Glosas, diminutions, passaggi': so many terms to describe the garlands of ornamentation that keyboard musicians added to the polyphonic vocal works of their peers as they transformed them into true keyboard pieces between the 16th century and the dawn of the 17th. This album offers an extensive array of these intabulations of vocal works and shows their pan-European scope by illustrating how keyboard players appropriated the music of madrigalists from distant courts.

The rich patrimony of works by the ancestors of Johann Sebastian Bach has been a focus of Ricercar's work since it's founding in the early 1980s, with recordings made by Philippe Herreweghe's Collegium Vocale and the Ricercar Consort. Ricercar has continued it's explorations of this repertoire since that time with recordings by Vox Luminis (Lionel Meunier) and Clematis, with the result that Ricercar has come to possess recordings of practically every part of this heritage. A few works, however, still remained to be recorded to complete this collection: instrumental pieces and a few sacred works, with music for organ and harpsichord in particular. The eminent musicologist Peter Wollny also shared his latest discoveries with us a few months ago: a magnificent motet with trumpets and timpani by Johann Michael Bach and a Latin motet that is the only known composition by Johann Christoph Bach, the elder brother of Johann Sebastian. Ricercar proudly presents the first collection of the complete works of the ancestors of Johann Sebastian Bach.

A consort of violins makes it's way through the Venetian night beneath the arcades of St Mark's Square. From the basilica to aristocratic salons, from the streets to the taverns, the violinists follow the rhythms of daily life; the violin, a relatively new instrument, gradually found it's place within 16th century musical life. Moving through the places where music permeated the city of the Doges, Sulla Piazza paints a vivid musical fresco that provides an accompaniment to prayer as well as dancing until daybreak.

The 1610 Vespers, composed at a pivotal moment in Claudio Monteverdi's life when he sought not only to establish his new musical language but also to obtain high-placed employment, take on new significance here. Based on a renewed philological approach and the most recent musicological research, this version recreates the Vespers in accordance with the Mantuan customs of the time, featuring an order of service and plainchant drawn from local sources. Recorded in the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua and using only the instruments mentioned in the score, this interpretation favours a chamber aesthetic, as suggested by Monteverdi's remark ad Sacella sive Principum Cubicula accomodata-a work conceived for chapels and the princes' chambers-and reveals the Vespers in their original intimacy, far removed from monumental display. Now restored to it's architectural, spiritual, and sonic setting, the work displays a unique emotional power: the proximity of the voices and instruments establishes an almost intimate connection with the listener.

Alessandro Scarlatti's Il Trionfo della Grazia was first performed in Rome in 1685 and was such a huge success that the oratorio was regularly revived over a period of more than twenty years. Three manuscripts of it exist, one each in Rome, Modena, and Dresden. The score is remarkably inventive and profound for a 25-year-old composer; Scarlatti continued to alter and adjust it over the years. Here Ensemble Celadon focuses on the first Roman version of the work and does not include any later additions; the result is a lively and spirited work with an acute dramatic sense, thanks to which each performer can fully display their talents.

Roland de Lassus composed more than eighty masses, of which only two are Requiems; it is not possible to link them to the funerals of any particular individuals. The four-part Missa pro defunctis was published in Paris in 1577. The library of an abbey in Augsburg, however, contains a transposed manuscript copy intended for an ensemble of male voices (tenors, baritones and basses); what is more, this manuscript copy includes a Dies Irae that does not appear in the Paris edition. The five-part Requiem was published in 1589, five years before Lassus's death. Here, Vox Luminis presents both compositions, highlighting the contrasting colours of the two vocal ensembles: the gravity of the four-part Requiem against the light of the five-part setting.

The viola da gamba enjoyed a degree of popularity in Germany during the 17th century. Not only was it often paired with the violin in compositions in which the two instruments engaged in a dialogue, but it also had it's own repertoire. Johann Michael Nicolai spent most of his life in the service of the court of Stuttgart and left several compositions for ensembles of two or three violas da gamba. Here, L'Acheron presents the complete sonatas and suites, in which the spirit of the Italian sonata is combined with the French suite.

The Brussels court attracted some of the greatest composers and organists of the time at the beginning of the 17th century, including Peter Philips, Peeter Cornet, John Bull, and, a little later, Abraham Van den Kerckhoven, all of whom explored new ways of making organs sound. Flemish and Walloon organ builders throughout Europe, and in Spain and France in particular, were building instruments at that time that were to have a profound influence on organ building in those countries.

Pomponio Nenna was born in Bari in 1556 and studied there under Stefano Felis. He then moved to Naples, where he began his career as a composer in a stimulating spirit of emulation; Nenna and Carlo Gesualdo each influenced the other's madrigal style in their treatment of text, dissonance, and chromatic modulation. Nenna's vocal works are complemented here by a number of organ pieces by local composers such as Giovanni Maria Trabaci and Giovanni di Macque, transcribed here for a consort of viols.

