# Vocal ensembles recommendations



## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

All this year I have been immersed in choral music, renaissance and medieval but also twentieth century. It is being an instructive but especially delicious tour. So I have come to be interested in vocal ensembles like the Tallis Schollars. Stille Antico, Hilliard Ensemble, King’s singers, The Sixteen... What other vocal ensembles can you suggest to explore? Thank you so much in advance for your recommendations :tiphat:


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

The gals of the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir seem to have their act together, quite well.

You can catch them doing their thing splendidly on the following discs:


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

Clare college Canbridge choir are well worth a listen











Accompanied by period instruments


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Ensemble Gilles Binchois
Graindelavoix
Calmus Ensemble
Cinquecento
Brabant Ensemble


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

For choral music I am a big into the church music of Orlando Gibbons, as well as _Vespers/All Night Vigil_ by Rachmaninoff. For Orlando Gibbons there's the King's Choir of Cambridge and the St. John's Choir of Cambridge. Both are very fine, but the St. John's choir has a more intimate and slightly tragic sound that fits Gibbons' musical vision of hope and salvation finding a way through the darkness. For Rachmaninoff I'd suggest Paul Hilliard with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir or Sigvards Klava with the Latvian Radio Choir; just because the big Baltic bass voices serve as a such a strong foundation. Those on a budget needn't buy both recordings. The King's Choir also made a unique version of the Rachmaninoff's _Vespers/All-Night Vigil_, that lacks the authentic Russian feel but is very angelic because they use boy sopranos instead of women singers.

While some may dismiss the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as too pristine and polished; they did make two very fine recordings; one an English translation of the Brahms German Requiem; and the other, the music of Randall Thompson, including the wonderful _Frostiana_ which sets the New England poetry of Robert Frost to music.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Heliogabo said:


> All this year I have been immersed in choral music, renaissance and medieval but also twentieth century. It is being an instructive but especially delicious tour. So I have come to be interested in vocal ensembles like the Tallis Schollars. Stille Antico, Hilliard Ensemble, King's singers, The Sixteen... What other vocal ensembles can you suggest to explore? Thank you so much in advance for your recommendations :tiphat:


If you like Hilliard, check Red Byrd.

If you like those Renaissance choirs, check James O'Donnell with The Westminster Abbey Choir.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/858439-Red-Byrd

https://www.discogs.com/artist/918932-James-ODonnell-2


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

Collegium Vocale Gent, Cut Circle, RIAS Kammerchor, La Chapelle Royale, Les Arts Florissants...


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## Brahmsianhorn (Feb 17, 2017)

Conspirare does a wide variety of repertoire


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## Marcos (May 3, 2021)

La Venexia, here singing a piece by Luzzasco Luzzaschi.






Also, Miranda Sex Garden's first album, though they later turned into a goth rock band (and much later into the Mediæval Bæbes).


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## Marcos (May 3, 2021)

SONNET CLV said:


> The gals of the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir seem to have their act together, quite well.


If you like that, then try the more intimate Trio Bulgarka version:


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

I've been listening to some of Voces8 performances on YT. Quite a lovely pure sound and sensitive musicality.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

For years I was impressed by The Dale Warland Singers which, according to the Wikipedia entry, "was a 40-voice professional chorus based in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1972 by Dale Warland and disbanded in 2004. They performed a wide variety of choral repertoire but specialized in 20th-century music and commissioned American composers extensively. In terms of sound, the DWS was known for its purity of tone, intonation, legato sound and stylistic range. During their existence, the DWS performed roughly 400 concerts and recorded 29 CDs.[1]"

That [1] reference: Mary K. Geston, "Dale Warland Singers," in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed 17 November 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2218924

You can catch the DWS on the Eliahu Inbal / Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra recording of Mahler's resurrectional Symphony No. 2, which is in my collection and well worth a hearing. (Denon ‎- 60C37-7603-4)









I still remember my sadness upon hearing the ensemble was disbanding, now nearly two decades ago. One thing that encouraged me about the ensemble was that participants had to audition anew each year for a spot in the choir, no matter how many years a singer had been a member. Experienced singers competed in blind, behind-the-screen auditions against hopeful newcomers, with Dale Warland choosing what he determined were the best voices among the selected applicants who were also chosen for their personality, warmth, and positive attitudes. (Actually, Warland turned his back to hear singers audition, choosing singers and chair positions via this procedure.) How this practice cannot achieve a great sounding vocal ensemble is beyond my understanding, especially when the entire force is helmed by a competent music director, of which Warland was among the best.









