Guillaume Dufay. Missae Sine Nomine, Ave Regina Coelorum, Caput Clemencic Consort (vinyl Lps)

The music of Guillaume Dufay is often said to lie on the boundary between medieval and Renaissance. It is complex in the manner of medieval polyphony, sometimes with multiple texts in different languages, and intricate rhyme schemes. Yet, in its evocative use of vertical sonority and its original texts in the songs, it approaches a manner of text-setting that you can recognize as modern. His chansons are not often recorded, so this release of 18 chansons from the Orlando Consort would be welcome on general principles; it has virtues considerably beyond that.

PIERRE DE LA RUE fait partie des grands de notre histoire musicale. Il est l'un des maîtres les plus considérables de «l'école néerlandaise». Sur le plan de l'envergure, de la profondeur et des capacités formelles, il soutient parfaitement la comparaison avec les autres grands noms de la génération de JOSQUIN DES PRES que sont OBRECHT, ISAAC et BRUMEL. Cette période correspondait, il est vrai, à un apogée tout particulier de la musique polyphonique. Dans un de ses discours, MARTIN LUTHER s'exclame : «Ah! Combien d'excellents musiciens sont morts en dix ans ! Josquin, Pierre de La Rue, Finch et tant d'autres artistes remarquables».

Guillaume Dufay (c1400-1474) - Music for the Court of Savoy - The Binchois Consort, Andrew Kirkman (2009) {Hyperion CDA67715}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 305 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 168 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 57 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 Hyperion Records | CDA67715
Classical / Medieval / Renaissance / Early Music / Choral / Polyphony

The Binchois Consort’s first recordings of Dufay for Hyperion achieved iconic status, winning a Gramophone award along the way. Despite the proliferation of early music groups recording Dufay in their wake, the Binchois remain the ultimate musical authority on this great composer. Their latest recording contains what many consider to be Dufay’s masterpiece. His Missa Se la face ay pale is one of the best known, and perhaps most revered, of all polyphonic masses. Indeed, it is a work of such renown that it enjoys a special kind of status among Renaissance mass cycles.

The Clemencic Consort is an early music group established in Vienna. It was founded in 1969 by René Clemencic after he stopped directing his previous group, the Ensemble Musica Antiqua.

This is one of the most known Clemencic Consort's work, led by austrian flutist René Clemencic.

The cube made with matches which appears on the cover of this disc, showing on flames in the inside of the digipak and afterwards completely burnt, plays with the ideas that inspire this dazzling recording: the four ways to the knowledge of numbers through the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy), which are expressed through something as ephemeral assound, where also the unexpected and the emotion of the moment take place.

Chorus sine nomine, founded in 1991 by Johannes Hiemetsberger, is one of the most distinguished and innovative concert choirs in Austria. On this CD, the choir presents motets by Anton Bruckner. Bruckner simply called them sacred choruses, as the reason for their composition can usually be traced back to a liturgical occasion. The six works on the CD correspond to such liturgical interludes: Graduale (Christus factus est, Locus iste, Os justi, Virga Jesse), Offertorium (Ave Maria) and a hymn for the Good Friday liturgy (Vexilla regis). As an organist, Bruckner was admired above all for his improvisations. He was particularly admired for his high contrapuntal skills, in which he demonstrated his craftsmanship in fugue and imitation. The style of the fugal parts of his improvisations was based on Baroque patterns (such as Handel), while in other, more imaginative parts the tonal language of his organ playing became increasingly typical of Bruckner. Martin Haselböck establishes this connection to Bruckner with his organ improvisations.