A powerful reminder of what we have lost



When Grammy winner John McLaughlin Williams recommends music it is worth listening. So I was intrigued to see John recommending on Facebook Paul Constantinescu's Byzantine oratorio 'The Nativity' which he describes as a "beautiful, mystical work". This is not a work or composer I know and my search could find no current recording in the catalogue. But the piecemeal excerpts on YouTube, see above, suggest 'The Nativity' is a strong candidate for re-release or re-recording. At this time of the year sacred music from the Orthodox tradition is a powerful reminder of the mystery that our consumer culture has leached out of the nativity. More Eastern Orthodox music here.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

The Wound Dresser said…
I found one copy,at amazon us for 79 dollars! I know it is Romanian, and pretty hard to find...sometimes beauty is
5:17 pm
Pliable said…
TWD, yes, I had the same problem.

I probably should not share this, but within hours of uploading the post a kind reader (not JMcW) offered to rip a copy from his Olympia discs.

As I said, a re-release opportunity for someone.
6:01 pm
Pliable said…
Talking of the nativity and re-releases can I also add a plea for Naive to make available again their recording of Pau Casals' El Pessebre (The Crib)?

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/nov00/casals.htm
6:14 pm
Pliable said…
Christmas 2013 - this post is attracting readers via a Facebook post.

Unfortunately the YouTube sample has been removed and I cannot trace an alternative. Any links from readers to legal audio samples - not pirate downloads of the entire Olympia CD - would be appreciated.
6:16 pm
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