Antwerp's collegiate church of Our Lady developed into one of the most important musical centres in the Low Countries over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries. This recording traces the lineage of the directors of music and the singers associated with the church, the later cathedral. Their music illustrates how polyphony evolved from it's late mediaeval roots into the early Baroque period. Gregorian chants from the Antwerp tradition are included with the polyphonic works as a reminder of the daily services and their music: there was always singing in the chancel, in the chapels and at the services of brotherhoods and guilds that were spread throughout the day. The name and image of the Virgin Mary were present everywhere, not only in the church's liturgy but also in the daily life of the city. That same connection remains visible today in the many statues of Mary on facades and street corners - even on the facade of the Town Hall - and in the celebration of Mother's Day on the Feast of the Assumption. The programme concludes with the early Baroque period, the era in which Peter Paul Rubens was also active. Peter Philips' Assumpta est Maria shares the same artistic context as Rubens' monumental Assumption of the Virgin in it's place above the high altar of the cathedral of Antwerp.

With the present recording Illuminans Tenebras hopes to shed new light on the music of Hildegard von Bingen, one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages. The musical approach of the ensemble shows that the monophony in the songs of Hildegard von Bingen bears a striking resemblance with various basic Ottoman makamlar - Kurdî, Mahur, Ussak. Illuminans Tenebras places Hildegard's mystical sounds alongside impassioned Eastern improvisations and links 12th-century Christian mysticism with Sufism of the same period. The recording highlights the musical and spiritual elements that the two traditions have in common: monodic melodies, improvisation, and ecstasy - music as a path to the divine.

The art of composition attained a wholly new quality and a totally new aesthetic status with the works of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, an art that their contemporaries already described as Classical. The standards these two masters set through their creations continue to shape our perceptions and criteria of evaluation to this day, yet we rarely think of the virtuosos who brought them to life and to whose outstanding skill they frequently owe their very existence. The Italian violinist Niccolo Mestrino was one such virtuoso. After several engagements with various orchestras in Italy he was appointed by Joseph Haydn as concertmaster of Prince Esterhazy's famous court orchestra in Eisenstadt. Later he became the leader of the orchestra of the Theâtre de Monsieur opera house in Paris. The works that are recorded here for the first time demonstrate that Mestrino was not only an extraordinary violinist but also an accomplished composer.

LE PARLER ET LE SILENCE: Music for Flute Consort and Lute from the Late 16th to the Early 18th Centuries • Attaignant Consort; Nigel North (lt) • RAMÉE 1206 (68:33)


Works by: PALESTRINA, BASSANO, LUZZASCHI, ANON., GUAMI, FRESCOBALDI, SWEELINCK, PILKINGTON, MORLEY, DOWLAND, LUPO, GIBBONS, BALLARD, TESSIER, BOËSSET, GUÉDRON, R. DE VISÉE, LAMBERT, J.-M. HOTTETERRE, BOISMORTIER


The Attaignant Consort wisely refrains from explaining what they mean by “Speaking and Silence.” Is it the music that speaks, the notes preceded and followed by silence? The tradition of polyphony that would shortly give way to the primacy of homophonic music? The fantasias and arrangements of vocal works, soon to give way to more thoroughly structured works composed for winds? The Renaissance and Baroque flutes (heard here in instrumental families styled after 16th and 18th century models) that would be stilled with the advent of newer models? Regardless, the Attaignant Consort supplies a fascinating program to illustrate the subtitle of their latest release.


