2014 marks the bicentennial of the birth of Adolphe Sax, the genius who invented the saxophone. The release of this 2 CD set, a mix of French Romantic and American Jazz music, commemorates this event. As is Ricercar's custom, the CD's accompanying booklet includes extensive and informative liner notes. The Jazz selections were originally recorded in 1992 and 1999, the Romantic works in 2002. Book of 60 pages / Texts in English and French.

Classical Music

This recording, an exploration of sacred and secular music in the New World during the first years of the Baroque period, was made at the conclusion of a successful concert tour that formed part of the Festival de Wallonie 2012. Hanacpachap, recorded here, was the first sacred work in a native language to be published in Latin America.

Classical Music

Classical Music

RICERCAR now celebrates it's 35th anniversary with a homage to the greatest Flemish composer of the Renaissance. The works of Cipriano de Rore (1515/16 - 1565) remained extremely popular until well after his death. Several of his madrigals later appeared in dozens of ornamented versions and continued to do so until the beginning of the 17th century; this was an extraordinary success for the time. Ricercar's leading ensembles of singers and instrumentalists have each made their own original contribution to this recording, providing a complete overview of de Rore's sacred and secular works. The madrigal Ancor che col partire binds the entire recording together, firstly through the original setting with it's erotically charged text and secondly through many instrumental versions that were soon made from it.

A Guide to Period Instruments (Vol. II) explores the history of musical instruments from 1800 to 1950. It's purpose is both to discuss improvements of instruments dating from before 1800, and to investigate all novelties envisioned by instrument makers during this era. The majority of musical examples are recordings of individual instruments, allowing the listener to hear timbres often lost under the orchestral mass. This second volume of the Guide follows the same principles as the first. The text by Jereme Lejeune is illustrated by numerous photos of instruments and other iconographic sources; a set of eight CDs, arranged in thematic programs.

Classical Music

On the occasion of the 2015 exhibition that the Grand Palais in Paris is devoting to Diego Velazquez, this disc proposes an evocation of the music that one could have been heard at the court of Spain under the reigns of Philip III and Philip IV. Heirs to the tradition of the Flemish polyphonists, the sacred and secular repertoires increasingly assimilated the influences of the melodies and rhythms of folk music. As attested to by the painter's stays in Italy, Spanish composers were also charmed by the novelties of the Italians' Baroque language.

Although it seems that he was born in Rome, Giovanni Felice Sances received his training as a singer and as a composer in Venice. He went on to make his career in the service of three successive emperors in Vienna, entering the Imperial Chapel and going on to become one of the principal composers of that venerable institution. His training as a singer also enabled him to write for the human voice with undeniable skill; his works still gave as much pleasure to the singers themselves as they do to those who listen.

Of those composers who held the highest positions at St Mark's basilica in Venice, Natale Monferrato (1610-85) is manifestly one of the most thoroughly forgotten nowadays. After working with the leading musicians of this prestigious institution, he succeeded Francesco Cavalli as maestro di cappella in 1676. His output, consisting exclusively of sacred music, includes some twenty collections published between 1647 and 1681. Although he wrote a great deal of polyphonic music, he also produced three collections of Motetti a voce sola. Most unusually, these three books accord an important place to compositions for the often neglected alto voice. They are so voluminous that only the Libro Terzo of 1666 was used for this recording. The motets are divided into varied and contrasted sections that range from the spirit of recitative to that of the aria, using very diverse forms in a manner that is bound to remind us of the models of opera as it developed in Venice from 1637 onwards. This world premiere recording blazes the trail for discovery of an undeservedly neglected composer.

A composer admired by his contemporaries, Josquin Desprez (ca 1450-1521) was a solitary artist who sublimated in his chansons the melancholy character and the elegance emblematic of the Renaissance. For their first recording, Dulces Exuviae explore the intimacy of these chansons in a fresh light: the sweet melodies are embellished by ornaments and accompanied on the lute, leaving ample room for improvisation, and thus allowing music to come out all the more alive, delicate and filled with emotion. The ensemble Dulces Exuviae is baritone Romain Bockler and lutenist Bor Zuljan.

Peter Paul Rubens lived precisely within one of the most exciting periods of the history of music, one that stretched from the summit of the Renaissance polyphonic style to the beginnings of the Baroque period and of opera. + Released in connection with the exhibition ‘Rubens and his Heritage’ (Bozar (The Center for Fine Arts), Brussels from 25 September 2014 to 4 January 2015)), this CD presents examples of the major musical genres that Rubens would have heard during his visits to Brussels, London, Rome, Venice, Mantua, Madrid and Paris.

For his first recording with Ricercar, and as a prelude to an anthology of German Baroque harpsichord music, Yoann Moulin tackles works by two of Sweelinck's most illustrious disciples. The preludes, chorales, fugues, dances and arias with variations of this repertory offer great diversity and enable us to grasp the personalities of the two composers, the introverted Scheidt and the more flamboyant and Baroque Scheidemann. Yoann Moulin began his musical education with Robert Weddle. He discovered the harpsichord later, and studied with Bibiane Lapointe and Thierry Maeder before continuing his education at the Academy Villecroze and the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris. He has since performed in numerous solo and chamber music recitals and at different festivals including the Folles Days of Nantes, the Philharmonie de Paris, La Roque d'Antheron, and more. Recently, he cofounded the ensemble "A Band of Harpsichords," a consort of ancient keyboards that focuses on the music of the Renaissance, both written and improvised.

The present recording attempts to provide musical illustrations of elements from Ganassi's treatise on ornamentation Fontegara, published in Venice in 1535. This work was intended for his wealthy aristocratic pupils, and a priori it does not reflect only his personal practice. This versatile musician's professional career consisted essentially in directing and playing the bombarde with his ensemble in the service of a number of doges and scuole. He also performed in the ridotti, the circles in which humanists and cultured nobles met. It is this refined art that William Dongois and his musicians propose to revive here, drawing on a very rich repertory of dances, songs and madrigals. An ensemble that can vary from two to ten players according to the works being performed, the Concert Brise is made up of musicians who share a common approach to music and to it's connection to historical sources. These links form one of the two reference points of the ensemble's interpretations, the other being the use of techniques of improvisation that have been taken from treatises of the period and also from jazz and from folk music. The musicians of the Concert Brise hope to communicate the pleasure that they experience in playing this music to their audiences, whilst at the same time they take the risk of introducing improvisation when it is required. At such a moment they must let themselves be guided by inspiration and, if necessary, allow a strict observation of the score to fade somewhat into the background.