Beatus Vir

James Whitbourn's Beatus Vir for SSATB choir with a Piano accompaniment for rehersal. Commissioned for the Choir of St Matthew’s Church Northampton. First performed on StMatthew’s Day 21 September 2017 conducted by Justin Miller. 'With the wedding season soon to be upon church musicians James Whitbourn’s new five-minute wedding anthem  Set me as a seal upon thineheart deserves a warm welcome. It would be easy to learn quickly if rehearsal time is limited with vocal lines that are not demanding and helpfully supported by the organ. But the music itself has a haunting intense beauty thatis very special. Judge for yourself with the performance on YouTube that appears to have been made at the wedding for which it was written. St Matthew Northampton for which Walter Hussey commissioned so notably continues an enterprising music commissioning policy most recently with Whitbourn’s setting of Beatus Vir. The commission was for the feast day of St Matthew last September and the published score describes the text asbeing the Gradual for St Matthew. But that rather limits what is simply the first two verses of Psalm 112 and deserves to be sung throughout much of the church year. Forget Monteverdi and other lively settings of Beatus vir:here we have a contemplation on how blest is the person who trusts in the Lord. Despite a dramatic outburst on ‘potens in terra’ (‘mighty in the land’) the work ends as it began with an extended gentlesetting of the word ‘Beatus’.' - Sunday by Sunday

Par PART ARVO. Beatus Petronius and Statuit ei Dominus were commissioned in 1990 to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the Basilica San Petronio, the principal church of Bologna. San Petronio is one of the few churches to be equipped with two church organs. Arvo Pärt thus wrote both pieces for two choirs and two organs. However, the pieces can be performed together or separately. The two pieces are written in contrasting styles, arranged as antiphonal songs. Beatus Petronius pro nobis intercedat, quo beato previo, vero dato premio, omnis pestis cedat./ Répertoire / 2 Choeurs et 2 Orgues

Ed. critica M. Talbot - Riduzione per canto e pianoforte di A. Frigé-The present reduction derives from the critical edition of the full score published in this catalog in 2002 (PR 1367). The Beatus vir in C major RV 597 is composed on Psalm 111 is a prominent member of a group of around 13 sacred vocal works by Vivaldi composed in a period running from the second half of the 1720s into the early 1730s even if it is not possible to establish their right destination. The critical edition is based on the only source available the original autograph manuscript now kept at the National University Library of Turin Foà 40 cc. 155-185; it restores the text starting from the revised criteria by the Committee of the Critical Edition. The volumeincludes also a scrupulous analysis of the autograph and one of all the sections of the psalm as well as a choice of the Critical Notes to the musical text.

Pawel Lukazewski is a Polish composer specialising in sacred and choral music. His works have been performed all around the globe and he has won awards for his work including first prize at the Frederic Chopin Academy of MusicCompetition for Arrampicata. Beatus Vir Sanctus Paulus was written in 2003.