This month: Hyperion releases a second complete disc of Antony Pitts's choral music, describing the album as "dazzling, ecstatic, arresting, thought-provoking works, sung with limpid beauty by TONUS PEREGRINUS"
"...my first impulse on hearing this disc was to commend it unreservedly to each and every man, woman, and child on the planet, including those who think they don't like religious music, choral music, or music... Heatedly recommended" Fanfare review of Seven Letters (HYPERION CDA67507)
1/2/2008 *Alpha and Omega* (HYPERION CDA67668) 'The I AM Sayings of Jesus' - a 40' cycle of eight motets for 1 to 8 voices 'The Peace of Jerusalem' - the choral coda to 'Jerusalem-Yerushalayim' Jeremy Summerly writes: "There are few better examples of a composer's style developing concurrently with the emergence of a vocal group than in the a cappella vocal music of Antony Pitts. The TONUS PEREGRINUS octet exists to perform ancient and modern works interspersed with music written by its director. The two-way influence between consort and composer is palpable. Calculated naivety and intense sophistication co-exist, and the effect on the listener is arresting and sometimes deliberately disturbing. Every musical gesture arises straight from the words... The resulting compositions are as much theological statements as stand-alone pieces of music and as such they bear comparison with some of the monuments of, for instance, the music of the English Reformation..." more information: http://shop.thewelcomestranger.org/antony-pitts-alpha-and-omega-108-p.asp press release (colour) including detail of the painting 'The Burning Bush': http://thewelcomestranger.org/A&OpressreleaseCOLOUR20080201.pdf press release (plain): http://thewelcomestranger.org/A&OpressreleaseBW.pdf Hyperion webpage, including sleeve notes and audio samples of each track: http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/hypersearch/al.asp?al=CDA67668 more paintings by Blandine van Noordt-Grauer: http://paintings-blandine.site.voila.fr buy CD online: http://shop.thewelcomestranger.org/index.asp?function=CART&mode=ADD&productid=108 TONUS PEREGRINUS Joanna Forbes Rebecca Hickey Kathryn Knight Alexander L'Estrange Richard Eteson Alexander Hickey Francis Brett Nick Flower Antony Pitts ADVANCE NOTICE OF TP LIVE PERFORMANCES: Saturday 19 April 2008 19:00 Bytom, Silesia, Poland G.G.Gorczycki International Music Festival - TONUS PEREGRINUS *The Mass and the Passion* - the earliest complete polyphony Sunday 20 April 2008 19:00 Ruda Slaska, Silesia, Poland G.G.Gorczycki International Music Festival - TONUS PEREGRINUS *The Mass and the Passion* - the earliest complete polyphony Saturday 7 June 2008 20:00 Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick, Northern Ireland Opera Fringe - TONUS PEREGRINUS *The True Story* - love and loss in 14th-century France Sunday 8 June 2008 19:00 Down Cathedral, Downpatrick, Northern Ireland Opera Fringe - TONUS PEREGRINUS *Jerusalem-Yerushalayim* - an oratorio Friday 4 July 2008 21:00 St Jodok, Landshut, Bavaria, Germany Landshuter Hofmusiktage Festival - TONUS PEREGRINUS *Organum from Notre-Dame* - a cathedral-in-progress Thank you for listening,
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