You can hear the Singers on a wide range of material from Renaissance music by Tomás Luis De Victoria to Rachmaninoff's _Vespers_ and contemporary American composers. Quite a few of the Dale Warland Singer recordings are compilations with a wide range of stylings on each disc. A case in point is their collection titled A Rose in Winter (D'Note Classics ‎- DND 1022) which features music by the above mentioned De Victoria as well as Olivier Messiaen, Francis Poulenc, Healey Willan, John Tavener, and lesser known artists including Andrzej Koszewski, Sven-David Sandström, and Trond Kverno.









The Dale Warland Singers. Give them an audition. Your ears may never after leave the room.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Cinquecento
Orlando Consort

Both now on Hyperion, where there are a number of excellent recordings. The OC have been involved in a project to record the entire collection songs by Guillaume Machaut. Cinquecento has recorded several installments of some Renaissance music by composers not over-exposed.


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

The SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart has recorded some great 20th and 21st century choral works


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## cheregi (Jul 16, 2020)

At risk of sounding like a broken record, I can't recommend highly enough the recordings from the first (90s - early 2000s) iteration of Cappella Pratensis, under the leadership of Rebecca Stewart, singing Franco-Flemish polyphony. Stewart had some unorthodox ideas, informed by ethnomusicological research, about how to sing this repertoire, and the results, to me, are just unfathomably beautiful: here's Ockeghem, for example.



Marcos said:


> La Venexia, here singing a piece by Luzzasco Luzzaschi.


Much as I appreciate La Venexiana's commitment to this repertoire, I feel that the style they bring to madrigal singing does massive disservice to basically everything they record... to my ears it is all just buried in this kind of generic pathos, missing any hint of playfulness, _sprezzatura_, I don't know. In contrast, try Kassiopeia Quintet, who simultaneously invest the music with the 'affect' of the poetry but also with a sense of the delicious puzzle-box nature of this extreme mannerism... Profeti Della Quinta is probably the only other group in this repertoire who make a sound I really enjoy.



Marcos said:


> Also, Miranda Sex Garden's first album, though they later turned into a goth rock band (and much later into the Mediæval Bæbes).


What a wild story and great sound!



SONNET CLV said:


> For years I was impressed by The Dale Warland Singers which, according to the Wikipedia entry, "was a 40-voice professional chorus based in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1972 by Dale Warland and disbanded in 2004.


Thanks for this recommendation, I don't typically care for this kind of big-choir sound but this particular group is making me rethink that...


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

cheregi said:


> At risk of sounding like a broken record, I can't recommend highly enough the recordings from the first (90s - early 2000s) iteration of Cappella Pratensis, under the leadership of Rebecca Stewart, singing Franco-Flemish polyphony. Stewart had some unorthodox ideas, informed by ethnomusicological research, about how to sing this repertoire, and the results, to me, are just unfathomably beautiful: here's Ockeghem, for example.
> 
> Much as I appreciate La Venexiana's commitment to this repertoire, I feel that the style they bring to madrigal singing does massive disservice to basically everything they record... to my ears it is all just buried in this kind of generic pathos, missing any hint of playfulness, _sprezzatura_, I don't know. In contrast, try Kassiopeia Quintet, who simultaneously invest the music with the 'affect' of the poetry but also with a sense of the delicious puzzle-box nature of this extreme mannerism... Profeti Della Quinta is probably the only other group in this repertoire who make a sound I really enjoy.
> 
> ...


