Stile Antico JOSQUIN DES PREZ

 

JOSQUIN DES PREZ

 

Jacob Heringman JOSQUIN DES PREZ Inviolata

 

INVIOLATA

 

Cappella Amsterdam / Daniel Reuss JOSQUIN DES PREZ Miserere mei Deus

'To lament, to mourn, to memorialise: such was the new fashion at the very end of the fifteenth century', writes Alice Tacaille. 'The poet, in mourning the musician, attains an expressive intimacy ... a eulogy of art that places the lamenting poet himself at the origin of the immortal memory which the artist will enjoy.' Such is the case with the celebrated 'Deploration' on the death of Ockeghem, which, alongside Nymphes, nappées, forms a pair of superb musical epitaphs by the illustrious Josquin. With this programme combining secular homages and sacred polyphony, Daniel Reuss and the singers of Cappella Amsterdam launch a magisterial trilogy devoted to the Franco-Flemish masters of the Renaissance.

Capella de la Torre / Katharina Bäuml VINUM ET MUSICA

What you get on this release by veteran countertenor Dominique Visse and the Capella de la Torre is something less accessible than what is suggested by the Vinum et Musica title but more accessible than the pedantic subtitle "Songs & dances from Nuremberg sources (15th & 16th century)." The collection of pieces here is a sort of tour of the city of Nuremberg, an important German city in Renaissance times but not one that was home to its own compositional school. Indeed, its influence seems to have been reflected instead in the diverse musical tastes of its residents, who imported music from far and wide. Each of the four categories of the program --"The Emperor's Castle," "The Principal Churches," "The Feast," and "Humanism" -- contains not only German music but that from Italy, France, or the Low Countries. The last of these rests merely on the premise that the four works were part of a songbook compiled by a noted Nuremberg citizen with broadly humanist interests, and it doesn't quite wrap up the whole package. But as a whole the album shows in a unique way how Renaissance styles were refracted through different performance contexts. The Capella de la Torre, with multiple shawms, cornetts, dulcians, and recorders, plus sackbut and organ, can handle anything from the imposing anonymous Fanfare at the beginning to the folklike Ich spring an diesem Ringe (track 12) from the "Feast" section, a grab bag of several different styles. Sacred pieces were part of everyday life and appear in all four sections; mixing them so thoroughly with secular material is a rarity on recordings but probably corresponds closely to how they were actually used. Notable works include the L'homme armé setting by Robert Morton from the middle 15th century, perhaps the earliest written one in existence, and the Kaddish à 5 by Italian Jewish composer Salomone Rossi, present not because there was a synagogue in Nuremberg but because one was destroyed in a pogrom of 1352 and a church erected on the spot. Visse's voice is reedier than it once was, but in general this album is well situated to take the casual Renaissance listener deeper into the music. (James Manheim)

Magnificat / Philip Cave SCATTERED ASHES Josquin's Miserere and the Savonarolan Legacy

To celebrate their 25^th anniversary, vocal ensemble Magnificat directed by Philip Cave have created a programme of Renaissance polyphonic works inspired by Girolamo Savonarola's (1452-98) famous meditations written while awaiting execution. One contemplates Psalm 50, Miserere mei, Deus, and another Psalm 30, In te, Domine, speravi. Savonarola was a Dominican friar burnt at the stake for his reformist preaching, his ashes scattered in a river to prevent supporters preserving them as relics.
This disc opens with Josquin's extraordinarily vast setting of the Miserere. Weighing in at just over 17 minutes, it is a motet of grandiose proportions characterised by repetition of the words ‘Miserere mei, Deus' (Have mercy on me, God). This functions like a refrain with five voices framing what is mostly a two- or three-voiced texture. Added to this, Cave employs his full complement of singers for each refrain and uses just solo voices in between, further emphasising the variations of texture. The overall tempo is quite slow if compared, say, to La Chapelle Royale under Philippe Herreweghe, but solo voices allow for a suppleness of phrasing that enhances forward momentum, often with arrestingly beautiful segues between textures such as at ‘et impii ad te convertentur' (‘and the unholy will turn back to you'), where a solo soprano soars over the dying echo of Savonarola's repeated plea.
In Lhéritier's more dense polyphonic setting of In te, Domine, speravi, Magnificat's velvety sound is at its most luxurious. This sonorous ensemble, combined with Cave's unhurried tempi, create a wonderfully melancholic sound world. Their interpretations of the post-Josquin generation of continental composers, Gombert and Clemens specifically, are among the finest on disc.
The programme ends with Byrd's Infelix ego. It's a tender performance; phrases roll pleasingly forwards under Cave's direction and his interpretation nudges Byrd closer to his continental counterparts. My own preference lies with a more demonstrative madrigalian approach such as The Cardinall's Musick under Andrew Carwood, leading to a dramatic final plea ‘Miserere mei, Deus' scorching the texture with emphatic chords. Here, instead, Cave strikes a prayerful note to end his programme. (Edward Breen / Gramophone)