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.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Franz Tunder. Soloist: Bernard Foccroulle.

Includes work(s) by Carlo Farina, David Pohle, Johann Jacob Löwe, Johann Jakob Walther. Ensemble: Ricercar Consort. Conductor: Pierre Pierlot. Soloist: François Fernandez.

Concerto Imperiale (L'héritage de Monteverdi)

«Apt for Viols and Voices». That's how the fusion of voices and viols is mentioned in several documents of the English renaissance. This CD is devoted to two of the most important composers of that period who've bequeathed us an important body of 'consorts' for 4 and 6 part viols as well as some very moving 'consort songs'. Both were employed at the royal court. The former Elisabeth the 1st, the latter by James the 1st. The elder remains faithful to the basic principles of polyphony acquired with his master Thomas Tallis for whom he writes the poignant elegy 'Ye Sacred Muses'. The second musician, on the other hand, a viola virtuoso, leads his instrument into new avenues and develops his polyphony through audacious experiments.

This new release is devoted to the Lutheran liturgical repertory from Martin Luther himself to Heinrich Schutz. The first half of the release comprises compositions specific to the Lutheran liturgy: Deutsche Messe, Deutsches Magnificat, Deutsche Passion (the first German polyphonic Passion, by Joachim von Burck) and even a reconstruction of a Deutsches Requiem drawn from polyphonic works that set the same texts as those Brahms was later to use for his Deutsches Requiem. The second half presents a selection of motets arranged according to the liturgical calendar, from Advent to Trinity. These polyphonic pieces were written by a wide range of composers including Martin Luther, Andreas Hammerschmidt, Michael Praetorius, Joachim von Burck, Christoph Bernhardt, Heinrich Schu¨tz, Thomas Selle, Melchior Franck, Caspar Othmayr, Michael Altenburg, Samuel Scheidt, Johann Hermann Schein and Johann Walter. The organist Bart Jacobs completes the programme with a few organ pieces by seventeenth-century composers.

This reverie offered by Brice Sailly in homage to François Couperin is presented in the guise of a trip to Arcadia, that utopian land which lies hidden in the heart of European geography. The selected harpsichord pieces, most of them evoking childhood and the birth of love, sit beside excerpts from the Concerts royaux that set the scene rather as Watteau might have done, leaving to the less well-known airs de cour the task of describing sentiments in words. Couperin discreetly whispers the most luminous of truths. Here all is benevolence, a smile on the lips, a light heart, and melancholy is gently dismissed in favor of consolation. Open to various musical activities, Brice Sailly is a member and founder of the Franco-Icelandic group Susser Trost and has done projects with many artists, from early music specialists to musicians of the electronic music scene.

Classical Music

Alessandro Scarlatti's St John Passion was the first Passion setting written in seventeenth-century Italy. Scarlatti treats the role of the Evangelist (composed in the mezzo-soprano register) in highly unusual fashion, giving his narrative numerous emotional passages. The Voice of Christ (bass) is invariably haloed by a string accompaniment. The version presented by Leonardo Garc�a Alarc�n inserts meditations assigned to the chorus; these are taken from Scarlatti's Responsories for Holy Week, polyphonic settings that reveal a little-known genre practiced by this composer.

Includes work(s) for organ by Felix Alexandre Guilmant. Soloist: Joris Verdin.

Includes work(s) for organ by César Franck. Soloist: Joris Verdin.

Awards: Diapason d'Or Choc from the French magazine Classica This Guide to Period Instruments endeavours to answer the questions that every lover of early music has about the instruments used in these periods of music history. Text and recorded excerpts describe the origin and the development of every musical instrument from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century and place them in their historical context. There is a completely new presentation booklet, over 200 pages long and abundantly illustrated, as well as eight CDs of recorded examples of the instruments that shed new light upon major periods of music history. These excerpts have been drawn from the Ricercar catalogue for the most part and are completed by new recordings made for the purpose as well as by material made available to us by other specialist recording labels. This Guide to Period Instruments is a perfect synthesis of the music lover's thirst for knowledge with the sheer pleasure of hearing these historical instruments.

Johann Bernhard Bach (1676-1749) is a relatively unknown member of the Bach family. He is more widely known by association to his famous first cousin once removed, Johann Sebastian. A disciple of Pachelbel, Johann Bernhard was in the service of the court of Eisenach and left us only instrumental music. His four Ouvertures for orchestra constitute the obvious link between French music of the Grand Siecle and the compositions that Johann Sebastian would write in Weimar and Cothen. This release is an interesting missing link to be rediscovered.

VIVALDI (Arr. Roos) La stravaganza, op. 4/1,3–6,9,11 • Frédéric de Roos (rcr, cond); La Pastorella (period instruments) • RICERCAR 288 (56:29)


Do you wish that Vivaldi had penned more concerti da camera ? (Not that you were lying awake at night thinking about it!) So do the members of La Pastorella, apparently. Doing nothing worse than what Baroque composers used to do all the time, they have taken seven concertos from La stravaganza , and arranged them for their ensemble, which consists of a violin (played by Mira Glodeanu), oboe (Benoît Laurent), cello (Hervé Douchy), bassoon (Alain de Rijckere), organ or harpsichord (Guy Penson), and guitar or theorbo (Philippe Malfeyt), all under the direction of recorder player de Roos. Does it work? Nicely. Does it replace Vivaldi’s originals? Of course not; but it complements them well.


