At long last, we are able to share more of our favorite music for the Christmas season including four different settings of the Christmas responsory text, “O magnum mysterium”.

This album was recorded over the period 2014-2016 in two of our favorite sacred spaces in Cleveland, Ohio: The Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, and Immaculate Conception Church. “St. Stan’s”, a spectacular edifice tucked away in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood, is well-known to musicians and local audiences for its stunning beauty and wonderful acoustics, which we demonstrated to good effect in “Adoro Te”, Donna’s 2014 solo release of Gregorian chant.

But until recently, Immaculate Conception - “The Mac” - has remained a relatively well-kept secret, known and beloved only by those fortunate few in the pews, on the altar, and in the loft who have treasured the truly magical acoustic of this 130-year old sanctuary during a weekly Latin Mass, and the occasional organ concert.

Set, as are so many churches in industrial cities, smack in the midst of as-yet ungentrified urban neighborhoods, both of these churches are flanked on all sides by bus stops, body shops, school playgrounds, heavily-traveled train tracks and untidy rows of old worker’s cottages dating to the 19th century. With such a potential for intrusive sounds from the neighborhood, neither venue would seem an obvious choice for recording the delicate and transparent music for solo voice and lute.

But Mignarda is not particularly well-known for making the obvious choice.

The album was recorded live on different dates and in different locations; we feel the variation in recorded sound only enhances the live feel of the listening experience. Since there was an absolute minimum of tampering with the recording, bits of the real world filter into our live alternative to the sometimes artificially contrived sound of early music recordings. To capture the intimate sound of a natural voice ideally balanced with the quiet sounds of the lute, a single stereo microphone was placed from 18-24 inches away from the performers.

The balanced sound you hear is exactly what one can expect listening to a live performance in close proximity, aided by the halo of sound contributed by the two wonderful spaces where we recorded. There are also contributions from the audience and the neighborhood, as well as the occasional unforeseen incidents that may occur during a live performance with a very close microphone placement. But the result is real music performed by real artists, and we hope it is received in the same spirit in which it is presented.

- Ron Andrico & Donna Stewart