Anna Prohaska / Julius Drake
Paradise Lost
An ambitious and impressively performed recital organized loosely or metaphorically around the story of the biblical Eve.
Bach Choir / David Hill / BBC Concert Orchestra
Howells: Missa Sabrinensis
A rich choral performance of Howells' gigantic mass shows that the grand British tradition lives on.
Bach Choir / David Hill
Will Todd: Lights, Stories, Noise, Dreams, Love, Noodles
Pleasantly jazz-flavored, programmatic choral music, enhanced by the presence of the venerable Bach Choir.
Barbara Hannigan / Ludwig Orchestra
La Passione
Soprano Barbara Hannigan sings and conducts this unorthodox, death-haunted program.
Brabant Ensemble / Stephen Rice
Johannes Lupi: Motets; Te Deum; Lupus Hellinck: Missa Surrexit pastor
The choral music of Franco-Flemish composers Johannes Lupi and Lupus Hellinck is given a polished treatment by the exceptional Brabant Ensemble.
Cappella Amsterdam / Daniel Reuss
Roland de Lassus: Inferno
An exceptional Renaissance motet collection focuses closely on a specific subject, the last years of Lassus' life, but has universal scope.
Choir of Merton College, Oxford / Benjamin Nicholas
Sleeper's Prayer: Choral Music from North America
A strong collection of American works in which the British choral style produces novel effects.
Clare College Choir, Cambridge / Graham Ross
Britten: A Ceremony of Carols
A fresh, unusually vigorous reading of the Ceremony of Carols.
Collegium Vocale / Philippe Herreweghe
Johann Sebastian Bach: Johannes-Passion, BWV 245
Philippe Herreweghe's third Johannes-Passion is an extraordinarily persuasive dramatic document.
David Murphy / London Philharmonic Orchestra
Ravi Shankar: Sukanya
An opera left unfinished by Shankar at his death in 2012, both entertaining and musically profound.
De Profundis / Eamonn Dougan
Juan Esquivel: Missa Hortus Conclusus; Magnificat; Marian Antiphons; Motets
The Spanish Renaissance composer Juan Esquivel is well-represented by Eamonn Dougan and the all-male chorus De Profundis.
Epiphoni Consort / Tim Reader
When Love Speaks: Choral Music by Owain Park
An exceptional collection of works by Owain Park does much to establish him as Rutter's heir apparent.
Ermonela Jaho
Anima Rara
A splendid set of verismo selections, re-creating the repertory of a historical soprano, that prizes emotional intimacy over vocal power.
Fatma Said
El Nour
Utterly distinctive recital exploring the deep Arab traces in European song, and then inflecting Egyptian songs back toward the West.
Giulio Prandi / Ghislieri Choir / Orchestra Ghislieri
Niccolò Jommelli: Requiem
An impressive revival of a forgotten 18th century masterpiece by Niccolò Jommelli.
Gloriae Dei Cantores / Richard K. Pugsley
Arvo Pärt: Stabat Mater
Distinctively American performances of works by Arvo Pärt show the composer's variety.
Gloucester Cathedral Choir / Adrian Partington / Jonathan Hope
Ian Venables: Requiem
A substantial new setting of the requiem mass, with links to the past but a distinctive voice, wonderfully performed.
Hervé Niquet / Le Concert Spirituel Orchestra & Chorus
Martini: Requiem pour Louis XVI
A grand and utterly unknown requiem for Louis XVI, written 18 years after the fact.
Huelgas Ensemble / Paul Van Nevel
Simone de Bonefont: Missa Pro mortuis
A gorgeous recording of all-but-unknown Renaissance music. A major release.
Jonas Kaufmann / Helmut Deutsch
Selige Stunde: Romantic Songs
Pandemic-time lieder recording by Jonas Kaufmann has a wonderfully relaxed, intimate quality.
Joyce DiDonato / Franco Fagioli / Maxim Emelyanychev / Il Pomo d'Oro
Handel: Agrippina
A superb performance of Handel's first big operatic hit, a unique mixture of serious and comic.
Kent Nagano / Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal
Penderecki: St Luke Passion
An exciting performance of Penderecki's mid-1960s masterwork, paying equal attention to its modernist and traditional aspects.
Les Talens Lyriques / Christophe Rousset / Amanda Forsythe / Sandrine Piau
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Betulia Liberata
A superb recording of Mozart's only oratorio that catches the 15-year-old composer's rapidly expanding dramatic skills.
Lorelei Ensemble / Beth Willer
David Lang: Love Fail
An austere, minimal work using various texts to describe a failed love affair receives brilliant performances from Lorelei Ensemble.
Los Angeles Master Chorale / Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre: The Sacred Veil
An extraordinary choral song cycle by a composer and poet, marking in personal detail the cancer death of the poet's wife.