The originals are violin concertos. Sometimes the solo part remains assigned to the violin, but at other times it is reassigned to the recorder, the oboe, or the bassoon. The solo material is passed from instrument to instrument throughout the course of a movement. If you feel that some of Vivaldi’s concertos for string instruments suffer from a too unvaried texture, these arrangements will remedy that. La Pastorella keeps the concertos’ original keys, although they do transpose some of the slow movements up or down a fifth, to “better suit the tessitura of the new solo instrument.” Again, that’s hardly a hanging offense in this repertoire, and the ends justify the means.


The performances are wide awake, yet relaxed. No one is trying to show off. The music-making is like an afternoon spent at home with friends. Try the slow movement of Concerto No. 11, and see if you don’t enjoy hearing the recorder sing with light melancholy to the accompaniment of the organ and theorbo. De Roos’s recorder has a likeable timbre, and he blends it beautifully with the other instruments. The booklet doesn’t include biographical material, so I don’t know how long La Pastorella has been around—it is not a new group. This CD moves me to explore its apparently extensive back catalog, though. This is lovely, innovative, low-pressure Vivaldi.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

The old instruments of the Stadtpfeiffer were replaced by French-styled oboes and bassoons in German courts and cities at the beginning of the 18th century. These became the bandes de hautbois to which trumpets were added, the combination becoming the basis of the military band. After the marches and the parades, however, these musicians were also invited to take part in the court's formal entertainments. It was for these circumstances that Georg Philipp Telemann and his contemporaries created a completely new type of repertoire that was linked to the French and Italian genres of the Suite and the Concerto. Hunting horns were also added to the ensemble at certain moments. This is the repertoire that Eolus tackles here, with total respect for the characteristic techniques of horn and trumpet harmonics; others have attempted to conquer this repertoire by completely unhistorical performance practices.

Georg Philipp Telemann is one of the composers whose cause Ricercar has always championed with fervor. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of his death, Ricercar now presents a reissue of its vast repertoire, which makes up a complete portrait of the output of this inspired contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach: His sonatas, trios, fantasias, concertos, and suites written for all sorts of instrumentations are accompanied by several sacred compositions, cantatas, and a St. Matthew Passion which, like a number of other works in the set, is released in this format for the first time. Each of the performers featured on this extensive recording boasts an accomplished career, and each is educated in historically-informed performance practices. Soloists and chamber artists include Frederic De Roos, Marcel Ponseele, Stephanie De Failly, Philippe Pierlot, Pierre-Yves Madeuf, Guy Penson, and many more. Ensembles featured on this release include Ricercar Consort, La Pastorella, Ensemble Eolus, Lingua Franca, Les Agremens, and Choeur De Chambre de Namur (Wieland Kuijken).

An agreeable musician, clever, sociable, a shaper of verse, a man of wit whose sallies were greatly appreciated and whose fertile pen was guaranteed to turn out another volume of works every month, Boismortier was the perfect man of his time, courteous, cultured and able to adapt to his surroundings. In this, their first recording, Le Petit Trianon have chosen pieces from his immense body of work that felicitously blend the sonorities of the flute, violin, bassoon, cello and harpsichord.

Baptiste Romain, director of the ensemble Le Miroir de Musique, has just been appointed professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. To mark this occasion, he enriches the 'Instruments' series on the Ricercar label with a recital devoted to the medieval vielle (bowed fiddle): troubadour songs and dances and polyphonic compositions from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries illustrate the various stages in the evolution of this instrument, the ancestor of the violin. After general musical studies focusing on violin and composition at the CNR Rueil-Malmaison, Baptiste Romain chose to specialize in the musical repertoire of the Middle Ages and Renaisance by practicing the bow vielle and bagpipes. After training at the Center for Medieval Music in Paris, notably with Marco Horvat, he studied at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, with Randall Cook, Dominique Vellard and Crawford Young, while regularly practicing ensemble music with Pierre Hamon at the National Conservatory of Lyon. He received his violin soloist diploma from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2008.

The Ensemble Santenay invites us on an enthralling journey through the French Ars Subtilior repertory of the fourteenth century. These pieces with their often esoteric texts are presented here as a genuine sound project. Just as works of art are framed with the greatest care, the musicians have devised sound frames for the compositions on this album, in order to introduce them, link them with each other, take them further than usual, and above all make sure our ears and our consciousness are alert at the moment when the art makes its appearance. These sonic atmospheres are realized with the aid of sounds produced by instruments, scraps of pieces of music, sometiems a single voice.

In the time of Madame de Pompadour, the hurdy-gurdy, like the musette, enjoyed a great success. It was considered to be on a level with other instruments and, as can be seen in various paintings, was highly regarded by the ladies of the aristocracy. Several books of instruction for the instrument were published, one of which was Michel Corrette's La belle vielleuse; virtuoso players such as Danguy and Dupuits extended its playing techniques to their limits. The instrument's charm was sung by various poets whose words were then set as cantatas. The unknown works that constitute this recording place it firmly in the French court of the time with its stylized pastoral diversions.

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.

Classical Music

Born in the Principality of Liège, Lambert de Sayve spent his entire career in the service of the Hapsburgs in Vienna. His patron the Archduke Matthias was crowned Emperor in 1612; de Sayve composed splendid motets in the Venetian polychoral style for the occasion. These motets are associated with the 'Missa super Dominus Regnavit' for four choirs and forms the basis for the reconstruction of the office of Matthias' coronation.