Classical Music

Samuel Scheidt was one of the most interesting Lutheran composers of the early 17th century. Like his famous contemporary Heinrich Schütz, he combined the polyphonic tradition with the new styles from Italy. His Cantiones Sacrae for eight voices mark the summit of Renaissance musical style; even though Protestant chorales are integrated into the work, Scheidt does not hesitate to use expressive effects that originated in the Italian madrigal style.

Colour book of more than 200 pages + 8 CD's in a magnificent box Languages: French/English/German/Dutch Following on from and designed along the same lines as the Guide to Period Instruments, this boxed set includes an exhaustive introductory text as well as a great quantity of music excerpts on the set's eight CDs. These extracts have been taken from the extensive repertoire recorded by Ricercar over many years, with excerpts from recordings kindly provided by our colleagues from Harmonia Mundi, Gimell, Accent, Alpha and Sony supplementing our programme where necessary.

Includes work(s) by Johann Pachelbel. Ensembles: Namur Chamber Choir, Les Agrémens. Conductor: Jean Tubéry.

More than any others of the time, the works of Johannes Ockeghem are considered to have marked the summit of the entire development of polyphonic structures during the Middle Ages. His works, although few in number, are supreme examples of creative thought. An undisputed master of his musical materials, certain of his Masses are structured around his own reflections on the art of composition. This is the case with the Missa Mi-mi: its title comes from the initial motive in the bass line, this consisting of the notes E and A which, in the system of solmisation in use at that time, can be read as mi-mi. Together with a Gregorian proprium, it is integrated here into the Office for Maundy Thursday. Cappella Pratensis, founded in 1987, mainly sings music from the period between 1450 and 1600. During that time, the polyphonic Franco-Flemish composers such as Josquin Desprez, Jean Mouton, Pierre de La Rue Jacob Clemens non Papa, Johannes Ockeghem and Guillaume Dufay were world leaders. Cappella presents ongoing special programs and original designs.

After exploring the evolution of Italian and French music in the seventeenth century, Jerôme Lejeune devotes a new volume in his History of Early Music to Germany. During this century in which the Lutheran musical tradition developed further, Germany lived through a particularly enthralling period, bringing the musical world a highly original language, but also assimilating Italian and French models with talent and imagination; all of this unquestionably prepared the way that leads to Johann Sebastian Bach. As in the other volumes of this collection, the recorded examples are selections taken from the works that are the most representative of their period. The Ricercar catalogue is particularly well-provided with examples of German music of the seventeenth century.

Jérôme Lejeune continues his History of Music series with this boxed set devoted to the Renaissance. The next volume in the series after Flemish Polyphony (RIC 102), this set explores the music of the 16th century from Josquin Desprez to Roland de Lassus. After all of the various turnings that music took during the Middle Ages, the music of the Renaissance seems to be a first step towards a common European musical style. Josquin Desprez's example was followed by every composer in every part of Europe and in every musical genre, including the Mass setting, the motet and all of the various new types of solo song. Instrumental music was also to develop considerably from the beginning of the 16th century onwards. The musical excerpts that we have chosen include works by the most important composers of France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain and the Netherlands active during the 16th century. This boxed set is released in collaboration with the Château d'Écouen (Musée national de la Renaissance) in connection with the exhibition devoted to Renaissance music that will open there in September 2013.

After the Musical Europe of the Renaissance (RIC 106), this journey through the history of early music, marked out by Jérôme Lejeune, arrives at the Baroque era. Here, after Italy in Monteverdi's time (RIC 107), we have music in France under the reign of Louis XIV. MUSIC IN THE DAYS OF LOUIS XIV. French music of the Grand Siècle has its roots in the polyphonic tradition of the Renaissance. During the reign of Louis XIV, the longest in the history of France (72 years), French music imposed itself as an important alternative to the Italian style, which seemed to conquer the rest of Europe quite quickly. Courtly music imposed its models in the capital, and provincial cities tried to keep pace with the means at their disposal. With the court's institutions (La Chapelle, L'Écurie, La Chambre du Roi, the XXIV Violins or the Académie royale), France created models that would prolong Louis XIV's Century during the Age of Enlightenment. The suite, the ouverture, the tragédie en musique, the grand motet and solo motets stand out as powerful identities of French music.