As with their earlier albums, Le Parler et le Silence follows the modern practice in many live performances of forming discrete groups of selections that espouse some form of common identity along with internal and external contrasts. An example is the three Sweelinck arrangements—two witty bicinia or teaching pieces, each in two parts, based on French texts, followed by a learned but sweet five-part setting of Psalm 9. These three pieces, with their high order of imitative art, in turn lead into a section of five English works, the break of continuity illustrated by leading off with an arrangement of Francis Pilkington’s strictly homophonic madrigal My choice is made . The English pieces are in fact a microcosm of secular Elizabethan English music media, presenting madrigals, lute songs, and consort fantasias with variations in diminution. Each succeeding section in turn reveals careful attention to programming for formal diversity and central ideas, whether by nation, individual composer, or (as the program ends with a sonata da chiesa by Boismortier) increasingly formalized structure. In short, this isn’t one of those albums that sports an undifferentiated-four-recorders-as-one sound, but a program of diverse origins, thoughtfully explored by anywhere from solo instruments to full ensemble.


The Attaignant Consort appears not to have been reviewed in these pages, before. It was formed in 1998. Three out of four of their original members are still in the group. While recorder consorts aren’t exactly rare, this ensemble brings both a textural variety and touch of class to everything they do. Lutenist Nigel North’s eloquent performances contribute to the former; unpressured tone and sculpted phrasing, to the latter. The engineering is reasonably dry, close and balanced, with the lute never getting lost behind the Attaignants. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

It is difficult to decide what to admire most: the music or the performance. The combination of the two makes this disc a winner.

here are many ensembles which concentrate on the polyphony of the renaissance. Most of them don't pay that much attention to French music written in the second half of the 16th century. French ensembles like the Ensemble Clément Janequin concentrate for the most part on the secular chanson. The sacred repertoire is not fully explored. That is certainly the case with compositions written under the influence of the Reformation. The ensemble Ludus Modalis here set about redressing the balance.

Not much is known about Paschal de l'Estocart. It is not unusual that a year of birth isn't exactly known, but in de l'Estocart’s case we don't even know when he died. All his music which has come down to us was printed in 1582; then he just disappears. There is some circumstantial evidence that he was still alive in 1587 but that’s about it.

His early years are also shrouded in mist. He was born in Noyon (Picardie) and lived for a while in Lyon, where he married in 1563. The next recorded landmark came in 1581 when he enrolled at Basle University. Here he came into contact with the Huguenot pastor Antoine de La Roche-Chandieu, one of the authors of the 'Octonaires de la vanité du monde', a collection of spiritual huitains, set to music by Claude Le Jeune and La Roche-Chandieu himself. The first and second book of the 'Octonaires' were set to music by L'Estocart as well. These were recorded in 1982 by the Ensemble Clément Janequin for Harmonia Mundi. There is every reason to believe that L'Estocart was at the very least sympathetic to the ideas of the Reformation.

The music on this disc is taken from the collection 'Sacrae Cantiones', which contains sacred music on both French and Latin texts. The fact that L'Estocart also used Latin texts gives food for thought that he could have been indecisive in his religious convictions. Composers had to think practically: the inclusion of motets on Latin texts increased the chance of commercial success. The texts of the motets included here (five of the total of 8) are certainly not in conflict with the ideas of the Reformation.

The French pieces belong to the genre called chanson spirituelle. Originally the chanson was mostly of a secular nature. In the wake of the Reformation the – often amorous – texts were replaced by sacred texts. After a while a new genre emerged: protestant songs with original texts and music. These were either metrical psalms (like those by Marot and De Bèze) or chansons spirituelles on non-biblical texts. Both genres are part of the 'Sacrae Cantiones' by L'Estocart.

The melody of a metrical psalm is used by L'Estocart in 'O combien et plaisant', a setting of Psalm 133 (O how pleasant and desirable to see brothers united, amicably). The melody, which appears in the tenor of L'Estocart’s setting, is sung unisono first.

The title of this disc refers to the chanson spirituelle 'Deux coeurs aimants' which is about love according to biblical principles: "Two hearts, in worthy and holy faith, cherishing the sweet pleasure, fidelity's reward". It gives some idea of the character of these chansons spirituelles, many of which are about sin and redemption.

