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 p�cheurs 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.

Outhere Music celebrates the 20th anniversary of Vox Luminis with the release of a boxed set of the recordings made by the ensemble for Ricercar, Alpha Classics and Ramee between 2007 and 2021. Vox Luminis is widely regarded as a benchmark in the interpretation of the great works of German Baroque music. It's unfailingly faithful and lively approach to such masters as J. S. Bach and Schutz has cemented the group's reputation. With over twenty hours of music to enjoy, highlights include recordings such as Musicalische Exequien by Schutz which won Gramophone's prestigious Recording of the Year in 2012, and Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott which won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Choral Award, as well as revelatory readings of Purcell's King Arthur, Biber's Requiem in F minor and Handel's Dixit Dominus. With numerous Diapasons d'Or, the 2020 Caecilia Prize and several Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik accolades to it's name, discover the unique sound and exceptional legacy of Vox Luminis.

The emotion-laden text of the Stabat mater has been an inspiration to many composers from the Renaissance onwards and has been set to music in every possible style. Luigi Boccherini, a virtuoso cellist and unquestioned master of chamber music, composed his own setting with a great respect for the text’s character. The quintet that accompanies the solo soprano has the same qualities of balance and homogeneity common to the best chamber works of the end of the Classical period, whilst the blend between voices and instruments is perfect. Boccherini’s profound respect for the text enables him to identify the exact musical character of each and every verse. Born in Belgium, Sophie Karthäuser completed her studies with Noelle Barker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is one of the world’s finest interpreters of Mozart and has been called a born “Mozartian,” and brings that same clarity of interpretation and flair to the work presented on this release.

Classical Music

The life of Nicolas Chédeville (1705-1782) covers exactly the golden age of the hurdy-gurdy and the musette, the French baroque bagpipe. His time witnessed an ‘art of living’ that reveled playfully in the idealization of nature as a mirror of ancient Arcady, and his works contributed to the soundscape of his time, one that portrayed this idyllic milieu in operatic dramas whose heroes were constantly questing for the past. In 1739 he published Les Saisons amusantes, concertos by Antonio Vivaldi arranged for bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies. These transcriptions of concertos from Cimento dell armonia e dell’inventione include arrangements for the hurdy-gurdy of three concertos from the Four Seasons. The same year Chedeville made further bucolic arrangements of another three Vivaldi concertos from the same set, calling them Les Plaisirs de l’Ete, La Moisson, and Les Plaisirs de la Saint-Martin (a version of Vivaldi’s Il Piacere). Tobie Miller, a star virtuoso of the hurdy-gurdy whose first recording for Ricercar was heaped with critical praise, tackles this repertoire with infectious spontaneity.

Classical Music

Samson is not merely an effective narrative, but also a drama of great psychological depth. Over it's three acts, we witness the slow but inexorable mental resurrection of a man chosen by God who, overcome by remorse, gradually rebuilds his character. Awareness of his error sustains him and helps him to conceive a decisive reversal of his situation. Though held in chains and forever deprived of his sight, Samson nevertheless gradually becomes convinced that his strength is intact. In order to set Israel free, he will succeed in regaining God's mercy and destroying his captors' people at a single blow. This recording was made live during the Namur Music Festival in July 2018.

With its ciaconna bass, Hammerschmidt’s sacred concerto Nun danket alle Gott perfectly exemplifies the programme of this recording devoted to the influences of the Italian Baroque on the works of seventeenth-century Lutheran composers. The vast majority of the repertory gathered here comes once again from the exceptionally rich library assembled at the end of the seventeenth century by Gustav Duben, organist of the German Church in Stockholm. His collection contains the only known copy of a Confitebor tibi Domine by Claudio Monteverdi. Other composers such as Bernhard and Rosenmuller had very close links with Italy and were among those who helped to disseminate Italian practices in the German-speaking lands. In all this sacred repertory, the role of instruments, and particularly that of the violin (the emblematic instrument of Italy), is highly developed. The instruments accompany the voice and comment on the texts in most expressive fashion. This programme also offers a chance to discover some gems by lesser-known composers such as Hanff, Pfleger and Pohle.

The system of valves that allowed brass instruments to employ all the notes of the chromatic scale was developed between 1810 and 1820. Players of the natural horn, however, were not completely convinced, judging that the valves removed the characteristic timbre of each key and therefore standardized the instrument’s sound. This dispute was particularly intense in France, where virtuoso horn players such as Dauprat and Gallay never ceased to put forward their arguments in favor of the natural horn. This truly titanic struggle is the basis of this recording, with works that lead up to the first pieces to be composed for valve horn. Born in 1956, Claude Maury studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, where he obtained the highest distinctions in modern horn and chamber music. He then perfected his skills with Francis Orval, Vandriessche André, Michel Garcin-Marrou and Hermann Baumann. In 1981 he won the competition for natural horn Gallay in Perpignan and, in 1984, won another international competition for natural horn in Bad Harzburg, Germany. In 1985, he left the Orchestra of Radio Télévision Belge to devote himself almost exclusively to the practice of ancient horns.

Ricercar first released this collection of cantatas by Buxtehude in 2007 to mark the 300th anniversary of the composer’s death; it provides a comprehensive summary of the different musical styles that Buxtehude employed. Set to both Latin and German texts, these "geistliche Konzerte" are remarkable not only for their emotional and theatrical writing for the voice but also for the close linking of the instrumental parts with the vocal lines. Ricercar, to seek, has been the underlying motto of the Ricercar Consort ever since its foundation. It was in 1985, with J. S. Bach’s Musical Offering, that the ensemble made its first concert tour, having already acquired a solid international reputation with its recordings, notably in German Baroque cantatas and instrumental music. Today, under the direction of Philippe Pierlot, the Ricercar Consort continues to explore the Baroque repertoire, from chamber music to opera and oratorio, and to enthrall music-lovers with performances that are both profound and rigorous.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Even though the astonishing Capriccio stravagante with all of it's imitations of instruments and animals is well known to all lovers of baroque music, the other works by this virtuoso violinist are almost completely unknown. The Capriccio is the only example of such a work in the five volumes of music that he published in the 1620s, his remaining works consisting of polyphonic dances in the French style and of brilliant sonatas for violin. This collection of works by Farina is a source not only of astonishment and wonder but also of tenderness as well as other emotions.