Sayve: Ad Vesperas / Ensemble Polyharmonique, Concerto Imperiale
Musique en Wallonie
CD
$20.99Oct 14, 2022
In the 17th century the city of Liège, capital of an enormous diocese and of a principality within the Empire, was described as a “priests’ paradise” on account of its imposing cathedral, its seven collegiate churches, about thirty parish churches, and its numerous abbeys and monasteries. This recording does more than justice to two manuscript which provides rare evidence of the polyphonic repertoire in use by the Liège religious orders in the first half of the 17th century: Grand livre de chœur de Saint-Lambert and Livre d’orgue des frères croisiers. The fifty-odd 4- to 8-part motets assembled in the Grand livre de chœur are by the hand of Liège composers from the first half of the 17th century who, with the exception of Gilles Hayne, were all active at the cathedral. These motets illustrate the permanence of the rite in honor of the patron saint of the diocese, Bishop Lambert, and other acts of devotions in favor in Liège at the time. Following the traditional format of the evening office, the vespers presented here alternate psalms and antiphons and end with a Magnificat with a particularly rich tonal texture. Sayve’s Magnificat for double chorus, preserved in the national library at Ljubljana, here receives its first recording. Drawing on extant sources of composers who all maintained a link with Liège, the Polyharmonique and Concerto Imperiale ensembles, under the direction of Alexander Schneider et Fabien Moulaert, here offers a program remarkable for its great stylistic and musical coherence.
Guillaume Du Fay (ca. 1397-1474) composed these settings toward the end of his life, and can be regarded as the summation of his outstanding career. Each of these masses are somewhat experimental for their time, and all are outstandingly beautiful. These masterworks are presented on two discs, and are performed by Cut Circle, conducted by Jesse Rodin.
Sensual - that's undoubtedly the word that best describes the music on this album dedicated to the early works of Josquin des Prez. In his early thirties, the composer was already developing a unique sense of sound and language. He knew how to make rhythms resonate, rendering them sometimes enveloping, sometimes liberating. His melodies are full of life - sometimes gentle, sometimes sinuous - and his duets seem to be made of glances exchanged between voices. Josquin composes with great finesse, playing on the contrasts between the intimate and the radiant. As in the art of his time, even when he addresses religious subjects, his music retains a sensual beauty, full of emotion and humanity.
Josquin des Prez: the name evokes beautiful, brilliant, even magical music—but more than five centuries since he composed his last note, we are still discovering how to hear him. In this album, originally conceived to mark the composer’s quincentenary in 2021, Cut Circle strives to treat Josquin not as a sleepy relic of the distant past but as a stylish, sensitive, playful, ecstatic composer. We foreground his revolutionary precision and drive while embracing reactions to the music that are visceral and emotional.