The longest piece on this disc is the 'Ode en douze parties', a series of twelve chansons whose complete title declares the subject matter: "Ode, in which Jesus Christ, the very God and very man, reminds all Christians of the good they receive through him". Christ speaks in all of these pieces: six of the twelve begin with the words "Je suis" (I am). "The anaphoric construction (…) at the start of the strophes is set each time to a rising motif which spans a whole octave, possibly serving to symbolise the metaphysical distance between God and his creation"; so writes Anne Coeurdevey in the booklet. The twelve chansons span the whole of the Bible, beginning with "The work of the creation of the world", followed by "Jesus Christ came to redeem man", his death, resurrection and ascension to heaven and ending with an "Exhortation to Christians to seek all good in Jesus Christ, and uphold His holy word".

"The musical language of L'Estocart is influenced, as with all the French composers of his generation, by that of Lassus. The whole range of compositional techniques, from imitative counterpoint to homorhythmic chordal writing, are employed to serve the goal of expression, the neatness with which the musical syntax matches that of the text, rhythmic variety and the sense of movement (…), and the wide use of rhetoric figures (…)." A good example of chordal writing and use of rhythm to express the text is in the ninth of the chansons from the 'Ode en douze parties', on the text "I reduce the enflamed rage of haughty rulers to air, and dash their intrigues".

The ensemble is very profound in its approach to these compositions. As the chansons were meant to be sung at home, the ensemble have opted for a more intimate acoustic than in the motets. As one of the aims of the ensemble was "to allow the richness of the polyphonic writing as much space as possible" they have opted for a performance without instruments. The scoring of the pieces, written for four to seven voices, varies: "solo voices for the chansons spirituelles and at specific moments during the Ode; doubled upper voices for the psalms; and all doubled voices for the large-scale motets". They also chose to perform these pieces at - "historically justified" - low pitch and with the contemporary French and Latin pronunciation.

This approach has certainly paid off. The result is a recording which is just wonderful: it is difficult to decide what to admire most, the music or the performance. It is the combination of the two which makes this disc a winner. The music is first-rate: how well did L'Estocart translate the texts into music and how well he used the compositional tools of his time to express the meaning of those texts. The ensemble is first-rate: the intonation is immaculate, the blending of the voices and the balance between the voices in the ensemble is excellent. The rhythmic flexibility, the dynamic shading and the communication of the text are most admirable.

I have very much enjoyed this disc, and I sincerely hope Bruno Boterf and his colleagues will record more pieces by L'Estocart.

-- Johan van Veen, MusicWeb International

Almost all of the works published during Bach's lifetime have been preserved, and the majority of his religious compositions survive in manuscript form. It is the instrumental work – both chamber and orchestral music – that has suffered greater damage and loss. This can partly be explained by the comparatively little trouble taken with this music soon after Bach's death in 1750: his son Carl Philipp Emanuel reorganised the surviving autograph manuscripts, and bundled the instrumental works together in the a category containing a quantity of other instrumental pieces, of various types, and for various instruments. The fact that reestablishment of the original musical text has mostly had to rely on secondary sources (often copies made by Bach's pupils) inevitably brings the authenticity of the works into question. Without using the term »plagiarism« – the concept of »author's rights« was entirely foreign at that time, and the practice of reusing other composers' musical material without mention of its provenance common during the Baroque. The relatively recent »rediscovery« of Vivaldi showed that Bach transcribed a number of the Italian's works, turning them into concertos for harpsichord or organ. Well-founded inquiry has led some musicologists to question authorship even of the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor... Beyond the problem of the autograph manuscripts, there is another aspect of the German master's chamber music that complicates our understanding of his original intentions: the numerous cases of the same work appearing in several different versions, the result of the frequent reuse of material and its adaptation to varying circumstances throughout Bach's career. In this case, the first of the three sonatas for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord also exists in a version for traverso, violin and continuo (BWV 1039); the second also appears for violin and continuo (the manuscript is kept in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek, Mus MS Bach P 532); and the third sonata could have served as a draft for the third Brandenburg concerto. The trio sonata BWV 1038 for flute, violin and continuo shares its bass-line with the sonatas for violin BWV 1021 and 1022, and the sinfonia from the cantata BWV 76 for oboe d'amore, viola da gamba and continuo would be adapted some ten years later, becoming the first movement of the fourth organ sonata BWV 528. The musicological problems of attribution and authenticity – without disputing the quality of the composition – paradoxically allows much room for manoeuvre when interpreting Bach's chamber music. Musicians in the 21st century have the opportunity to attempt a reconstruction of the original versions of certain pieces of which only copies or arrangements have survived. Moreover, they can exercise a certain freedom, and use their own judgment when arriving at an instrumentation. This is the notion that the members of L'Armonia Sonora have endeavoured to convey in this recording: the instrumentation of virtually every piece has been reconsidered, with the aim of achieving a unity of approach, but without changing any of Bach's musical text, or claiming that theirs is necessarily the best choice.

