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Magnificat was formed in 1991 by its conductor, Philip Cave, to explore the rich diversity of choral music from the last five centuries. The ensemble specializes in the restoration and performance of neglected choral masterpieces of the 16th and 17th centuries. The choir ranges from four to forty voices and has performed a wide range of music, both a cappella and with its own orchestra of period instruments.
In association with Linn Records, Magnificat has undertaken many recording projects of music from ‘The Golden Age’. The first these comprises motets by Gesualdo, Guerrero, Josquin, Rebelo and Victoria together with Allegri’s Miserere and Palestrina’s Stabat mater.
A highly acclaimed recording of Victoria’s Officium Defunctorum of 1605, named a 1997 Critics’ Choice by Gramophone Magazine and chosen by The Rough Guide as one of its ‘100 Essential Classical CDs’, was followed by a disc of music by the neglected Spanish master, Philippe Rogier, including the Missa ego sum qui sum.
Magnificat’s recording of Thomas Tallis’ forty-part motet Spem in alium was hailed as “quite the best recording” by Gramophone Magazine. The disc was recently selected as the BBC Radio 3 recommended performance of the Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah. This disc also includes the four-part Mass and Latin motets.
Their most recent collaboration was a CD of Palestrina’s twenty-nine motets from the Song of Songs published under the title Canticum Canticorum.
Baroque music features prominently including many performances for Music at Oxford, Britain's largest independent music promoter, of works by JS Bach and Handel including an annual performance of Messiah in Oxford's historic Sheldonian Theatre designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Other accompanied programs have included works by Charpentier, Purcell, Gabrieli, Schütz and Vivaldi.
Music from later periods includes works include Rachmaninov's Vespers performed by candlelight, and twentieth century music including works by Vaughan Williams, Howells, Gorecki and Poulenc.
Magnificat has also worked with The City of Oxford Orchestra, The City of London Chamber Players, The King's Trumpeters led by internationally acclaimed Crispian Steele-Perkins and with James Bowman who for over 25 years has been one of the world's foremost counter tenors.
In addition to its recordings for Linn Records, Magnificat has undertaken several other recording projects: the first is of choral music both sacred and secular by the English baroque master, Robert Ramsey - now released on the ASV Gaudeamus label; on the Cantoris label, a reconstruction of the Coronation service of Queen Elizabeth I, which includes the first recording of works by Richard Alwood and William Mundy, and a disc of Chant in Honour of Anglo-Saxon Saints.
A best-selling double album of Gregorian Chant, containing many hymns, sequences, and antiphons for the Church's year was released in late summer 1995.
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