Music » Sacred & Religious Classical Music

Release Date: 1990-10-25, Audio CD, Telarc

Release Date: 2000-01-11, Audio CD, Philips

"It is a work of love, it is the voice of a creature communicating with his God, and I hear that when I hear the Service Sacré," declared Madame Madeleine Milhaud, the composer?s widow, when, at age ninety-eight, she was interviewed by the Milken Archive in advance of this first-ever complete recording of Milhaud?s greatest Jewish work. Presented here for the first time with the settings for the Friday evening liturgy, which were composed after the work?s commission and premiere at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco, the Service Sacré can finally be heard in its entirety as the composer intended.

Glorious Pipes: Organ Music Through the Ages

Release Date: 2000-11-28, Audio CD, Winter & Winter

The heart of this collection is 15 of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, those eternally lovely miniatures, well selected and played by Perahia with the lyrical sense the music needs. Too bad he didn't record them all. The disc opens with four of Busoni's Bach transcriptions, all organ chorale preludes based on sung hymns (hence the connection and the title). These, too, are well done, very clear and fleet and with impressive agility in "Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein." The conclusion is four of Liszt's brilliant arrangements of Schubert songs, again played with wonderful lyricism and some high drama that indicates Perahia knows the original songs and their texts very well. Despite the title, the album isn't totally congruent, but everything on it is well worth hearing. --Leslie Gerber

Release Date: 1994-10-04, Audio CD, Naxos

Release Date: 1995-02-14, Audio CD, Decca

Release Date: 1990-10-25, Audio CD, Sony

Release Date: 1990-10-25, Audio CD, Telarc