen Layton (conductor)
The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (conductor)
Armonico Consort, Christopher Monks (conductor)
Tenebrae, Nigel Short (conductor)
King's College Choir Cambridge, Sir Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

Reviews

‘A superb record. Exploring these pieces is a moving experience when the performances are as superlative as these. Very strongly recommended. Record of the Month’ (The Monthly Guide to Recorded Music)
The setting of Ave Maria heard here is the second of two for choir. (A third version for solo voice and piano, organ or harmonium also survives.) Bruckner uses the form of the Ave Maria that was approved by Pius V in 1568: two extracts from St Luke’s Gospel combined with a prayer. Unusually, however, he draws attention to ‘Jesus’, a word not included by all composers, presenting it in three increasingly powerful statements that suggest the growing presence of Christ in Mary’s womb. With the exception of the trebles, all the vocal parts subdivide, sometimes more than once. It is not clear why the top part alone remains undivided. Was this a reflection of the make-up of the choir that gave the first performance in 1861 in Linz’s Old Cathedral? (During the nineteenth century many Austrian churches restricted the participation of women in services, leading to a general shortage of female voices.) Or did Bruckner intend the unassuming treble part to represent Mary herself? Initially, the music is homophonic, with typically Brucknerian blocks of sound surely inspired by Venetian cori spezzati (divided choirs). It is only at the start of the prayer section (‘Sancta Maria’) that the composer moves into imitative mode, with hints of a canon on the words ‘ora pro nobis’. The motet ends with a simple Amen, set in the traditional way as a plagal cadence.

from notes by Martin Ennis © 2020

Other albums featuring this work

Brahms & Bruckner: Motets
Studio Master: SIGCD430Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Bruckner: Mass & Motets
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Bruckner: Mass in E minor & motets
Studio Master: KGS0035-DDownload onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Hail! Queen of Heaven
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Naked Byrd, Vol. 1
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