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.

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.

MAHLER Symphony No. 4 • Phillipe Herreweghe, cond; Rosemary Joshua (sop); Champs-Elysée O • OUTHERE LPH 001 (53:28)


Mahler’s symphonies are a relative newcomer to the period-instrument movement: Roger Norrington’s Hänssler disc is the only alternative to this new one. The main divergence between these historically informed versions and all of the others is the issue of vibrato, particularly in the strings: Both of the orchestras employ little if any; Herreweghe’s string players also use gut strings.


Some listeners may feel, as I do, that there is an astringent tone in the string sound (though that is a positive boon in the second movement’s scordatura passages); this is partially offset by the clarity and directness of the sound as a whole, both instrumentally and in the audio production (provided by the masterly Andreas Neubronner). Detail is exemplary and natural, surpassing most of the competition, SACDs included.


Herreweghe, while happy to enumerate the differences in sound provided by his period orchestra, rightly notes that “we are only too aware of one blatant fact: the essential is elsewhere.” Quite so. In matters of tempo, I have no argument. The first three movements are crisply articulated, with care taken to observe the sometimes deceptively complex tempo changes. The third movement is particularly successful, where the natural balance between winds and strings that Herreweghe mentions in his program note is especially effective. There is enough warmth in the string tone to establish the peaceful opening feeling, while there is ample power in the winds to negotiate the minor-mode darkness and the arrival at heaven’s gates.


The printed timing of the last movement—6: 41—sent up a red flag. Mahler’s own piano roll of the movement was timed at 7:19, and Yvonne Kenny’s recording (once available on Pickwick) is breathless in the extreme; most recordings time out between eight and 10 minutes (Norrington’s is 8:37). Luckily, this proved to be a typo, and Herreweghe accompanies the fresh-sounding and exquisitely characterful Rosemary Joshua at a sensible 8:41 (the total time, as listed in the headnote, is correct).


All together, this is an excellent recording. I prefer it to the Norrington, mostly due to the latter’s characteristically over-hasty tempos and to the less ingratiating sound of his orchestra. Herreweghe’s own attention to Mahler’s sound world (his Wunderhorn disc was reviewed in Fanfare 30:3) has once again paid a handsome dividend.


FANFARE: Christopher Abbot

The pairing of the two works on this album is unique in that one comes from the dawn, the other from the dusk of Ludwig van Beethoven’s career. Indeed, whereas the composer wrote the Quintet for winds and piano, Op. 16 when he was only 26- the talented young man also excelled as a successful pianist- he did not finish his String Quartet Op. 130 until a year before his death. The Edding quartet proposes here the original version of the work, with the Grosse Fuge, op.130, as final. The direct comparison of these two works on the same disc intelligently sheds light on the fantastic distance the composer covered between these two points in time. Two years after their successful Schubert album, which was warmly received by the press and public, the Edding Quartet and Northernlight felicitously join together once again on the same album to give new readings of these masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Having become major interpreters of the Classical and Romantic repertoires, the two ensembles offer expert performances, refined and precise, of two of the German composer’s finest scores.

Inspired by his discovery of Handel's Messiah, Joseph Haydn spent two years composing his oratorio Die Sch�pfung (The Creation). The revered conductor, Philippe Herreweghe continues his exploration of Haydn's vocal works with the Collegium Vocale Gent and Orchestre des Champs-�lys�es investing the oratorio with an abundance of tone and color that makes this enduring masterpiece a transporting experience. Featuring the soloists Christina Landshamer, Maximilian Schmitt and Rudolf Rosen.

While Igor Stravinsky is known for his exciting and ground-breaking words The Rite of Spring and The Firebird, it would be reductive to view him solely through the prism of those works. Threi is his longest, most ambitious and complex score and probably one of the peaks of his career. A work like the Requiem Canticles goes even further in this direction: the composer's last masterpiece, summarizing in itself the evolution of an entire lifetime. In this album, Philippe Herreweghe reveals with conviction his love for the composer's music and under his sure, inspired direction, the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic reveal their pure poetry.

Impressed by the Handel works that he heard in London, Haydn felt the need to compose oratorios. First came Die Schöpfung (‘The Creation’), which met with resounding success; then Baron Gottfried van Swieten proposed to Haydn an arrangement of James Thomson’s poem ‘The Seasons’. Initially, Haydn was little attracted by the text, which deviates from the classic oratorio based on a religious text, but subsequently let himself be convinced. The result, for three soloists, chorus and orchestra, is a vast pictorial fresco of Nature that describes landscapes and the feelings that they arouse. For the first time, Philippe Herreweghe gives us his own vision of an oratorium by Haydn. This recording is also the first in a Haydn cycle with Philippe Herreweghe for Phi.

