This richly varied collection of meditative sacred music takes it’s name, Agnus Dei, from the opening item, a setting for voices of Samuel Barber’s celebrated and deeply expressive Adagio for Strings. The hauntingly melodic choral masterpieces that fill these two vinyls span five centuries and are the work of such composers as Bach, Mozart, Allegri, Albinoni, Fauré, Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Elgar and, from nearer our own time, John Tavener and Henryk Górecki. They are performed by the choir of New College Oxford, an exemplar of Britain’s great choral tradition.
Barber: Agnus Dei
Fauré: Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11
Palestrina: Kyrie (from Missa Papae Marcelli)
Mozart: Ave verum corpus, K618
Brahms: Geistliches Lied, Op. 30
Bach, J S: Jesu, bleibet meine Freude (from Cantata BWV147 ‘Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben’)
Rachmaninov: Vespers, Op. 37: Bogoroditse Devo (Rejoice, O Virgin)
Elgar: Lux aeterna
Gorecki: Totus Tuus, Op. 60
Tavener: The Lamb
Fauré: Requiem: In Paradisum
Albinoni: Adagio for Strings and Organ in G minor
Mendelssohn: Hear My Prayer
Byrd: Ave verum Corpus
Lotti: Crucifixus in 8 parts
Allegri: Miserere mei, Deus
Monteverdi: Beatus vir (from Selva Morale e Spirituali)
Fauré: Requiem: Pie Jesu