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.

After Buxtehude, Tunder, Reinken, Bruhns, Scheidemann, and Böhm, Bernard Foccroulle pursues his exploration of the repertoire of the organists of northern Germany before Bach, with the works of Matthias Weckmann.

Trained in the entourage of Schütz and having perfect mastery of the profession of Sweelinck’s heirs and all aspects of the Italian style, this composer compels recognition as the keystone in the generation preceding Buxtehude’s. The repertoire tackles the free forms of the new stylus fantasticus but also proposes different forms of pieces inspired by chorale tunes, including two monumental fantasias in several sections.

Bernard Foccroulle made this recording on three historic organs: in Hollern, Stade, and primarily on the recently restored organ of the Katharinen Kirche in Hamburg. This constitutes an event that will enchant enthusiasts! Let us recall that, with this double album, Ricercar can offer its faithful public the complete works of Matthias Weckman, the cantatas having been recorded by the Ricercar Consort (RIC216), and the instrumental music by La Fenice and the harpsichordist Siebe Henstra (RIC282).

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REVIEW:

The playing is clear, stylish and authoritative, and can be very highly recommended.

– Choir & Organ

M. ROMERO Romances, tonos humanos, folías, letrillas, canciones • Léonardo García-Alarcón, dir; Ens Clematis; Cappella Mediterranea • RICERCAR 308 (61:01 Text and Translation)


Referring to Matheo Romero (1575–1647), born Mathieu Rosmarin, as “the last of the international Netherlanders” as Grove I does is a bit of a stretch. At the age of 10, upon his father’s death, the composer’s family left for Madrid, where he sang as a boy soprano in the Royal Chapel. Romero remained a fixture of the Spanish court for the rest of his life. He was a greatly appreciated one, too: chaplain to Philip III, capellán de Banco , clerk of the Order of the Golden Fleece, capellán de los Reyes Nuevos de Toledo , and he even received a remunerative but non-residential chaplain post from Portugal’s João IV. A reputation for arrogant behavior that earned him the nickname of “El Maestro Capitán” didn’t prevent Romero from being the most rewarded Spanish composer of his age.


Much of his music (and that of many other Iberian composers) was lost in a fire that destroyed the Madrid royal palace’s music archives and library in 1734, and a 1755 earthquake that leveled Lisbon, including João IV’s library—reputedly one of the largest in the world, with an enormous holding of scores in manuscript. Of Romero’s 31 known surviving secular works, the largest number can be found in the so-called Cancionero de la Sablonara , named after the Spanish court’s music copier. The work was prepared for Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuberg, then resident at the court, and a great admirer of the modern Italians. (More of this in a moment, but significantly Wolfgang Wilhelm’s own court had as its music director Biagio Marini, one of Monteverdi’s more distinguished students.) The manuscript currently resides at the Bavarian City Library of Munich.


Stylistically, most of Romero’s compositions are in the new Italian manner, at a time when the Spanish court had major holdings in the Italian States, and cultural exchange was a constant affair. This is no more apparent than in Entre dos mansos arroyos , a romance for four voices. The text contrasts a bucolic scene of two bubbling streams, and a woeful viewer who can only focus on the cold heart of his beloved. Romero sets this division in the starkest of terms. The lighter part is harmonically mercurial, quickly progressing circularly from E Major to an unexpected E?-Major, with imitative, overlapping cells, deliberately parsed so as to confuse the beat. The heavier section is slower, almost entirely homophonic, and metrically regular. The two are repeatedly juxtaposed to theatrical effect, creating a striking Monteverdi-like instance of a mini-cantata or opera.