The oratorio Theodora was first performed at the Covent Garden Theatre on 16 March 1750 and clearly took Londoners by surprise. Handel had, after all, made a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn in his choice of subject. The grandiose episodes of the Old Testament, the glorious struggles of Solomon, Saul, or Judas Maccabaeus are no more: the young martyr Theodora leads neither a community nor troops into battle. In a work far removed from the grand spectacle of biblical oratorios, Handel invites us to witness the poignant tale of a personal drama, a drama of the beginnings of Christianity fuelled by conscience, faith, and the heartbreak that they cause.

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.

This recording explores the musical world of the confraternities of the laudesi - active in the Venice region around 1500 - and their rich repertoire of devotional songs in Italian. These works often celebrate the Virgin Mary and Christ's Passion and bear witness to an aesthetic deeply rooted in popular fervour, frequently combining homophonic writing with a direct expressiveness aimed at the common folk and influenced by Franco-Flemish songs. Le Miroir de Musique take their inspiration from the musicians of the Scuole Grandi of the Venetian Renaissance and recreate a sound world that lay at the crossroads of spirituality and nascent humanism.

The largest amount of organ music that has survived from earlier members of Johann Sebastian Bach's family was penned by Johann Michael Bach (1648-1694), a cousin of J.S. Bach's father and also the father of Maria Barbara, J.S. Bach's first wife. It is a collection of chorale preludes spread out over the liturgical year, although it is not possible to state that the collection is as ambitious and complete as that of Johann Sebastian's own (incomplete) Orgelbüchlein. The majority of these chorales can be found in the Neumeister Collection; this also contains a number of Johann Sebastian's early works that bear clear links to compositions by his first father-in-law.

Night falls and Mr. Dowland cannot sleep and seeks release in his faithful orpharion. This, however, is no ordinary night: Orpheus and Arion inhabit the dark reaches of his instrument and awake in an instant as Dowland touches the silver strings with his goldsmith's fingers. They take him on a powerful dreamlike journey, a visionary reverie that is full of surprises and avant-garde soundscapes. The music of the 1600s is gradually transformed into unexpected worlds before Dowland finally sinks into deep sleep.

The viola bastarda is much more than just a specific instrument: it is also a technique for playing the viola da gamba that involves developing a vast skill in ornamentation over the entire range of the instrument and covering all the tessituras from bass to soprano. Today's performers are faced with a repertoire compiled by a few virtuosos, while at the same time they have to reconstitute a performing practice that exists only in a few historical treatises. Manon Papasergio has devoted her first recording to this art form and it's development during the exciting transitional period from the Renaissance to the Baroque.

Tomasz Ritter, winner of the Bruges Festival Competition 2024, here follows the traditional overview of Beethoven's musical language and devotes his recital to three sonatas drawn from the three creative periods: op. 2/1 (1795), op. 31/3 (1802) and op. 109 (1820). Ritter has also chosen three instruments that are close to those Beethoven played and reflect the evolution of piano construction: two Viennese instruments copied from originals by Anton Walter and Nanette Streicher, and an original Broadwood piano that is almost identical to the one the famous English piano maker gave the composer.

The motet for solo voice and two dessus, usually two violins, and the cantata with instrumental accompaniment originated in Italy at the dawn of the 17th century. The genre was introduced to France by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and by travelling Italian musicians and rapidly became one of the key showpieces of Italian taste and style. The genre was deployed superbly in the early 18th century by two magnificent composers who were practically contemporaries: Andre Campra and Nicolas Bernier. Campra's natural attraction to Italian music is easily explained, as he was the son of an Italian doctor living in Aix-en-Provence and was also a pupil of the great Poitevin in the same city. Bernier, if we are to believe certain sources, was a pupil in Rome of the Venetian Antonio Caldara, one of the most important composers of his time.

In 1392, King Charles?VI of France was declared insane. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, his repeated absences left the field open to princes hungry for power and wealth. Thus began three dark decades for the kingdom of France, torn apart by civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians, scarred by the bloody defeat at Agincourt, and ultimately handed over to the English crown in 1420. This is the epic tale Into the Winds brings to life, shedding light on a period as fascinating as it is overlooked, where the contours of a new musical art were already taking shape.

More than forty years separate Marin Marais' Premier Livre de Pieces de Violes (1686) from the Cinquieme (1725). Despite the novelty of the basso continuo, the First Book is still the work of a composer who had inherited a tradition that developed in France during the 17th century. The Fifth, published a few years before his death, is a moving and perfect testimony to a musical language that was also in it's twilight years. The Second, Third and Fourth books reveal not only the evolution of musical forms but also the ineffable talent that ensured Marais' position as the undisputed master of his art, one that was inextricably linked to the spirit of French music of the Grand Siecle. Marin Marais' Pieces de Viole were recorded complete and first released in stages between 2014 and 2021; they are now issued as a boxed set to mark Francois Joubert-Caillet's appointment this year as professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Tarquinio Merula belonged to a generation of Italian composers, all of whom were born around 1600, for whom the concertante style was no longer a new idiom but a preferred musical medium, one that had been acquired in childhood and which had become not only the dominant musical language of the time but which was also to spread across the whole of Europe. Tarquinio Merula was renowned as a violin and organ virtuoso and published a wide variety of instrumental music per la chiesa e la camera. Here Inalto explores Merula's sacred works, including the famous lullaby Hor che e tempo di dormire. His works may seem simple at times, but are impressively innovative; whilst sacred in character, they are rooted in human emotion.

