The early musical experiences of Puccini and Verdi, those two giants of Italian opera, were in fact gained in the field of sacred music. In 1880, at the age of 22, Puccini composed his Messa a 4 voci as a graduation exercise. When still a schoolboy, the 45-year older Verdi stood in for the organist in his home village; at the end of this life, he returned to church music, writing his Quattro pezzi sacri in the 1890s at the age of over 80. The Messa of the younger composer – which was believed lost until 1952 – is a joyful and scintillating work. Artistically, Verdi’s powerful and intense Pezzi sacri can be placed on an equal standing with his beloved operas.

To say that all roads of modern Brazilian music lead back to João Gilberto would be a stretch; Tom Jobim, who wrote many of the songs João famously interpreted, merits at least as much of a claim as progenitor as João does; and, well, there's that whole century-old tradition of samba out of which both men sprang, which they internalized and then brilliantly reconceived.

BR-Klassik and the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks conducted by Peter Dijkstra are regular winners of prestigious awards – two such being the Strauss-Wagner-Mahler recording, which won the Diapason d'or, and the Concerto for Choir by Alfred Schnittke, which won the ECHO Klassik. In this latest recording of sacred music by Arvo Pärt, the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks is joined by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester.

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.

Giuseppe Giordani (1639–1703) and Alessandro Melani (1751–1798) were both extremely successful opera composers, but both were firmly in the service of the Catholic Church throughout their lives. With the works on this CD, soprano Katrin Küsswetter impressively demonstrates how transparent the boundaries were between secular and sacred music in the Baroque and early Classical periods. The sparse instrumentation provides the voice with plenty of creative freedom, which gives a good impres-sion of how this music may have sounded like in the composers' lifetimes.

Music to illustrate the Golden Age: a selection of motets from sixteenth-century Spain culminating in Alonso Lobo’s great funerary ode for Philip II, ‘Versa est in luctum’.

This new album is conceived as a mirror of our previous disc. Our aim is not so much to recreate a religious office but, rather, a concert programme in which the innovations of John Dunstable, Nicholas Ludford and William Whitbroke converse with our ymaginacions.

St. Augustine wrote: "If we sing together, we sing for the heart". What a nice way to introduce the Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal and their music director Gilbert Patenaude. On this album, they perform the most beautiful works of the sacred music repertoire, among them: Franck's Panis angelicus, Busto's Ave Maria and oeuvres by Saint-Saëns, Verdi and Brahms. An album which will bring inner peace, a celestial peace.

Andreas Scholl returns to his repertoire of choice,introducing us to the splendid works of Frantisek Tůma - a little-known Bohemian composer whowas a prominent musical figure in the 18th century.

The Te Deum in C major, WAB 45, is a setting of the Te Deum hymn, composed by Anton Bruckner for SATB choir and soloists, orchestra, and organ ad libitum.

Just in time for the holiday season, Seraphic Fire’s 17th studio album, The Apple Tree: Christmas with Seraphic Fire, will be available to purchase and stream on all major platforms on Nov. 17. James K. Bass, the conductor of the album, said of the project, “One of the goals we were trying to achieve on the new Christmas recording was to capture the intimate atmosphere the audience experiences when they walk into the candlelit sanctuary surrounded by 13 a cappella voices singing such magnificent and meaningful music.”

Ensemble Peregrina are delighted to present this collection of completely unknown yet outstanding pieces to the public. We hope that the charm of the Latin Song of Songs text together with the absolutely unique and elaborate musical settings we chose for this program will surprise and captivate you with its eternal beauty.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was music director of five of Hamburg's principal churches from 1768 until his death in 1788. It was a strenuous and risky position of great responsibility. He was to make church services as attractive as possible with performances of his own original compositions alongside those of his contemporaries, so the faithful would show up in droves to church.

With a disc entitled Stabat Mater and featuring Pergolesi among the composers, it would be natural to expect his setting of this heartfelt meditation on the grief of the Virgin Mary to be included in the programme. Well, it isn’t – and it is! Only a few years after Pergolesi in 1736 had composed his Stabat Mater, JS Bach made an adaptation of it using a contemporary German version of the biblical Psalm 51. To suit the requirements of the new text Bach made certain alterations to Pergolesi’s vocal parts, but retained the scheme of solo arias and duets between a soprano and an alto voice. He also added a new, independent viola part to the score and rewrote the basso continuo, giving the work a new harmonic vitality.

A tribute to Italian Baroque, Antonio Caldara and his Gloria a 8 voci, transcribed, performed and recorded for the first time ever, a masterpiece of pompous Venetian sacredness to which the wonderful Lauda by Ottorino Respighi was wanted to be juxtaposed. Two centuries later, the Bolognese composer gives a perfect example of rewriting together medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music. A way to reaffirm the strong bond between Baroque and the 20th century, always a source of great inspiration.