Osvaldo Golijov - La Pasión Según San Marcos

Osvaldo Golijov (b.1950)

La Pasión Según San Marcos

Luciana Souza; Reynaldo Gonzáles Fernández

Orquesta La Pasión; Schola Cantorum de Caracas; Cantoría Alberto Grau

Maria Guinand, conductor

Golijov's La Pasión Según San Marcos is a bit of a response to Bach's own Passions. As is natural for Golijov, however, this music is heavily influenced and imbued with Latin American rhythms and harmonies. I don't know what all to say about this, except that it's really amazing, and unlike anything I had ever heard before, and I'm sure you'll all enjoy it.

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Disc 1

Disc 2

Arturo Márquez - The Danzón According to Márquez

Arturo Márquez (b. 1950)

Danzones Nos. 1-5, 8

Octeto Malandro

La Pasión Según San Juan de Letrán

Orquesta Mexicana de las Artes

Eduardo García Barrios, conductor

Arturo Márquez is a mexican composer known for his series of symphonic danzones, a traditional genre of music and dance that originated in Cuba and is now a staple of mexican culture.

This is incredibly beautiful music, with a very distinct personality and harmonic language. The orchestration is nothing short of superb, and the Danzon No. 2 is easily one of the finest Mexican orchestral pieces ever written.

Anyone who enjoys Latin-American music like Ginastera or Villa-Lobos, or Mexican music like Moncayo and Revueltas, will adore this.

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Louis Vierne - Complete Organ Symphonies

Louis Vierne (1870-1935)

Complete Organ Symphonies

Jeremy Filsell, organ

Vierne, it seems to me, is often quite unfairly overlooked in favor of the other french organ composer "par excellence", Charles-Marie Widor, even though he's an incredible composer capable of both incredible organ writing in his symphonies and amazingly beautiful chamber music, his Piano Quintet being an extremely unfairly unknown piece that is really, really great.

His six organ symphonies are towering monuments to the biggest instrument in the world, and are full of incredibly huge moments and very subtle and even reverent ones.

These recordings by Jeremy Filsell are nothing short of breathtaking, even though the reverb in the church is so thick a bit of detail is lost. Don't let that fool you, though, this is great music in every sense of the word.

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Disc 1

Disc 2

Disc 3