The Spontaneous Music Ensemble

Hildegard von Bingen & Hugh Collins Rice - Sequences - Ensemble Mediva (2016) {Odradek Records Official Digital Downloads}
FLAC (tracks) - 44kHz/16 bit - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 290 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 152 Mb
Artwork (pdf+jpg) | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Odradek Records | ODRCD 322
Classical / Medieval / Early Music / 12th Century Music / Vocal

Hildegard von Bingen has the magical ability to reach out and speak to us across the centuries. An avant-garde visionary of her day, the depth and range of her music lends itself to modern re-imaginings. Sequentiae Hildegardenses was written over a period of 12 years in a special collaboration between the composer Hugh Collins Rice and the medieval ensemble Mediva. Collins Rice, who has often been drawn to the ideas and techniques of early music, was inspired by Mediva s medieval instruments and developed a musical language for Sequentiae Hildegardenses which remains authentic and expressive in a 21st-century context, whilst also illuminating the 12th-century music of Hildegard. His music references the serene world of Hildegard's own compositions, but also reflects the darker strands in her writings.

These first reissues in Virgin Veritas’s new Hilliard Edition mark a belated tribute to one of the most enduring names of the early music scene, and the long-awaited return to the catalogue of some of its finest work. English music often has the knack of bringing out the best in The Hilliard Ensemble, so it is appropriate that three of the present batch of discs are devoted to the period when English music was at its most influential, the early- to mid-fifteenth century. Last year’s Gramophone Early Music Award, given to a recording of the music of John Dunstable by the Orlando Consort (Metronome, 2/96), was actually the second time the composer has been so honoured: The Hilliards’ disc won the award in 1984. Nearly 15 years on, it is more than worthy to stand alongside its successor.

These first reissues in Virgin Veritas’s new Hilliard Edition mark a belated tribute to one of the most enduring names of the early music scene, and the long-awaited return to the catalogue of some of its finest work. English music often has the knack of bringing out the best in The Hilliard Ensemble, so it is appropriate that three of the present batch of discs are devoted to the period when English music was at its most influential, the early- to mid-fifteenth century. Last year’s Gramophone Early Music Award, given to a recording of the music of John Dunstable by the Orlando Consort (Metronome, 2/96), was actually the second time the composer has been so honoured: The Hilliards’ disc won the award in 1984. Nearly 15 years on, it is more than worthy to stand alongside its successor.

The first ever survey of the seminal British experimental music collective, Gentle Fire, Explorations (1970 - 1973) offers a remarkable and previously unavailable glimpse of their activities during the early 1970s, spanning their crucial interpretations of scores by Stockhausen, Brown, Cage, Ichiyanagi, and Wolff, as well as an incredible deep dive into their own works and "Group Compositions". Unapparelled and historically important work, stretching across the length of 3 CDs, from Paradigm Discs, meticulously culled from Hugh Davies' archive, it's among the most important missing links within the history of British experimental music to have emerged in living memory, and not to be missed.