The deliciously erotic aspects of the text of the Song of Solomon inspired a great many composers during the 17th century, although it remains curious that even the strictest Lutheran composers could not resist setting it to music. The majority of Hammerschmidt's pieces on this text are written for soprano or tenor voices; these obviously represent the two protagonists, the beloved and the lover. This programme is built around these works, creating an entertainment - a small sacred opera -in which evocations of love or sensual dialogues are framed by dances and instrumental pieces. Works by Andreas Hammerschmidt, Johann Vierdanck, Dieterich Buxtehude, Thomas Strutz and others.

Leonardo Garcia Alarcon presents and contrasts two monumental works: a Messa Concertata by the choirmaster of the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna and the famous Dixit Dominus composed by George Frideric Handel in Rome in 1707. A fascinating comparison between a first recording of a forgotten masterpiece and a new interpretation of one of the most brilliant works by the young Handel, dazzled as he was by his discovery of the Italian Baroque.

Gilles Binchois (ca 1400-1460), was one of the most eminent composers of the early Renaissance. Highly esteemed by his fellows, Binchois left a lasting legacy, notably through his polyphonic chansons and sacred works, although these remain unfamiliar to the general public. This selection of works by Binchois, born in Hainault, shows the evolution of his musical language from the beginnings of the burgundian style to the later instrumental transcriptions of some of his works, as these bear witness to the timeless beauty of his melodies and harmonic structures.

Yoann Moulin completes his journey through German harpsichord music of the 17th century. We stand at the gateway to the art of Johann Sebastian Bach, alongside the composers who were his direct models and who passed on to him the principles of the Italian and French styles.

It was between the publication of the Quatrieme Livre de Pieces de Violes in 1717 and the Cinquieme in 1725 that Marin Marais offered his public an exceptional collection of works that use both the violin and the viol. These works are very different from the earlier viol pieces, from the instruments used to the works' formal structures: they include a sonata inspired by Italian models marked à la maresienne (in Marais' own style), a piece on a three note basso ostinato that evokes the peals of bells in a Parisian church, and an astonishing monument of a piece - La Gamme - that Marais described as an example of a small opera for instruments.

Although it has been clearly established for which instruments the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue were intended, the Musical Offering has continued to be the object of realisations for other instruments, such as Anton Webern's orchestrated version of the Ricercar a 6. Here Cindy Castillo marks the completion of a new organ in the German baroque style by Dominique Thomas in the church of Saint-Loup in Namur with her own realisation of this work, a monument to the late Baroque style.

The lute became the instrument of choice at European courts around 1500, the time of their greatest cultural and spiritual importance. The lute was considered by the Humanists to represent Orpheus's lyre, as it embodied the metaphysical ideal of the power of music and was also closely linked to improvisation. Here we revive this tradition for the first time on record: this programme is almost entirely improvised and presents the Renaissance lute with all it's surprising colours and sonorities as a living instrument.

The Requiem "composed for no particular purpose...", as Gabriel Faure wrote, was performed for the first time in the Madeleine Church in Paris on 16 January 1888, "for the funeral of some parishioner"! It is this original performance version, without the Offertory and the Libera me, with accompaniment provided only by a string ensemble (violas, cellos and double bass), organ and harp, that is presented here in a world premiere recording. The Messe des pêcheurs de Villerville (1881), composed in Normandy in collaboration with Andre Messager, is far removed from the solemnities of the great Parisian church; it's original version was written for women's voices with harmonium and violin accompaniment. The Choeur de Chambre de Namur invites us to return to these origins as we mark the centenary of Gabriel Faure's death in 1924.

Heinrich Schutz continued to set himself challenges throughout his long career. Of all the genres of sacred music that he undertook, the oratorio offers us his most contrasting ideas. His Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi (1664) is in many respects the model for the genre that would later be employed by the musicians of Johann Sebastian Bach's generation; the score that Vox Luminis use for this recording has been reconstructed from manuscript sources in the Duben Collection in Uppsala. The album is completed with a number of particularly festive motets for the Christmas period by Heinrich Schutz and his illustrious contemporary Andreas Hammerschmidt.

The Sainte-Colombe family remains a source of mystery to this day: the first name and the origins of the father, who taught Marin Marais and composed numerous pieces for one or two viols, remains hidden in the mists of time. The same obscurity surrounds his son or sons: records show a few traces of him in London and Edinburgh around 1700, although all that is really known of him comes from the Pieces de viole recorded here; these five suites of dances in the French style, including a Tombeau pour Mr de Sainte-Colombe le pere, have survived in a non-autograph manuscript. The version presented here breaks with the usual interpretations of these Pieces de Viole, as it includes a reconstruction of a basso continuo part as was common in works by composers of the son's generation. The non-autograph source that has survived gives a general feeling that something is missing in the harmonic structure, a lack that is here filled by this new basso continuo part. Reconstructed in the musical language and style of the time, the music of Sainte-Colombe's son here seems to come back to life; these pieces have not only recovered their full meaning but also reveal a sublime music.