MIENEKE VAN DER VELDEN studied with Wieland Kuijken in The Hague and completed her studies in 1988 with the Performer's Diploma. She is one of Northern Europe's most sought-after gambists, and, in conjunction with a wide-ranging career in chamber music, appears regularly as a soloist with various well-known orchestras including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman), Concerto Vocale (René Jacobs), Collegium Vocale (Philippe Herreweghe), Netherlands Bach Society, and Cantus Cölln (Konrad Junghänel). In her solo recitals she collaborates with Glen Wilson (harpsichord) and Fred Jacobs (theorbo). She has been engaged by the Dutch Early Music Network, Het Grachtenfestival, the Bach Festival, the Utrecht Early Music Festival and the Festival of Flanders as well as by many other concert organisations throughout Europe. Her repertoire extends from French solo repertoire (Marais, Forqueray, Couperin), solo arias from the St. Matthew and St. John's Passions, and other cantatas by J. S. Bach, viola da gamba sonatas and violoncello solo suites by J. S. Bach, and 17th-century English repertoire including lyra-viol music, to contemporary pieces by Robert Heppener and others.

L'ARMONIA SONORA was founded by Mieneke van der Velden several years ago in order to perform cantatas with a variety of vocal soloists. The ensemble consists entirely of musicians recognised within the early music world both in the Netherlands and internationally, and who teach at various Dutch and international conservatoria. The make-up of the ensemble often answers the performance needs of a particular cantata – or even a specific aria – and the programming flexibility thus offered allows for some very varied concerts. In this way, the ensemble can consist of a continuo group only, or be extended by the addition of strings and winds. L'Armonia Sonora works with many well-known soloists, such as bass Peter Kooij, counter-tenor Derek-Lee Ragin and counter-tenor Robin Blaze. In 2006 the ensemble recorded its debut-CD De profundis clamavi with Peter Kooij, receiving an overwhelmingly positive critical reception (5 Diapasons, BBC Music Choice).

François Fernandez, Violin
Ricardo Rodriguez Miranda, Viola da gamba
Leo van Doeselaar, Organ
Siebe Henstra, Harpsichord

The Lion’s Ear is a tribute to Leo X, who was called a Musician among Popes. The music on this album is music that would have been heard in Leo’s presence and in the courts he attended, including works by the Pope himself, Henricus Isaac, Francesco Canova da Milano, and others. La Morra, under the artistic direction of Corina Marti and Michal Gondko, was founded in 2000 and has performed at some of the most esteemed Early Music events across the globe.

• A truly fascinating program from British lutenist Anthony Bailes, featuring the work of Vincenzo and Michelagnolo Galilei, father and younger brother of the famous Galileo. The elder Galilei taught both brothers to play the lute. Michelagnolo was a professional lutenist at the court of Maximillian of Bavaria. Michelagnolo’s Il primo libro d’intavolatura di liuto is a unique amalgam of forms encountered in no other publication of lute music.