Magdalena Consort / Silas Wollston / Fretwork / His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
In Chains of Gold: The English Pre-Restoration Verse Anthem, Vol. 2 – William Byrd to Edmund Hooper, Psalms and Royal Anthems
A vivid, beautifully balanced performance of works in the neglected genre of the English verse anthem.
Margarita Gritskova / Maria Prinz
Prokofiev: Songs and Romances
Wonderfully sensitive readings of Prokofiev's songs, a neglected aspect of his output.
Masaaki Suzuki / Bach Collegium Japan
Bach: St. Matthew Passion
Suzuki's second traversal of the St. Matthew Passion sharpens his general approach rather than rethinking the work wholesale.
![Beethoven: Lieder [Songs]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0005172327/front/400/yFiLuu5RSuHTzuF6kNV_8JhUoDg0hsvx4F4sL4oO-nA=.jpg)
Matthias Goerne / Jan Lisiecki
Beethoven: Lieder [Songs]
Lieder specialist Goerne sets out to rescue Beethoven's songs from their general underrated condition.
National Youth Choir of Scotland / Christopher Bell / Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Cantos Sagrados: Ešenvalds, MacMillan, Musgrave, Tippett, Whitacre
A varied and vigorous program from the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
New College Choir, Oxford / Robert Quinney
John Sheppard: Media Vita
Impressive, authentic-feeling recording of little-recorded early Renaissance composer John Sheppard.
ORA Singers
Thomas Tallis: Spem in Alium; James Macmillan: Vidi Aquam
An exceptional release featuring James MacMillan's "reflection" on Tallis' monumental 40-voice motet Spem in alium.
Pacific Chorale / Robert Istad / Salastina Music Society
All Things Common: Music of Tarik O'Regan
Beautifully performed choral collection that gives an idea of the variety in O'Regan's music.
Paul McCreesh / Anna Dennis / Gabrieli Consort / Gabrieli Consort & Players / Mhairi Lawson
Purcell: The Fairy Queen, 1692
Groundbreaking new treatment of a troublesome Purcell score brings it alive.
Riga Cathedral Choir School Mixed Choir / Jurgis Cabulis
Jančevskis: Aeternum
A major new figure in the Baltic choral tradition, presented in gorgeous performances.
Roderick Williams / Iain Burnside
Schubert: Schwanengesang; Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte
Very fine performances by Williams -- part of his Schubert explorations -- that recognize the differences between Schubert and Beethoven.
Sarah Connolly / Robert Dean Smith / Vladimir Jurowski
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
A very fine Das Lied von der Erde, with a glorious finale from Sarah Connolly.
St. John's College Choir, Cambridge / Andrew Nethsingha
Ash Wednesday
A live recording of the St. John's Ash Wednesday service, with a striking sense of immediacy.
Stuart Skelton / Erin Wall / Edward Gardner
Britten: Peter Grimes
An exceptional Peter Grimes, honed by several live performances before the recording.
Tenebrae / Nigel Short
Couperin: Leçons de Ténèbres; Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday
A bold pairing of Couperin and Gesualdo succeeds in bringing out the Tenebrae theme in multiple eras.
The Crossing / Donald Nally
James Primosch: Carthage
Gorgeous choral music mixing sacred and secular elements with a varied diatonic idiom to match.
The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park
Fading
Diverse pieces are tied together by drawing inspiration from the day's-end Compline service and by the atmospheric performances.
The Sixteen / Harry Christophers
The Call of Rome
An unusually attractive release from The Sixteen that has something for Renaissance listeners at all levels.
Thibault Noally / Les Accents
Alessandro Scarlatti: Il Martirio di Santa Teodosia
An excellent find for lovers of Alessandro Scarlatti -- a highly dramatic oratorio that verges on opera.
Utopia Chamber Choir / Andrew Lawrence-King
Piae Cantiones
Andrew Lawrence-King and the Utopia Chamber Choir perform selections from the Piae Cantiones, a collection of sacred songs.
Voces8
After Silence
A gorgeous album in four parts, uniting previous releases of the individual parts and combining music thematically in new ways.
Vojtěch Dyk / Dennis Russell Davies / Wiener Singakademie
Leonard Bernstein: Mass
A superb performance of Bernstein's Mass that clarifies its multi-stylistic world.
Vox Clamantis / Jaan-Eik Tulve
Cyrillus Kreek: The Suspended Harp of Babel
Slightly elaborated versions of folk-based religious pieces by a founder of the Estonian school.
Vox Luminis / A Nocte Temporis
Charpentier: Orphée aux Enfers
Marc-Antoine Charpentier's two works on the Orpheus myth receive sparkling performances from Vox Luminis and A Nocte Temporis.
Véronique Gens / I Giardini
Nuits
This ambitious program is tied together by the sheer allure of Gens' undiminished voice.
