Chœur de Rockers

Given that not one of the Masses by Jacques Arcadelt was included in our boxed set that revealed his immense musical personality to the world, we now remedy this situation with an indispensable addition. Leonardo Garcia Alarcon chose the Missa Noe Noe, which is presented here in the context of the Christmas liturgy. We have also included motets not only by Arcadelt but also by Josquin Desprez, as he was the great model for musicians of his generation. The recording ends resoundingly with Josquin's imposing Benedicta es coelorum regina for six voices, although in an expanded version for twelve voices by Jean Guyot de Chatelet (1512 - 1588): another Walloon composer to be discovered!

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was a prominent composer and organist of his era. While working at the Eisenbach court in Thüringen, he became a close friend of J.S. Bach's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach. As a parish musician, Pachelbel wrote most of his music for church services, especially for Mass and Vespers, when both singers and instrumentalists took part. His instrumental accompaniments are unusually rich. Although much of Pachelbel's music is lost, around twenty-six motets; nineteen "spiritual songs;" and thirteen Magnificats, geistliche Konzerte, and Masses have survived.

In 1789, a performance of "Messiah" that was to have a radical effect on the course of the oratorio's performance history was given in Vienna. Baron Gottfried Van Swieten, who later translated and edited the text for Haydn's "Creation", had, as a diplomat in London during the late 1760s, become an ardent Handelian. Among other Handel scores, he took back to Austria a copy of the first edition of the full score of "Messiah", published by Randall and Abell in 1767. Beginning with "Judas Maccabaeus" in 1779, he introduced works by Handel into the annual oratorio series given for the benefit of the Tonkunstler Society, a Viennese musical charity. In 1789, he presented "Messiah" and, for this Viennese premiere, commissioned Mozart to fill out the accompaniments, largely dispensing with keyboard continuo and replacing the tromba parts practically unplayable for late 18th century trumpeters.