Ars Choralis Coeln presents Hildegard of Bingen’s large mystery play on CD. She was the most important universal scholar of the Middle Ages. Innumerable works give evidence of her impressive erudition and of her exceptional linguistic and musical talent. Not only during her lifetime did the abbess, poet, and composer Hildgard of Bingen have great influence on theological and societal nexuses, but even today she is esteemed throughout the world for her world view and visions.
Sequentia’s Hildegard von Bingen Project: Initially in collaboration with the West German Radio Cologne (WDR Köln) Sequentia made a series of recordings of the complete works of Germany’s most important medieval composer, the abbess and visionary Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). After recording the music drama, Ordo Virtutum, Sequentia went on to make a first recording of the abbess’s symphoniae, spiritual songs which were probably sung in the liturgy of her convent on the Rupertsberg in the late 12th century. A group of nine female vocalists under Barbara Thornton’s direction is complemented by five instrumentalists in this recording made over a period of a year, in two different medieval German churches.
Canonized by Pope Benedict in May 2012, St. Hildegard von Bingen, abbess, visionary, healer, singer, poet and composer, left two precious manuscripts filled with spiritual songs. With this anthology, Music for Paradise, the world-renowned ensemble Sequentia presents the entire spectrum of Hildegard's music - songs of surprising depth and virtuosity, at times meditative, at times shocking, yet always energized by the unique musical genius and voice of this visionary artist more than 800 years after her death.