BEATA
Songs to the blessed virgin
$18 + $3 shipping and handling
The Esoterics' first CD, BEATA, celebrates the Virgin Mary as a symbol of purity and devotion, as well as an inspiration for centuries of music.
Comprising eighteen compositions from nearly as many countries, this recording presents unaccompanied choral music about Mary from every continent and each decade of this century. This contemporary repertoire is interspersed with strophes of the sequence, O virga ac diadema, by the renowned medieval mystic, poet, and abbess, Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179).
BEATA was originally performed and recorded in July 1997 (after our highly acclaimed performance of the same title) in a true-to-performance style, where each piece is heard as it was performed, and no gratuitous editing occurred during the mastering process.
| 1 | Hymne à la vierge (1954) | Pierre Villette |
| 2 | Ave maris stella (1919) | Otto Olsson |
| 3 | Ave maris stella (1900) | Edvard Grieg |
| 4 | O virga ac diadema - I (c1150) | Hildegard von Bingen |
| 5 | Tota pulchra es, Maria (1942) | Pablo Casals |
| 6 | Canticum Mariæ virginis (1978) | Einojuhani Rautavaara |
| 7 | I beheld her, beautiful as a dove (1928) | Healey Willan |
| 8 | O virga ac diadema - II (c1150) | Hildegard von Bingen |
| 9 | Ave Maria, cheia di graça (1980) | José Firmino |
| 10 | Ave Maria, cheia di graça (1948) | Heitor Villa-Lobos |
| 11 | Magnificat (1982) | Giles Swayne |
| 12 | O magnum mysterium (1992) | John Harbison |
| 13 | Es ist ein Reis entsprungen (1907) | Alban Berg |
| 14 | Morning song for the Christ child (1966) | Peter Sculthorpe |
| 15 | O virga ac diadema - III (c1150) | Hildegard von Bingen |
| 16 | Ave Maria, gratia plena (1957) | Kenneth Gaburo |
| 17 | Ave Maria, gratia plena (1898) | Giuseppe Verdi |
| 18 | Maria durch ein Dornwald ging (1933) | Hugo Distler |
| 19 | O virga ac diadema - IV (c1150) | Hildegard von Bingen |
| 20 | Bogoroditse dyevo, raduisya (1934) | Igor Stravinsky |
| 21 | Bogoroditse dyevo, raduisya (1990) | Arvo Pärt |
| 22 | Mater ora filium (1921) | Arnold Bax |