I was in a lot of discussion about Verdelot recently, after quite enjoying that new recording by Profeti della Quinta. I must say I only really like his madrigals in the versions for voice and instrument by Willaert, this


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## cheregi (Jul 16, 2020)

Mandryka said:


> I was in a lot of discussion about Verdelot recently, after quite enjoying that new recording by Profeti della Quinta. I must say I only really like his madrigals in the versions for voice and instrument by Willaert, this


I hadn't heard this and I like it a fair bit more than most voice-and-instrument madrigal recordings, not sure why. Willaert has been a favorite of mine since I heard Singer Pur's rendition of his Musica Nova madrigals (to keep this post on topic - Singer Pur is another vocal ensemble I find compelling, a bare-ness of sound that avoids the maudlin - their 'Songs of the German Romantics' CD another highlight). Willaert(at least, Willaert-via-Singer-Pur)'s detail-oriented polyphonic inventiveness, not demanding but strongly rewarding close attention, is on par with the best of Josquin or Ockeghem, I think. All that said, it's hard for me to imagine preferring a voice-and-instrument recording over a voices-only recording of the same material - what attracts you to this recording? Does Willaert add or change things around?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

cheregi said:


> I hadn't heard this and I like it a fair bit more than most voice-and-instrument madrigal recordings, not sure why. Willaert has been a favorite of mine since I heard Singer Pur's rendition of his Musica Nova madrigals (to keep this post on topic - Singer Pur is another vocal ensemble I find compelling, a bare-ness of sound that avoids the maudlin - their 'Songs of the German Romantics' CD another highlight). Willaert(at least, Willaert-via-Singer-Pur)'s detail-oriented polyphonic inventiveness, not demanding but strongly rewarding close attention, is on par with the best of Josquin or Ockeghem, I think. All that said, it's hard for me to imagine preferring a voice-and-instrument recording over a voices-only recording of the same material - what attracts you to this recording? Does Willaert add or change things around?


It's happy. Willaert does a good job on Verdelot, and the singers are clearly enjoying themselves. I have mixed reactions to Willaert, a lot of music from the first half of the 16th century doesn't appeal to me much - Gombert, Willaert etc.

That being said, the Stradivarius complete Willaert was a good idea - and it's shame it was never finished.


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## cheregi (Jul 16, 2020)

Mandryka said:


> It's happy. Willaert does a good job on Verdelot, and the singers are clearly enjoying themselves.


This is a great point! I would've never looked at it this way. But I'm realizing it's key to my Gesualdo recommendation earlier too - not just 'investing the music with a sense of the music's fun-ness' but actually the sound of having fun singing it!


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## Nedeslusire (Jul 27, 2021)

Cappella Romana, based in Portland, Oregon. Specialized in Byzantine music, they work with musicians from all over the world, especially in Greece:










https://cappellaromana.org/
https://www.youtube.com/user/cappellaromanainc

This is a tour de force from their recent catalogue:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k98CAyJvDBJ0yBJQcDVyscJ1lNF66G92s


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## Nedeslusire (Jul 27, 2021)

The Psaltikon ensemble. Their mission includes the preservation and dissemination of the musical heritage of Greece, through original scholarship, performance, and recordings. Psaltikon refers to the medieval chant book for soloists which contained the most virtuosic chants from the now-extinct Asmatic Rite of Constantinople.










http://www.psaltikon.org/

A taste of their ability:


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## Nedeslusire (Jul 27, 2021)

The Byzantion Academic Choir, currently functioning in Iași, Romania, with the blessings of His Eminence Teofan, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, and under the auspices of the University of Art "George Enescu" Iasi. The Choir is represented by the "Byzantion Cultural Association".










https://www.byzantion.ro/

They are experts in Byzantine kalophony, among other styles:


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Sequentia made some fabulous recordings of Hildegard von Bingen

Gothic Voices have an extensive catalogue mainly on the Hyperion label, which you can browse and sample here: hyperion-records.co.uk/a.asp?a=A741

Ensemble Organum are always worth a listen; I particularly enjoyed their rather experimental take on the Messe de Nostre Dame


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## Fredrikalansson (Jan 29, 2019)

If you love early Tudor polyphony, try Blue Heron's 5-Cd set "Lost Music of Canterbury".


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## Nedeslusire (Jul 27, 2021)

VocaMe is an ensemble made up of four renowned female vocalists from the field of early music, directed and accompanied by Michael Popp. The ensemble created a sensation with its first project, the world's first recording of the hymns of Kassia, a ninth-century Byzantine female composer. VocaMe has performed at prestigious music festivals at home and abroad.










http://www.vocame.de/en/

Kassia: Byzantine Hymns From The First Female Composer Of The Occident:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nYFPEKXAGN6aatsVv19o86C0vP0nMKRiQ


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