Christmas Emotions
Christmas Emotions
A compilation
with music for christmas and holidays
for choir a cappella,
performed by the Maulbronn Chamber Choir
Conductor: Jürgen Budday
HD Recording · DDD · Duration: c. 61 Minutes
Digital Music Album · 12 Tracks
The Maulbronn Chamber Choir (German: Maulbronner Kammerchor) was founded in 1983 and counts today as one of the renowned chamber choirs in Europe. Awards like first places at the Baden-Württemberg Choir Competitions in 1989 and 1997, second place at the German Choir Competition in 1990, first prize at the German Choir Competition in 1998, second place at the International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf 2009 and first place at the Malta Choir Competition show the extraordinary musical calibre of this ensemble. The Chamber Choir has managed to make quite a name for itself on the international scene, too. It was received enthusiastically by audiences and reviewers alike during its debut tour through the USA in 1983, with concerts in New York, Indianapolis and elsewhere. Its concert tours in many European countries, in Israel and Argentina as well as in South Africa and Namibia have also met with a similar response. The choir has performed oratorios by George Frideric Handel each year annually since 1997. All these performances were documented on disc; because of that the Maulbronn Chamber Choir holds a leading position internationally as an interpreter of this genre. Since June 2016 Benjamin Hartmann is conductor and artistic director of the choir.
Prof. Jürgen Budday (born 1948) is a German conductor and director of church music. His musical focus lies in historical and contemporary vocal music and in historically informed performances of oratorios, masses and other sacred works. He studied music education, church music and musicology at the Academy of Music in Stuttgart from 1967 to 1974. From 1979 to 2012, he taught at the Evangelical Seminar in Maulbronn, a Protestant boarding school at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Maulbronn abbey with famous former students like Johannes Kepler, Friedrich Hölderlin and Hermann Hesse, and led, from 1979 till 2013, the concert series at Maulbronn monastery as artistic director. In 1992, Jürgen Budday was named Director of Studies, in 1995 came the appointment as Director of Church Music and in 1998 he was honored with the Bundesverdienstkreuz (German Cross of Merit) as well as the Bruno-Frey-Prize from the State Academy in Ochsenhausen for his work in music education. In 1983 Budday founded the Maulbronn Chamber Choir (Maulbronner Kammerchor), which he conducted until June 2016 and with whom he has won numerous national and international awards. At the Prague International Choir Festival, for example, he received an award as best director. Since 2002, Budday has also held the chair of the Choral Committee of the German Music Council and became director and jury chairman of the German Choir Competition (Deutscher Chorwettbewerb). In 2008, he received the silver Johannes-Brenz-Medal, the highest honoring of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Wuerttemberg, following by the awarding with the honorary title Professor in 2011. In May 2013 Prof. Jürgen Budday was awarded by the Association of German Concert Choirs with the George-Frideric-Handel-Ring, one of the highest honors for choir conductors in Germany. Thus Jürgen Budday followed Helmuth Rilling, who was honored with the ring from 2009 till 2013. Jürgen Budday has started a cycle of Handel oratorios that is planned to span several years, which involves working with soloists like wie Emma Kirkby, Miriam Allan, Michael Chance, Nancy Argenta, Mark Le Brocq, Charles Humphries, Stephen Varcoe (to name but a few). The live recordings of these performances, produced and released by Josef-Stefan Kindler and Andreas Otto Grimminger via their label K&K Verlagsanstalt, received highest praises from reviewers and gave Jürgen Budday's musical work international recognition.
"No conductor and no choir have so consistently recorded so many Handel oratorios as Jürgen Budday and his Maulbronn Chamber Choir." (Dr. Karl Georg Berg, Handel Memoranda Halle 2008).
P
ublishing Authentic Classical Concerts entails for us capturing and recording outstanding performances and concerts for posterity. The performers, audience, opus and room enter into an intimate dialogue that in its form and expression, its atmosphere, is unique and unrepeatable. It is our aim, the philosophy of our house, to enable the listener to acutely experience every facet of this symbiosis, the intensity of the performance, so we record the concerts in direct 2-Track Stereo digital HD. The results are unparalleled interpretations of musical and literary works, simply - audiophile snapshots of permanent value. Flourishing culture, enthralling the audience and last but not least also you the listener, are the values we endeavor to document in our editions and series.
The concerts at the UNESCO World Heritage Maulbronn Monastery supply the ideal conditions for our aspirations. It is, above all, the atmosphere of the romantic, candle-lit arches, the magic of the monastery in its unadulterated sublime presence and tranquillity that impresses itself upon the performers and audience of these concerts. Renowned soloists and ensembles from the international arena repeatedly welcome the opportunity to appear here - enjoying the unparalleled acoustic and architectural beauty of this World Heritage Site, providing exquisite performances of secular and sacred music, documented by us in our Maulbronn Monastery Edition.
Andreas Otto Grimminger & Josef-Stefan Kindler, K&K Verlagsanstalt
1. Gabriel's Message [3:46]
by Anonymous and Jim Clements, Lyrics: Sabine Baring-Gould
2. Ave Maria [7:27]
by Morten Lauridsen, Lyrics: Bible
3. O Magnum Mysterium [5:33]
by Morten Lauridsen
4. Gloria [8:34]
by Jan Sandström, Lyrics: Mass Text
5. Lay a Garland on Her Hearse [3:33]
by Robert Lucas Pearsall, Lyrics: Francis Beaumont
6. A Hymn to the Virgin [3:06]
by Benjamin Britten
7. 7 Songs, Op. 15: No. 7, Gebet [2:02]
by Ludvig Norman
8. Ave Maria [6:50]
by Franz Xaver Biebl
9. Unicornis Captivatur [7:17]
by Ola Gjeilo
10. Ubi Caritas et Amor [5:46]
by David Hill
11. Jubilate Deo [4:44]
by Giovanni Gabrieli, Lyrics: Bible
12. Hail, Gladdening Light [2:31]
by Charles Wood, Lyrics: John Keble
Sound & Recording Engineer: Andreas Otto Grimminger
Production & Mastering: Andreas Otto Grimminger & Josef-Stefan Kindler
Photography, Artwork & Design: Josef-Stefan Kindler