Josquin

Josquin des Prez - Music in the Sistine Chapel around 1490 - Cut Circle (2012) {2CD Set, Musique en Wallonie MEW 1265-1266}
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© 2012 Musique En Wallonie ‎| MEW 1265-1266
Classical / Reneissance / Sacred / Mass

Аeatures sacred music by Renaissance composers living and working in Rome. Offers new interpretations of music by Josquin des Prez, including his famous Missa L’homme armé super voces musicales. Presents premiere recordings of works by Marbrianus de Orto, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and other scandalously understudied late fifteenth-century singer-composers employed in the newly built chapel of Pope Sixtus IV. In a space that overlooked frescoes by Botticelli and Perugino, they gathered around enormous choirbooks to sing one another’s masses, motets, and hymns. Cut Circle’s recording aims to capture the soundscape of the Sistine Chapel as Josquin knew it.

Tallis Scholars are among the world's preeminent choral ensembles. Cultivating a distinctive vocal sound backed by impeccable scholarship, the group has helped raise the general level of interest in Renaissance choral music in Britain and beyond through a large catalog of recordings and numerous international tours.

A year or so ago my wife and I were standing on Juliet’s balcony in Verona, a romantic spot. Below us there assembled a mixed choir which started to sing one of the most famous madrigals of the 16th century, Il bianco e dolce cigno by Jacques Arcadelt. Apparently all Italians know this music, almost from memory, as do I, so I joined in, much to the delight of all those in the little courtyard below. There is more to Arcadelt than this or any of his over one hundred other published madrigals. His church music helped to lay the foundations for Palestrina and his contemporaries yet has been sadly neglected.

Decca Classics announces the release of the first in a trilogy of recordings from the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble Stile Antico to celebrate major anniversaries of three Renaissance masters. The first release, The Golden Renaissance: Josquin des Prez is dedicated to the Franco-Flemish composer to mark the 500th anniversary of his death and features a world premiere recording of Josquin's chanson, Vivrai je tousjours.

Josquin was one of the greatest composers of his time, the author of sacred and secular music and works for court and city. The ensemble Theleme and Jean-Christophe Groffe offer a bold and original interpretation of some of Josquin's songs. Combining the language of the Renaissance with very different sounds - ondes Martenot, Fender Rhodes piano, Buchla synthesizer - they create a lively and astonishingly fertile dialogue, in keeping with the spirit of the composer. Five hundred years after his death, this album pays tribute to a groundbreaking composer, whose innovations inspire us to this day.

Few composers of any age have enjoyed the widespread admiration and unanimous praise of successive generations as Josquin Desprez. He is considered the greatest creator and innovator of musical composition during the Renaissance, and for some half a millennium his music has stood the test of time. He is remembered as much for his own works as for his lasting influence on those of his contemporaries and students, demonstrated in many of the compositions in tribute of 'the Master' featured in this programme. The programme's centrepiece is Jean Richafort's Requiem Mass, Missa pro defunctis, a tribute that employs several of Josquin's compositional devices.

The Tallis Scholars are hands down the most difficult performing ensemble in the world to review. The reason is simple - they have been around for so many years and have produced such a consistent and high quality product, both on record and in the concert hall, that there is simply little to say about them anymore except "bring it on!"

Music in 14th century Europe was dominated by the composers working in the Low Countries, or what we now call The Netherlands and Belgium and Northern France. Dufay was born in Cambrai, but went to Italy in the 1420s to work in Bologna, and eventually became a member of the Papal choir before returning to Cambrai. Josquin Desprez was from Flanders, and moved to Milan in 1460, and like Dufay became a member of the Papal choir, before moving to Cambrai. He was one of the first composers to benefit from the printing of music and his reputation traveled far and wide as a result. His music is beautifully crafted, and he attempted to convey in music the inner meaning of the words - one of the earliest instances of a composer exploring the expressive possibilities of text and music. Ockeghem was born in Dendermonde, and he traveled to Spain and throughout Flanders. His music, like Josquin’s is superbly crafted, with intricate rhythmic sections, and a seamless flow of counterpoint.

With their faultless intonation, transparency of line, and ideal balance between emotional intensity and cool intellectuality, the Tallis Scholars are unrivalled in this repertoire. Peter Phillips highlights the individuality of the different voice-parts - making their individuality comprehensible - yet forms a homogeneous overall sound. By comparing the early Missa Ad fugam and the later Missa Sine Nomine Josquin's stylistic development becomes clear: the thick sound-world of the early work, with its melismatic long-drawn-out lines, yields to a much tauter style, full of rhythmic contrasts without forfeiting any complexity.