Città della musica is an appropriate epithet for Venice if one imagines all the musicians working in religious and secular institutions during the 16th and 17th centuries, and in the hospitals and palaces of the city's patricians; not to mention the extent to which the music-publishing industry of the city spread across the entire world. If not the destination, Venice was at the very least an essential stopover for all who, in one way or another, maintained links, whatever their strength, with music. The music composed and heard in Venice and its surroundings was a model which every musician, whether Venetian, Italian or trans-alpine strove to know, if not imitate. Carlo Filago, whose works are performed here for the first time since the time of their creation, was without doubt one of the outstanding Venetian musical personalities of the first half of the 17th century, and one of the greatest organists of his time. First organist at St Mark's under the master of the chapel Claudio Monteverdi, he had at once the good fortune to work with one of the greatest musicians of the western tradition, and the bad luck to remain in his shadow, subsequently to be forgotten for centuries, despite being comparably gifted. Filago's work is like a magnificent, shimmering tableau, lying for centuries under the dust in an attic. Today, finally brought to light, it easily withstands exposure, as well as comparison with the works of the great masters of its time. The ambition of the present recording is to allow these treasures — otherwise hidden within the history of music — to be heard again.

Constanze Backes, soprano
Gerlinde Sämann, soprano
Hermann Oswald, alto
Markus Flaig, bass

INSTRUMENTA MUSICA is specialised in German and Italian music of the late Renaissance and the early Baroque period, focussing on repertoire largely neglected until now. The ensemble concentrates on research into an historically appropriate instrumentarium, sometimes experimenting with new ways of using instruments well described in historical sources but often ignored in performance practice today. The copies of historical instruments used are as faithful as possible to their originals. The intention of the ensemble is to make the beauty and affective richness of the music of this period accessible in an authentic and intuitive way. Instrumenta Musica is closely connected with the Frauenkirche in Dresden, where the ensemble has regularly played since 2006 during the parish fairs, mostly performing works by Heinrich Schütz. Instrumenta Musica also works regularly with Officium (Wilfried Rombach), the chamber choir of the Dresden Frauenkirche directed by cantor Matthias Grünert, Sächsisches Vokalensemble (Matthias Jung) and Les Amis de Philippe (Ludger Rémy).

ERCOLE NISINI is one of the most sought-after trombonists playing on historical instruments. After having studied modern trombone with Abbie Conant in Trossingen and holding a position in the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano under the direction of Riccardo Chailly he fully dedicated himself to historical performance practice. He completed his studies of historical trombone with Wim Becu at the Institut für Alte Musik in Trossingen with distinction. His interest in, and passion for, the repertoire and the instrumentarium of the late Renaissance and the early Baroque periods led him in 2004 to found the ensemble Instrumenta Musica. Ercole Nisini has performed in numerous concerts, CD and broadcast recordings throughout Europe with ensembles such as La Petite Bande, Marini Consort Innsbruck, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Moderntimes_1800, Capriccio Stravagante, Weser-Renaissance, and Musica Fiata. The central aim of his work is to rediscover and revive the trombone repertoire from the Renaissance to the Romantic period using original instruments — or faithful copies of them — and appropriate playing techniques.

Giovanni Benedetto Platti was born in northern Italy and spent some of his youth in Venice, where his father was a violetta player at St Mark’s, before he received his court appointment as an oboist and violinist at the court chapel of Würzburg in 1722. Two years later, the music-loving and cello-playing count of Schönborn, Rudolf Franz Erwein, had managed to secure him as a musician for his own household at his small residence in the county of Wiesentheid. Platti composed - in addition to his ordinary ouptut for worldly and spiritual occasions - for the cello, the Count’s favourite instrument: a dozen sonatas, 28 concerti, 6 duets and over 21 trio sonatas in which the two melodic instruments are not playing at the same height. The music collection of the counts of Schönborn-Wiesentheid very probably consists of Erwein’s personal music library and is today an important historical music archive. Radio Antiqua present in partly world premiere six trio sonatas from that collection, which the count could presumably have played with Platti.