Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent present a highly accomplished version of one of the masterpieces of seventeenth-century sacred music. Composed shortly after L’Orfeo and dedicated to Pope Paul V, Monteverdi’s Vespers constantly surprise us with their audacity and their great emotional power. Stile antico and stile moderno combine here to wonderful effect, with Renaissance-style polyphony, accompanied monody and concertato style coexisting harmoniously. The importance accorded to the text (a key feature in Monteverdi), the virtuosity of the vocal writing and the independence of the part-writing are among the characteristics of this astonishing work. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent prove themselves to be Monteverdi interpreters of the first rank. Their lively, refreshing reading, enhanced by the presence of eight internationally renowned soloists, will ensure the success of this release.

Collegium Vocale Gent and it's founder Philippe Herreweghe continue their recordings of the works of Carlo Gesualdo with 'Silenzio Mio', which contains the Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in 1596. Regarded as one of the most eccentric composers of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, but also one of the most creative, he experiments here with new melodic and harmonic effects that enthralled listeners of the time. These innovations are applied to poems by Alessandro Guarini and several anonymous writers, all of which focus on the expression of personal feelings, particularly a 'pathos' new on the literary scene. A veritable historical testimony to the artistic turning point that occurred at the court of Ferrara in the early seventeenth century, this fourth book takes it's place in the long-term recording project of Collegium Vocale, hailed by critics for it's 'homogeneity, contrapuntal transparency and luminosity, strikingly evident even in the most tormented pieces' (Diapason).

Founded in 2007, the Edding Quartet has quickly become a reference ensemble for the interpretation of the Classical and Romantic string quartet repertoires. + In 2008, the members of the Quartet, along with clarinetist Nicola Boud, bassoonist Julien Debordes, horn player Nicolas Chedmail and bass player Damien Guffroy, founded Northernlight, to explore Classical and Romantic string and winds masterpieces. + This new release, the start of a collaboration between the Edding Quartet and Philippe Herreweghe’s Phi label, is devoted to Schubert’s Octet (D.803) and Quartettsatz (D.703).

Mozart's last three symphonies carry within them the aesthetic ideal of their composer. Orchestre des Champs, using period instruments, reveals the richness and visionary complexity that prepared the way for the Beethovenian revolution. Led by Philippe Herreweghe, the orchestra explores the sonority and motor rhythms of Mozart's symphonic writing at the height of his powers.

Maud Gratton is an artist constantly seeking perfection. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire, she trained with great masters such as Pierre Hantai and Louis Robilliard. On this new release, Gratton has chosen an ideal program for demonstrating her art, proposing an intelligent panorama of organ works by J.S. Bach.

Although the symphony was the most prestigious instrumental genre of his time, Brahms avoided it for many years. In 1872, when he was already more than forty years old and was widely acknowledged for his chamber and choral music, he observed: ‘I will never write a symphony! You can’t imagine what it’s like to hear a giant treading behind you.’ The giant was of course Beethoven, at once an inspiration and a source of intimidation for composers of Brahms’s generation. Fortunately, however, he went back on his promise a few years later with his First Symphony, followed by three more composed between 1876 and 1885. The two works presented here are the Second Symphony, sometimes sombre, sometimes radiant, and the Fourth, a genuine masterpiece of the genre. This disc, recorded on period instruments under the masterly direction of Philippe Herreweghe, is released to coincide with a double anniversary: as a prelude to the Flemish conductor’s seventieth birthday, it also celebrates the twenty-fifth year of existence of one of his favourite ensembles: the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées.

Philippe Herreweghe and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra explore the tormented world of Robert Schumann. Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4 plunge us into the psychological tangles of the composer's mind, reflecting his relentless struggle with melancholy and depression. In these two seminal works, a slow and somber introduction unveils the main motifs that will unfold throughout, before culminating in an emphatic and optimistic finale. The director from Ghent (and former psychiatrist) pHilippe Herreweghe manages to grasp the full complexity of this cathartic process leading us from darkness into light. He delivers a lively and urgent interpretation of these romantic masterpieces, confirming his reputation as an unrivalled performer of the German repertoire.

Fifty years ago, Collegium Vocale Gent began a fantastic musical adventure that no one could ever have predicted. In this anniversary box, Philippe Herreweghe has selected the most beautiful Collegium recordings which have been released since he founded his own label Phi together with Outhere in 2010. Masterpieces by Tomás Luis de Victoria, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák have been brought together in an intoxicating selection in which the stunning artistic quality and versatility of Collegium Vocale Gent forms the starting point! Collegium Vocale Gent was founded in 1970 on Philippe Herreweghe’s initiative by a group of friends studying at the University of Ghent. They were one of the first ensembles to use new ideas about baroque performance practice in vocal music. Their authentic, text-oriented and rhetorical approach gave the ensemble the transparent sound with which it would acquire world fame and perform at the major concert venues and music festivals of Europe, the United States, Russia, South America, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. Since 2017 the ensemble runs its own summer festival Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi in Tuscany, Italy.

