Joel Cohen

Another throwback project with the pioneering trailblazing conductor of early repetoires Joel Cohen, paired with the Camerata Mediterranea, an ensemble promoting intercultural dialogue between both sides of the sea, he recorded this beautiful program centered on the love songs of Bernard de Ventadour, the greatest troubadour of his time. Each song alternes with an Occitan poem by Uc de Saint-Circ relating the adventurous sentimental live of Bernard.

Warner Classics presents a programme conceived by the Boston Camerata ensemble which have dedicated themselves to historically performed professional performance of early European and American Music. The American Vocalist is named after a book on canticles published in Boston in mid-19th-century, which reveals the persistence in religious chants of New England of a folk-hymnody tradition as part of a fascination for the Victorian aesthetic. This was generally regarded as a specificity of the Afro-descendant congregational music of the Southern states.

L’homme armé is one of the most popular French songs of the late Middle Ages. Celebrating physical strength and courage on the battlefield, it has inspired many composers, and became the most frequent cantus firmus in the Renaissance. It gave its name to this wonderful program of the Boston Camerata, highlighting musical depictions of battle scenes and lamentations over conflicts and persecutions, but also songs of hope for a pacified world.

Warner Classics presents a programme conceived by the Boston Camerata ensemble which have dedicated themselves to historically performed professional performance of early European and American Music. The American Vocalist is named after a book on canticles published in Boston in mid-19th-century, which reveals the persistence in religious chants of New England of a folk-hymnody tradition as part of a fascination for the Victorian aesthetic. This was generally regarded as a specificity of the Afro-descendant congregational music of the Southern states.

"A really nice selection of American patriotic music from the Revolution to the onset of the Civil War. The performances are excellent. It includes some of the best work, including his patriotic anthem Chester, by the outstanding New England choral composer William Billings."

L’homme armé is one of the most popular French songs of the late Middle Ages. Celebrating physical strength and courage on the battlefield, it has inspired many composers, and became the most frequent cantus firmus in the Renaissance. It gave its name to this wonderful program of the Boston Camerata, highlighting musical depictions of battle scenes and lamentations over conflicts and persecutions, but also songs of hope for a pacified world.

This is a fresh, vibrant recording of a cross-section of Dowland's music, and will quickly dispel any myth of Dowland always being a composer of melancholy!
The singers use Elizabethan pronunciation (love=loov, come=coom), which can be quite revelatory. – Mark Ardrey-Graves

Leonard Cohen, who liked to call himself a 'chansonnier,' grew up in French‐speaking Montreal, Canada. He is appreciated both as a poet and for his sensitivity to combining words and music. This project connects Cohen musically and poetically with previous generations of songwriters. Orlando di Lasso's famous 16th century chanson Susanne un jour meets Cohen's Suzanne. Josquin des Prez's Adieu mes amours or courtly dances published by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris in 1529 combine with Cohen's songs and the eras converge. With knowledge of Renaissance musical practices, new diminutions on Cohen's music emerge, including original chordal accompaniments for viola da gamba or lute based on late 16th and 17th century models.

French Renaissance chansons meet songs by Leonard Cohen: a great modern singer-songwriter, a "troubadour", passed away in 2016. This programme, is a tribute to his art, and provides a link to the French Renaissance chanson.