Description
ECM New Series: Vladimír Godár — Mater (Iva Bittová, Solamente Naturali) — Audio CD
Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!
Product Details:
- Product Type: Audio CD
- Brand / Label: ECM New Series
- Composer: Vladimír Godár
- Soloist: Iva Bittová (voice)
- Performers: Miloš Valent (violin, viola), Solamente Naturali, Bratislava Conservatory Choir
- Choirmaster: Dušan Bill
- Conductor: Marek Štryncl
- Release Year: 2006
- Catalog Number: ECM New Series 1985 / 476 5689
- UPC: 028947656890
- Label Code: LC 02516
- Original Licensor: Pavian Records (Czech Republic & Slovakia)
- Genre: Classical
- Style: Contemporary Sacred, Choral, Baroque-instrument
Product Features
- Format: CD
- Discs: 1
- Total runtime: approx. 56:52
- Pieces: 7
- Recording: St. George Church, Svätý Jur, Slovakia, September 2005
- Instrumentation: female voice, mixed choir, Baroque string orchestra on historic instruments
- Made in: Germany
- Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed
Overview
Mater is an hour-long meditation on motherhood — seven settings for female voice, mixed choir and a Baroque string orchestra played on period instruments. Slovak composer Vladimír Godár circles the archetypes of "woman" and "mother," sometimes the Virgin Mary, sometimes not, through traditional forms like the Stabat Mater, Magnificat and Regina coeli.
The voice at the center belongs to Iva Bittová, the remarkable Czech singer and violinist known across avant-garde, folk and classical worlds. Godár has written repeatedly for her, and here she gives one of her most heartfelt performances — the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that she sings from a kind of musical ground zero.
The sound sits near Arvo Pärt and Górecki, with Monteverdi not far off, but the Slavic coloring keeps it unmistakably its own. Texts reach beyond the liturgical: Slovak lullabies, a Yiddish folksong, a poem by James Joyce. Written in this century, the music sounds authentically old.
The 19-minute Stála Matka (Stabat Mater), scored for alto, violin and chamber orchestra, is the heart of the disc. This is the sealed ECM New Series edition, an ECM production recorded in a Slovak church and originally issued by Pavian Records.
Interesting Facts
- Mater was first released by Pavian Records solely in the Czech Republic and Slovakia before ECM took it worldwide.
- Vladimír Godár, born in Bratislava in 1956, is also an award-winning film composer in his home country.
- Iva Bittová is celebrated equally as an avant-garde vocalist, a folk performer, and a violinist.
- The texts blend sacred Latin forms with Slovak lullabies, a Yiddish folksong, and verse by James Joyce ("Ecce puer").
- Miloš Valent and his ensemble Solamente Naturali are known to ECM listeners from Stephen Stubbs's "Teatro Lirico."
- The album was recorded in the resonant acoustic of St. George Church in Svätý Jur, Slovakia.
Track Listing
- Maykomashmalon (2005) — 3:40
- Magnificat (2003)
- Uspávanky (Lullabies) (2001/03) — 8:09
- Ecce puer (1997) — 6:12
- Stála Matka (Stabat Mater) (2001) — 19:24
- Regina coeli (2003) — 5:01
- Maykomashmalon (2005) — 3:40
Publishers
An ECM production, © 2006 ECM Records GmbH (Munich), ℗ 2006 Pavian Records, under the ECM New Series imprint, catalog 1985 / 476 5689. Manufactured and marketed internationally under exclusive license by ECM except in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Printed in Germany.
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