Georg Philipp Telemann is one of the composers whose cause Ricercar has always championed with fervor. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of his death, Ricercar now presents a reissue of its vast repertoire, which makes up a complete portrait of the output of this inspired contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach: His sonatas, trios, fantasias, concertos, and suites written for all sorts of instrumentations are accompanied by several sacred compositions, cantatas, and a St. Matthew Passion which, like a number of other works in the set, is released in this format for the first time. Each of the performers featured on this extensive recording boasts an accomplished career, and each is educated in historically-informed performance practices. Soloists and chamber artists include Frederic De Roos, Marcel Ponseele, Stephanie De Failly, Philippe Pierlot, Pierre-Yves Madeuf, Guy Penson, and many more. Ensembles featured on this release include Ricercar Consort, La Pastorella, Ensemble Eolus, Lingua Franca, Les Agremens, and Choeur De Chambre de Namur (Wieland Kuijken).
In Seculum Viellatoris - The Medieval Vielle / Romain, Le miroir de musique
Ricercar
CD
$20.99Mar 09, 2018
Baptiste Romain, director of the ensemble Le Miroir de Musique, has just been appointed professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. To mark this occasion, he enriches the 'Instruments' series on the Ricercar label with a recital devoted to the medieval vielle (bowed fiddle): troubadour songs and dances and polyphonic compositions from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries illustrate the various stages in the evolution of this instrument, the ancestor of the violin. After general musical studies focusing on violin and composition at the CNR Rueil-Malmaison, Baptiste Romain chose to specialize in the musical repertoire of the Middle Ages and Renaisance by practicing the bow vielle and bagpipes. After training at the Center for Medieval Music in Paris, notably with Marco Horvat, he studied at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, with Randall Cook, Dominique Vellard and Crawford Young, while regularly practicing ensemble music with Pierre Hamon at the National Conservatory of Lyon. He received his violin soloist diploma from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2008.
The Ensemble Santenay invites us on an enthralling journey through the French Ars Subtilior repertory of the fourteenth century. These pieces with their often esoteric texts are presented here as a genuine sound project. Just as works of art are framed with the greatest care, the musicians have devised sound frames for the compositions on this album, in order to introduce them, link them with each other, take them further than usual, and above all make sure our ears and our consciousness are alert at the moment when the art makes its appearance. These sonic atmospheres are realized with the aid of sounds produced by instruments, scraps of pieces of music, sometiems a single voice.
After the success of their album of music by Franceco Cavalli, the Cappella Mediterranea and Mariana Flores now present a programme devoted entirely to works for solo voice by Claudio Monteverdi, from the famous Lamento d’Arianna to the sublime (and much less well known) Voglio da vita uscir. Mariana Flores embodies here the most touching personalities of this section of Monteverdi’s output. Argentinean soprano Mariana Flores studied singing at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Since then she has lived and worked in Basel. She regularly sings early operas and vocal literature alongside fine ensembles like the Cappella Mediterranea. The ensemble Cappella Mediterranea was founded in 2005 by the Argentinian conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón. As its name indicates, the ensemble originally arose from a passion for the music of the Mediterranean basin, and aimed to propose a different approach to Baroque music of the Latin tradition. With more than forty-five concerts each year, the ensemble explores the madrigal, the polyphonic motet and opera, a mixture of genres that has molded a unique style characterized by an exceptionally close rapport between the conductor and his musicians.
La belle vielleuse: The Virtuoso Hurdy Gurdy in 18th Century France / Miller
Ricercar
CD
$20.99May 26, 2017
In the time of Madame de Pompadour, the hurdy-gurdy, like the musette, enjoyed a great success. It was considered to be on a level with other instruments and, as can be seen in various paintings, was highly regarded by the ladies of the aristocracy. Several books of instruction for the instrument were published, one of which was Michel Corrette's La belle vielleuse; virtuoso players such as Danguy and Dupuits extended its playing techniques to their limits. The instrument's charm was sung by various poets whose words were then set as cantatas. The unknown works that constitute this recording place it firmly in the French court of the time with its stylized pastoral diversions.
Lambert De Sayve: Messe Du Sacre De L'empereur Mathias / Tubery, La Fenice, Et Al
Ricercar
CD
$8.99Aug 12, 2008
Born in the Principality of Liège, Lambert de Sayve spent his entire career in the service of the Hapsburgs in Vienna. His patron the Archduke Matthias was crowned Emperor in 1612; de Sayve composed splendid motets in the Venetian polychoral style for the occasion. These motets are associated with the 'Missa super Dominus Regnavit' for four choirs and forms the basis for the reconstruction of the office of Matthias' coronation.
