Carpe Diem
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Die Nacht ist vorgedrungen
$20.99CDCarpe Diem
Nov 21, 2025CD-16339 -
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Von Bingen: Vox Cosmica
This is precisely what we should expect when Arianna Savall, Petter Udland Johansen and their Hirundo Maris ensemble delve into Hildegard’s music. Vox Cosmica, the name of the CD, says it all, for Hildegard was convinced that the cosmos was a single sonorous whole held together by the harmony and love of a creator. His holy principles are transformed by Hildegard into sounds. Caritas and Sapientia are not sung,: instead, they raise their voices themselves. What better expression of those principles than Arianna Savall’s clear, warm, sensual and unpretentious soprano voice?
Her counterpart is is Petter Udland Johansen’s characterful tenor. Vox Cosmica goes beyond Hildegard of Bingen’s feminine spirituality to create a male antipode in Peter Abelard’s Laments of David. In both his tragic love for his pupil Héloise and his theology based on reason, Abelard is an antipode, if not the antipode of Hildegard: not only in his life and teachings, but also in the few intensely personal compositions that have survived. Whereas Hildegard refers to the great whole and the ideal, Abelard focuses on the specific and the individual. Hildegard knows no pain, while Abelard sings of it alone – and Petter Udland Johansen certainly brings that pain to its most heartfelt expression.
The musicians – Hirundo Maris, David Mayoral, Anke and Andreas Spindler – move effortlessly and knowledgeably through the complex manuscripts of both the medieval abbess and the love-stricken theologian. Yet they do not forget their own origins or our musical present. They join together Hildegard’s main chants to create touching units, contrasting them with Abelard, and threading it all together with musical meditations by Petter Udland Johansen. These meditations are intensely moving, shifting the timeframes almost imperceptibly from medieval music to the present, neither detaching from Hildegard’s material in a modernistic manner nor ingratiating in a cosy, stereotypical way to produce an esoteric feel-good atmosphere. Thus, rather than providing a contrast to medieval sounds, present-day music is allowed to flow logically from the latter. The aim is nothing less than a new unity of past and present, which in fact is timelessness. In this way, Hildegard’s and Abelard’s messages easily cross space and time, being felt in a very direct, emotionally authentic way. As to us, we can ask ourselves what remains foreign and what touches us.
Thomas Höft
Mneme
mundus et musica
The Uncertainty Principle
Monteverdi - A Trace Of Grace / Michel Godard
The Wind Rose
The Two Francescos - Spinacino & da Milano / Croton
Il Viaggio d'Amore
The six musicians of Hirundo Maris combine all these diverse musical sources of their music into a time- and weightless dance through time and space. In the end, it is not clear anymore where the borders and differences between them are, and it is not even important anymore: Love as the universal uniting force is being applied here in a most practical way, and made comprehensible and very real to the attentive listener.
Hirundo Maris:
Arianna Savall – soprano, baroque triple harp
Petter Udland Johansen – tenor, hardingfele, cittern
Michal Nagy – guitar, voice
Sveinung Lilleheier – guitar, dobro, voice
Miquel Angel Cordero – colascione, double base, voice
David Mayoral – percussion, voice
En El Amor
Dowland: A Game of Mirrors
New Glosas on Early Music
Reusner: Lute Music / Satoh
The works featured on this new album are by German composer Esaias Reusner (1636-1679). Reusner was a child prodigy who traveled and performed at courts across Europe with his lutenist father, Esaias senior. Reusner released two collections of lute suites, “Deliciae testudinis,” and “Neue Lauten-fruchte.” These pieces are taken from the latter. These pieces are performed by world-renowned Japanese lutenist, Toyohiko Satoh. Satoh gave his first public recital in Tokyo in 1965, and moved to Europe shortly after. He studied lute with Eugen Muller-Dombois at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
Udopia
Il Cembalo di Partenope: A Renaissance Harpsichord Tale / Vicens
This new album of haprsichordist Catalina Vicens is a unique, multifaceted musical and poetic project. First, it features music from Naples, Italy from around 1525, the year when the instrument that she plays was actually built in Naples. Secondly, Ms. Vicens conceived an imaginary tale of the life and story of that very instrument, partly based on historical facts, partly on poetic inspiration emerging from her encounter with this priceless treasure of a historical harpsichord. The album comes with a free audiobook download of that same story, narrated by Ms. Vicens herself and accompanied with original music from the disc.
DRAUMSYN (VINYL)
Viennese Lute Music / Satoh
On this release, lutenist Toyohiko Satoh plays music from the court of Vienna around 1700. A special discovery on this album is the suite by Adam Franz Ginter, who was a famous castrato singer in that time, but who also composed some pieces for the lute. This recording is a tribute to this largely forgotten musician who most probably had a short and rather sad and lonely life. The following suite by Saint-Luc contains a “Tombeau for Francois Ginter” and was composed to lament the early death of this extraordinary singer, lutenist, and composer. Toyohiko Satoh studied at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. His first recital was at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan concert hall in 1965. He went on to study lute at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and just two years later, in 1970, he recorded the first album devoted entirely to the solo baroque lute. Since then he has been involved in numerous lute recordings, and has concertized throughout the world.
Suite A major
Harmonice Mundi / Topelmann, Niedhammer
| This album explores music for viola da Gamba and organ from 17th-century Austria, played by Viktor Töpelmann and organist Daniela Niedhammer on original instruments from that time. The recording took place in a small village church in Austria, which houses an original church organ from 1662. The viola da gamba used for this recording is a bass viol built by Hans Khögl in 1674. Together with the special acoustics of this beautiful church, the two musicians dive deep into the emotional and intimate music of that era, creating a meditative and most pleasant listening experience. |
Desprez: In Memoria Mea / Stewart, Seconda Pract!ca
| Dr. Rebecca Stewart together with the vocal ensemble Seconda Pract!ca explores the music of Josquin Desprez and his contemporaries Brumel and Willaert, commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death. The central piece of this recording is the famous Missa Mater patris by Josquin. Founded in 2012 by international musicians gathered in The Netherlands for their studies, Seconda Prat!ca has become one of the leading ensembles of the new generation of early music performers. The ensemble’s main goal is to bridge the gaps between performers and audience, revitalizing western musical heritage by bringing it back to a shared living experience. We achieve this through a continuous mixing of media, performance, research and musical excellence. Since 2013 Seconda Prat!ca has become part of the EEEmerging project, an initiative of the European Comission to support young developing ensemble specializing in Early Music. |
Diminutions
Die Nacht ist vorgedrungen
Dowland: Sweet Melancholy
Blumer: Anklam
Melodies d'ailleurs
Mélodies d'ailleurs is the first album collaboration of Swiss soprano Viviane Hasler and her long-time friend and musical partner Maren Gamper. For this album, the two artists selected French songs from the turn of the 19th Century, known as the "fin de siècle" in France and beyond. Works by Claude Debussy, Ernest Chausson, Cécile Chaminade, and Reynaldo Hahn are being contrasted by three songs of contemporary German composer Wolfgang Rihm, creating a concept album that is much more than just an anthology of romantic piano songs. Viviane Hasler's interpretation is fresh and tangible, never overboarding or romanticizing, yet staying true and honest to the emotions of the original compositions. Pianist Maren Gamper, always searching for that perfect moment between the notes, creates an intimate yet deeply supportive soundscape for the voice. Recorded at the big hall of the orchestra house in Kriens, Switzerland, this album strives to open a little window in time, leaping into memories of a bygone past while connecting them to the living present.