For its second vinyl release, PHI has chosen to reissue one of Philippe Herreweghe’s most masterly interpretations: Antonín Dvorak’s ineffable Stabat Mater, for which the conductor and his ensembles, the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, were praised by public and press alike – Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, 4F Telerama, 4 stars in Classica, Le Choix de France Musique, and 10 in Luister and Klara, to name but a few of the distinctions it earned. "With the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, [Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent] rid this rarely recorded work of all Romantic excess. The result is a spiritual journey... highlighting the universal greatness of this major work of sacred music.” (CHOIX de France Musique) "All of Herreweghe’s performers clearly love this ravishing music, relishing every detail of this beautifully nuanced score... This new release must be the top choice." (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Recording of the Month) "The serenity Dvorak succeeded in reclaiming is particularly present in the movements reserved for the choir, and especially so here with the interventions of Collegium Vocale Gent, possibly the only European ensemble . . . that currently offers such purity of timbre, perfection of intonation and accuracy of expression." (4F Teleram)

The Collegium Vocale Gent, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and Philippe Herreweghe join forces once again for a monument of the sacred choral repertoire: Antonín Dvorák’s Requiem, Op. 89. This work, dating from 1890, is one of those that marked a new phase in the composer’s musical creation, in which he recognized himself ‘as much a poet as well as a musician’. In addition, this reveals the veritable nature of a composer without constraint, probably being neither a commission nor an occasional work.

A personality has who provoked considerable controversy over the centuries, Carlo Gesualdo (1566- 1613), aristocrat, musician and murderer of his first wife, is no less a composer whose music is marked by subtlety and refinement. His innovative Sixth Book of Madrigals, written two years before his death, exploits all harmonic, chromatic, and textural possibilities to meet the texts’ expressive requirements and proves to be a veritable masterpiece of the genre. After a first release devoted to the Italian composer’s sacred works, the Tenebrae Responsoria, Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent invite us to (re)discover his secular music for the 450th anniversary of his birth. In masterful fashion, they propose a delicate, expressive reading of this complex music, doing justice to the modernity of the musical language of the Prince of Venosa. The acoustics of the church in the little Tuscan village of Asciano, where the programme was recorded in 2015, provides an ideal sound setting for this music.

William Byrd’s motet Infelix ego is featured in the album offering several of the great English composer's sacred motets, performed by the outstanding Collegium Vocale Gent, directed by Philippe Herreweghe. The text of Infelix ego by the Dominica Girolamo Savonarola, is a contemplation of guilt and anger leading eventually to the gift of deliverance upon acceptance of Christ. Byrd's setting musically reflects the powerful emotions.

The Collegium Vocale Gent also presents Byrd's Mass for 5 Voices and additional motets, as well as Alfonso Ferrabosco’s Peccantem me quotidie a5 and Philippus de Monte’s Miserere mei a5. - Phi

The Collegium Vocale Gent and Orchestre des Champs-Elysées interpret Beethoven's Missa Solemnis for PHI. This major work of the sacred repertoire, high on the list alongside Bach's Mass in B minor and the Mozart Requiem, is Beethoven's longest work and assuredly the one that demanded the most work. The composer even considered the Mass his finest work. Philippe Herreweghe shares this opinion and judges the Missa Solemnis to be one of the apogees in the history of classical music. With four superb soloists, a refined chorus and orchestra, Philippe Herreweghe invites us to a thoroughly transcendental experience.

To launch Philippe Herreweghe's birthday year, we turn the spotlight once more on one of his most accomplished recordings: Bach's Motets BWV 225-230. Recorded in 2011, in the splendid acoustics of the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin, this interpretation is accompanied by period instruments and is the result of intense reflection concerning the performing forces: Philippe Herreweghe sometimes uses a small number of singers per part, sometimes a larger group, according to the needs of the motet in question. He sees these pieces in terms of continuous research, in which "several approaches are possible and even necessary if one wishes to make this marvellous music sound it's best, and especially for a recording". for the greater pleasure of the eyes and ears of turntable lovers, these masterpieces by the Kantor of Leipzig now appear in a novel incarnation, subtly combining the label's new and modern graphic line with the timeless style of the vinyl format.

Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of Madrigals, published in 1603 after an eleven-year gestation, bears witness to the metamorphosis of the madrigal and the rapid evolution of music at the turn of the two centuries. It is also a model of the genre and may be regarded as one of the most innovative and emblematic of its composer’s style. This bold, complex book is the culmination of the application of the precepts of the seconda pratica on the cusp of the seventeenth century. The dedication tells us that some of its madrigals had been intended for presentation to Duke Alfonso II d’Este (who died in 1597), thus revealing the key influence on this collection of the court of Ferrara, then one of the most sophisticated in Europe and a crucible of musical innovation. Following the release of the Vespers, Philippe Herreweghe, a great lover of Italy and its repertory, accompanied as ever by Collegium Vocale Gent, signs his second recording devoted to Monteverdi on the Phi label with this Fourth Book of Madrigals.