The present recording attempts to provide musical illustrations of elements from Ganassi's treatise on ornamentation Fontegara, published in Venice in 1535. This work was intended for his wealthy aristocratic pupils, and a priori it does not reflect only his personal practice. This versatile musician's professional career consisted essentially in directing and playing the bombarde with his ensemble in the service of a number of doges and scuole. He also performed in the ridotti, the circles in which humanists and cultured nobles met. It is this refined art that William Dongois and his musicians propose to revive here, drawing on a very rich repertory of dances, songs and madrigals. An ensemble that can vary from two to ten players according to the works being performed, the Concert Brise is made up of musicians who share a common approach to music and to it's connection to historical sources. These links form one of the two reference points of the ensemble's interpretations, the other being the use of techniques of improvisation that have been taken from treatises of the period and also from jazz and from folk music. The musicians of the Concert Brise hope to communicate the pleasure that they experience in playing this music to their audiences, whilst at the same time they take the risk of introducing improvisation when it is required. At such a moment they must let themselves be guided by inspiration and, if necessary, allow a strict observation of the score to fade somewhat into the background.
Born around 1380 in the Duchy of Limburg, possibly in the little town of the same name, Johannes de Limburgia was active for a long time in Liège, then in Italy. We have evidence of his presence in Vicenza between 1431 and 1436, and several of his works refer explicitly to Vicenza, as well as to Venice and Padua, demonstrating a strong connection with northern Italy, where his music was compiled. His output - more than 45 works - is contained in three large manuscripts from the first half of the fifteenth century, alongside music by other composers from north of the Alps, such as Johannes Ciconia and Guillaume Dufay. Though only sacred music by Limburgia has survived, it is richly varied, reflecting both the consistency of the Franco-Flemish style and the composer's own inventive taste for harmonic and melodic experimentation. The works here are explored by Le miroir de musique, led by Baptiste Romain.
Alexander Agricola: Missa In Myne Zyn / Snellings, Capilla Flamenca
Ricercar
CD
$20.99Oct 12, 2010
AGRICOLA Missa In myne Zyn. In minen sin. Sy j’aime mon amy. Pater meus agricola est. Regina caeli. ANON Bien soiez venu. In mynen zin • Dirk Snellings, dir; Capilla Flamenca • RICERCAR RIC 306 (59:50 Text and Translation)
Alexander Agricola (1456?–1506) is characterized in the notes to this disc as a mannerist. It is curious to see a late-15th-century composer receiving the same categorization as contemporaries of Ciconia at the end of the 14th century and contemporaries of Gesualdo at the end of the 16th century. This end-of-century phenomenon hardly occurred during the Gay 90s (Mahler the Mannerist?). On an earlier disc (Fanfare 23: 1), Paul van Nevel referred in the same vein to the “secret labyrinth” of the composer’s music. His disc assembled a Mass made up of single movements of five of Agricola’s settings, with the Agnus Dei taken from the Mass heard here. (He called it a “Missa Guazzabuglio,” which I would have recognized as “mishmash” if I had looked it up.)
This new version is quite a contrast to its first complete recording under János Bali, who on two CDs gave us the composer’s four Masses on secular cantus firmi (29:1 for the later one). Both directors use adult male voices (van Nevel put two women on the top line), but Bali had an ensemble of 13 voices, while Dirk Snellings uses one voice to a part. Instead of presenting the Mass straight through, Snellings tries to put it into some kind of context, though not a liturgical one. The preliminary tracks include the Dutch tune and the composer’s polyphonic elaboration of it, while two tracks characterized as Vespers include an instrumental piece and a Regina caeli. The Mass is interleaved with Agricola’s instrumental versions of songs by Binchois, Ockeghem, and Frye. This arrangement offers more variety than sense.
This is rightly called the most extended of Agricola’s Masses, for at nearly 40 minutes without a Kyrie (assumed to have been written but lost) it ranks with Obrecht’s Missa Maria zart in length. The vocal ensemble contrasts with Bali’s small choir, but this does not put Bali at a disadvantage. If you have the latter already, you may decide that it is sufficient. Still, Snellings does consistent good work and this disc is a credit to him and his singers.
EL LLIBRE VERMELL • Christophe Deslignes, dir; Millenarium; Namur CCh; Psallentes; Les Pastoureux • RICERCAR 260 (79:30 Text and Translation)
“The Red Book,” as it is known from its 19th-century binding, is the only volume that survived when Montserrat abbey was burnt by Napoleon’s troops in 1811, but only because its borrower had not returned it (and his heirs only sold it back to its rightful owners in 1885). It includes a unique collection of 10 songs, intended to be sung and danced by pilgrims who came to venerate the reputedly miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin and child that had been displayed there since the late 12th century. The collection has been recorded at least 21 times, in addition to single songs done many times over. The first piece is a chant antiphon (sung in canon) in unique Catalan chant notation, but the rest are Ars Nova in style. Two of them are brief canons, while the remaining seven (two set to vernacular texts) are strophic in structure. The first two recordings under Thomas Binkley and Jose Luis Ochoa de Olza (both later on CD) included generally one strophe of each song; since then, most songs have been recorded complete except Mariam matrem virginem, for which all five strophes are included only in this and two other known recordings (four of the complete sets have not been checked). Jordi Savall (13:3) was the first nearly complete recording, lacking only two strophes of Mariam matrem virginem. Next was Berry Hayward, who performed the two vernacular pieces only instrumentally. Philip Pickett (16:4) dragged everything out to 70 minutes without fillers or the two missing verses of the same hymn. Brigitte Lesne (18:6) offered the best version since Savall, matching his panoply of performing forces including children. Ensemble Micrologus on Discant 1008 was recorded uniquely at the abbey of Montserrat and furnished the first complete version of the same hymn. Carlos Magraner on Licanus 0201 also offered that hymn complete.
Now Christophe Deslignes, like the last two, brings together a variety of performers to elicit the ambiance of a gathering of pilgrims celebrating their devotion. There are 20 tracks here, the other 10 tracks offering an opening procession of pilgrims, five Gregorian chants, and four instrumental pieces, all in the spirit of the book. Unlike some recorded sets that preserve the order of the book, this one does not, though Ad mortem festinamus, the danse macabre that breaks the pattern of Marian devotion dominating the book, always comes last. The two brief canons, one after the other in the book, have been recorded a couple of times as a single canon (by Joel Cohen and Brigitte Lesne) or at least in sequence, but here they are separated. Like several other successful versions, this ensemble of men, women, and children accompanied by instruments elicits the ambiance of a disparate group of pilgrims spending the night in the open space before the abbey church, celebrating in folk style the devotion that brought them together. To appreciate their situation, it helps to picture the monastery perched on the side of a mountain more than halfway up to the 4,000-foot peak. Access is roundabout even now and must always have been difficult at best. Yet it has always drawn hordes of pilgrims and visitors. (Stunning photos can be found easily by a Web search.)
Deslignes’s version ranks with the best. The Discant and Licanus discs mentioned above are also fine, though children’s voices would have added something more. Among older versions, Savall and Lesne are still fine. A good and inexpensive resource for further understanding is the facsimile, edition, and commentary by Maricarmen Gómez i Muntané, El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, which includes an English summary in the Catalan edition of 2000 (the Spanish edition of 1990 had no English summary). Don’t pass up Deslignes’s rousing presentation.
Florence Malgoire’s ensemble Les Dominos pays tribute to Jean-Philippe Rameau in the 250th year since his death with very rarely played repertoire. + These Concerts de Monsieur Rameau are, in fact, transcriptions in six parts of the Pièces de Clavecin en Concert that Rameau had conceived at the outset from his harpsichord pieces with accompaniment by violin or flute and bass viol. + The original adaptations by M. Decroix (1768) are quite enigmatic, and Les Dominos’ reading of it combines the strings with two emblematic instruments of Rameau’s orchestra: flutes and bassoon.
English Royal Funeral Music: Purcell, Morley, Tomkins
Ricercar
CD
$20.99Apr 09, 2013
We know now that Purcell's three Funeral Sentences were not written for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695. Following the tradition of the English court, it was pieces by Thomas Morley, originally written for the funeral of Elizabeth I, that were sung there. Purcell's only contribution to the ceremony was the composition of two pieces for slide trumpets (March and Canzona), and the anthem in the archaic style Thou knowest, Lord. During the funeral procession to Westminster Abbey, a band of oboes played two marches written by John Paisible and Thomas Tollet. This recording assembles the music composed for the funeral of Queen Mary and that used at the funeral of Elizabeth I in 1603. The programme is completed by Purcell's sublime a cappella anthems and a moving anthem by Weelkes on the death of Thomas Morley. After the success of the recording of Schütz's Musicalische Exequien, voted Record of the Year by Gramophone magazine, this disc will be one of the major events of spring 2013.
Leipzig, 1726. Johann Sebastian Bach had been Cantor at the Thomaskirche for three years, and in February of that year he interrupted his regular production of cantatas to perform eighteen cantatas by his cousin Johann Ludwig Bach in the city's main churches. Johann Ludwig was Kapellmeister at the court of Meiningen at that time. These works have survived solely thanks to the copies that Johann Sebastian made of them, and thus testify to the high esteem in which he held his cousin's compositions. Capella Sollertia now presents the first-ever recording of these works.
The first notes of the descending chromatic theme break the silence and it seems as if time has stopped. The listener is drawn into the world of John Dowland, the greatest lutenist of all, in a journey through multiple shades of melancholy and lucent hope. Never before had the lute sounded as expressive and colorful as in these masterful Fancies, as dynamic as in these sparkling dances: Renaissance lute music here reached its summit. Bor Zuljan explores these qualities in his debut solo recording, breathing new life into Dowland's masterpieces. Bor Zuljan (1987) is active in different musical genres and projects and searches for a synthesis of contemporary and early music, different world music traditions, jazz and improvisation. He plays guitars, different kinds of lutes, vihuela, oud, tar and other early and traditional plucked-strings instruments. The search for the connection between sound, image and word led him to collaborate in different interdisciplinary projects. He is performing regularly as soloist and with ensembles, such as Le Concert Brisé, Geneva Camerata, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Contrechamps, Vortex, in duo with Dusan Bogdanovic, as well as with his ensemble La Lyra. His projects have been presented in festivals such as the Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerpen, Oude Muziek in Utrecht, Mousiké in Bari, Festival Radovljica in Slovenia and many others. He also performed in China, Algeria, Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark and in Croatia.
