Catalogue

Summary:

“Rees’s perceptive direction keeps the contrasting layers balanced and he has assembled a strong solo team- headed up by Elin Manahan Thomas and Matthew Brook – to complement the attentive playing of the Brook Street Band” – BBC Music Magazine

“I enjoyed Sally Bruce-Payne’s intelligent singing and Tatty Theo’s conversational cello obbligato…The fresh-voiced choir offer an enjoyable juxtaposition of soft shapeliness and clear diction” – David Vickers, Gramophone

“Both works are performed with real spirit and elan, with Owen Rees drawing strongly projected, incisive work from his choir, particularly in homophonic passages” – Early Music Today

“The bass aria [Dominus a dextris tuis] is one of the highlights, also because of the fine performance by Matthew Brook…One of the nicest parts is the duet ‘De torrente’ from Handel’s setting, which is exquisitely sung by Elin Manahan Thomas and Esther Brazil” – Johan van Veen, MusicWebInternational.com 

“…performances of the highest quality, with the Queen’s choir at its best and the alert instrumentalists fully committed in their playing… Highly recommended.” ★★★★★ -David Ponsford, Choir & Organ magazine

“…an absolutely superb performance here from the Brook Street Band and the Choir of Queen’s College, Oxford. …everything about this album represents British Baroque performance at its best.” ★★★★★ – James Manheim, AllMusic.com 

“This is a great pairing … The performances on this recording are superb, and the program includes an early, chamber version of one of Scarlatti’s concerti grossi, inserted as a pleasant interlude between the two choral works.” – Rick Anderson, CDHotlist.com

“… the Queen’s College sings with admirable energy … Prominent among a strong group of soloists is bass Matthew Brook, who gives fine renditions of ‘Dominus a dextris tuis’ in both composers’ settings.” – Alan Maddox, Early Music (Vol. 43, Issue No 1) 

“…The playing of The Brook Street Band is mouth-watering in its simple quality of musicianship, a standard that is upheld throughout the disc… A disc of unusually high calibre.” – Violet Greene, Early Music Review (155)

Following five critically-acclaimed and immensely popular recordings for AVIE, The Brook Street Band embark on their most ambitious project to date: a recording with the estimable student Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford, that pairs for the first time ever the two settings of the Dixit Dominus written by Alessandro Scarlatti and George Frideric Handel. Both works date from early 18^th century Rome, Handel’s within a year of his arriving in the musical capital, and possibly influenced by Scarlatti’s work, though the date of the elder Italian’s composition is not precisely known. Indeed it has been suggested that the 22-year-old Lutheran was attempting to outdo Scarlatti with his masterly grasp of large-scale sacred music for the Roman rite. In between these two grand Vespers, The Brook Street Band serve up a palette cleanser of an instrumental concerto in G minor by Scarlatti.

On this recording the massed forces are joined by five of Britain’s brightest young singers: soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, mezzo-sopranos Esther Brazil and Sally Bruce-Payne, tenor Guy Cutting, and bass-baritone Matthew Brook.

Tracklist:

ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI (1660–1725)
Dixit Dominus
1. I. Dixit Dominus (2:58)
2. II. Virgam virtutis tuæ (2:32)
3. III. Tecum principium (3:26)
4. IV. Juravit Dominus (3:12)
5. V. Dominus a dextris tuis (2:22)
6. VI. Judicabit in nationibus (2:08)
7. VII. De torrente (3:06)
8. VIII. Gloria Patri (4:27)

Concerto No. 4 in G Minor
directed from the violin by Rachel Harris
9. I. Allegro (2:13)
10. II. Grave (2:07)
11. III. Vivace (1:01)

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759)
Dixit Dominus, HWV 232
12. I. Dixit Dominus (5:34)
13. II. Virgam virtutis tuæ (2:49)
14. III. Tecum principium (3:02)
15. IV. Juravit Dominus (2:20)
16. V. Tu es sacerdos (1:40)
17. VI. Dominus a dextris tuis (6:35)
18. VII. De torrente (4:08)
19. VIII. Gloria Patri (6:38)

Total duration: (62:28)

Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford
Owen Rees, director
The Brook Street Band

Elin Manahan Thomas | Esther Brazil, soprano
Sally Bruce-Payne, contralto
Guy Cutting, tenor
Matthew Brook, bass-baritone

Recorded: 7 – 9 January 2013, Church of St Michael and All Angels, Oxford
Producer: Adrian Peacock
Engineer: David Hinitt