The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Philippe Herreweghe have enjoyed a close relationship since 1997, and the Ghent conductor regularly conducts and records with the Flanders orchestra. After the Second and Fourth Symphonies (LPH032), they are continuing their exploration of Schumann's symphonies: "The symphony has given me many hours of joy. I often give thanks to the beneficent spirit that enabled me to complete such an important work so easily and in such a short time" says the tormented composer. He wrote his first symphony, "Spring", in just four days and orchestrated it in three weeks. The third, known as the "Rhenish", was inspired by a day Schumann spent with his wife Clara in the Rhineland.

Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent have made a lasting impression on the Bach discography with their many recordings devoted to the Kantor. They have also explored other sacred repertoires by Beethoven, Haydn, Dvorák and Bruckner, to which they have brought all their excellence and sensitivity. Here they are together for the first time in a boxed set of 11 CDs.

After a St. John Passion that won widespread critical acclaim (Gramophone Editor's Choice, BBC Music Magazine's Choice, Trophée de Radio Classique), Philippe Herreweghe and his ensemble Collegium Vocale Gent continue the journey to the heart of Bach’s oeuvre that has made them world-famous with a programme of cantatas. The three recorded here were composed between 1723 and 1725 for St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig, where the composer held the post of Kantor from 1723 until his death in 1750.

Beethoven wrote that he composed the oratorio Christus am Ölberge (Christ on the Mount of Olives) in just "a fortnight, amid all sorts of tumult and other unpleasant and alarming events in my life." It marked the first time since the two ‘imperial cantatas’ of 1790, the Cantata on the Death of the Emperor Joseph II WoO 87 and the Cantata on the Accession of Leopold II WoO 88, that he had embarked on a multi-movement vocal work. Christus am Ölberge was also Beethoven’s first composition on a religious subject and was destined to remain his only oratorio.

VICTORIA Officium Defunctorum. O Domine Jesu Christe à 6. Domine non sum dignus à 4. Salve Regina à 6. Vadam et circuibo civitatem à 6 • Philippe Herreweghe, dir; Collegium Vocale Gent • ? PHI LPH 005 (59:40 Text and Translation)


The anniversary of Tomás Luis de Victoria’s death has not been marked by new recordings to the extent that I anticipated, certainly not of the unrecorded works that might have been welcome. This is the third version of his last masterpiece to appear recently (see Fanfare 35:2 and 35:6), but strong competition goes back to Harry Christophers (29:3), David Hill (11:2; CD in 11:3), and Peter Phillips (11: 2). Philippe Herreweghe has the credentials to challenge the competition, using a vocal ensemble with two voices to a part (three on the bass line), placing him directly up against Christophers and Phillips. Although I do not have a single Victoria recording by Herreweghe, I did not doubt his sympathy for the music. The Lebanese church in Paris has been a suitable venue for this kind of sound for many decades. Herreweghe adds four motets to fill out the playing time. While three of them are readily available elsewhere, the Salve Regina for six voices is not; in fact, I cannot find it on records at all. It starts with the medieval solemn tone of the antiphon and expands to six voices in Victoria’s usual manner. Followed by the equally effective and more familiar Vadam et circuibo civitatem (recorded by Christophers, 26: 5), it fills out a satisfying program. This is fully competitive with the best Requiems in the catalog.


Phi is a new label distributed by Outhere, the new outlet for Philippe Herreweghe’s recordings. The real name of the label is ?, but the Greek letter is also spelled out in roman as well to avoid confusion. The digipak presentation is elegant and the notes by that old master, Bruno Turner, are helpful. Herreweghe is in a position to record a broad repertoire, but I’d be happy if he concentrates on the early music that he knows so well.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

Robert Schumann composed the Op. 47 Piano Quartet in E flat major in his so-called ‘chamber music year’ of 1842, immediately after finishing the famous piano quintet in the same key. Despite the proximity in time and tonality, there are clear differences between the two works: the quintet tends more towards a concertante dialogue between the piano and string quartet while the quartet favours equality between the four parts – even if the cello has something of a leading role among the strings. Some ten years later, the young Johannes Brahms was entrusted with the task of making a piano four-hands arrangement of the quartet, and it is quite possible that this contact with Schumann’s chamber music for piano and strings opened his eyes to the potential of the genre. In any case, with its almost inexhaustible motivic abundance and captivating energy Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34, is one of the most often performed works for these forces. Completed in 1864 it had actually started off as a string quintet which Brahms first reworked as a sonata for two pianos before arriving at the final scoring. Performing these two central works in 19th century chamber music is Yevgeny Sudbin and an international group of eminent string players consisting of violinists Hrachya Avanesyan and Boris Brovtsyn, violist Diemut Poppen and cellist Alexander Chaushian.

Although Franz Schubert’s earliest symphonies are sometimes considered youthful works of a composer still learning his trade, they nonetheless attest to a genius of symphonic construction such as few musicians could boast at, respectively, 16 (Symphony No. 1), 18 (Symphony No. 3) or 19 years of age (Symphony No. 4). Despite these promising beginnings, Schubert would be only sporadically published during his lifetime – approximately one tenth of his total output and primarily his lieder –, and his symphonic works would not be printed until sixty years after his death. Here, Philippe Herreweghe and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic pay a superb tribute to these works of the composer that are less well known and rarely recorded, in interpretations of refinement, precision and sensitivity.