But the influence in Romero’s music that will strike modern ears most, perhaps, is that of its Spanish folk content. This can be heard most noticeably in the second part of Ay que me muero de cellos , its rhythm that of a zamba (not a samba ; totally different), in the brief, zapateado -like section of Fatigada navecilla , and in Romerico florido , with its constantly shifting rhythms, and its typical, almost stereotypical, Iberian obsession with the minor tonic and the seventh below.


Some of the other instances of Spanish rhythms on this album, however—in En una playa amena and Aquella Hermosa aldeana , for instance—leave me unconvinced. The musical lines woven above them reveal no such rhythmic influence, and as percussion was left unstated in manuscripts, it’s not difficult to see where Ensemble Clematis might have felt it useful to italicize the nationalistic aspects of their adopted countryman’s works.


Whatever the case, this potential anachronism pales before stylish performances of such virtuosity and self-assurance. The Clematis folks seem to have gotten over their belief, exhibited in a release of Carlo Farina’s dazzling music on Ricercar 285 (reviewed in Fanfare 33:3), that all early music is synonymous with sluggish tempos and smoothed out dynamics. Here they respond with high spirits, sharp accents, and a clear appreciation for Romero’s complex rhythms. Perhaps this change of view derives from their association with Cappella Mediterranea, who provide not merely the disc’s four featured vocalists but overall direction under the group’s founder, Léonardo García-Alarcón. There’s an intensely expressive component to the singers’ tight, wonderfully blended sound that can also be heard in their recording of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Ambronay 22).


With excellent sound, full texts, and translations, this album is definitely recommended for listeners eagerly seeking out the dramatic insights of the seconda pratica and the sonorities of Spanish folk music. Just keep in mind that some of the latter are due to the outstanding performances.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Dated 1650 and 1653 respectively, the Requiem Masses by Mario Capuana and Bonaventura Rubino are apparently the only two Requiem settings composed in Sicily during the Baroque period. Capuana’s work is imbued with the intense emotion of the madrigal school whilst Rubino’s is a true apotheosis of Renaissance polyphony. The Namur Chamber Choir, founded 1987, champions the musical heritage of its native region while at the same time tackling the Great Works of the choral repertoire. In January 2010, the Argentinian conductor Leonardo Garcia Alarcón was appointed the Choir’s artistic director.

The Heritage of Monteverdi collection now turns its attention to the works of two of the greatest instrumentalists of Monteverdi's circle: Biagio Marini and Dario Castello. Both of these men were in his service at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, the first as a violinist and the second as 'principal wind player'. Their music was an inheritance from the polyphonic tradition of Giovanni Gabrieli and contributed to the creation of the sonata as well as to the pleasure of instrumental virtuosity. With such musicians, Monteverdi was certain of having the finest specialists in the genre at his disposition; this may well be the reason he himself composed so little pure instrumental music.

As a prelude to the vast enterprise represented by the release of Marin Marais’ complete five Books of Pièces de Viole, François Joubert-Caillet proposes this anthology of some of the most famous pieces that the illustrious gambist of La Chambre du Roi wrote for the delight of the Sun King’s private concerts. François Joubert-Caillet studied the viola da gamba at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Paolo Pandolfo, with whom he also studied early improvisation, and also with Rudolf Lutz. Winner of the First and Audience Prizes at the Bruges International Chamber Music Competition, he gives concerts, recitals and master classes in Europe, Asia and Latin America. François Joubert-Caillet also directs L’Achéron, an ensemble with which he appears in various formations, in particular the consort of viols. L’Achéron’s CDs, devoted to Anthony Holborne’s The Fruit of Love and Samuel Scheidt’s Ludi Musici, were released by Ricercar for which François Joubert-Caillet also recorded a CD in duo with Wieland Kuijken: Johannes Schenck’s Le Nymphe di Rheno.

Early Music


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.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber