Verdelot, Philippe

This recording presents three traditional ways of celebrating Christmas in music – medieval carols, Renaissance motets praising the Virgin Mary, and German chorales. The medieval pieces are sung in their original forms, without modern ‘arrangement’. All those performed here are of English provenance, and culminate in three versions of the Coventry Carol, which include Byrd’s famous Lullaby.

SEON (Studio Erichson) is a period music label by the legendary producer Wolf Erichson. Erichson founded the label in 1969 as one of the first labels dedicated only to authentic music. The recordings were made with the best available recording techniques of the time and still deliver a high quality product in line with today's standards. This special boxset offers all SEON CD reissues from the late 90s on 85 CDs in a limited edition boxset.

SEON (Studio Erichson) is a period music label by the legendary producer Wolf Erichson. Erichson founded the label in 1969 as one of the first labels dedicated only to authentic music. The recordings were made with the best available recording techniques of the time and still deliver a high quality product in line with today's standards. This special boxset offers all SEON CD reissues from the late 90s on 85 CDs in a limited edition boxset.

Giovanni Maria da Crema remains to this day a mysterious figure in the history of the lute, with very little information known about his life. However his oeuvre is crucial to understanding the lute’s place in 16th-century Italy. His Libro primo, published in Venice by Antonio Gardane in 1546, is presented as an edition “newly reprinted and corrected by the author himself”, indicating the existence of a rival prior edition, namely that published by Girolamo Scotto, with the same contents and minimal differences. Two years later, also in Venice, Scotto would publish Francesco da Milano’s Libro settimo which also includes keyboard pieces by Giulio Segni da Modena intabulated for the lute by Giovanni Maria da Crema. Some of these intabulations had already appeared in Giovanni Maria da Crema’s Libro primo without mention of Giulio Segni’s authorship of the keyboard original.

Giovanni Maria da Crema remains to this day a mysterious figure in the history of the lute, with very little information known about his life. However his oeuvre is crucial to understanding the lute’s place in 16th-century Italy. His Libro primo, published in Venice by Antonio Gardane in 1546, is presented as an edition “newly reprinted and corrected by the author himself”, indicating the existence of a rival prior edition, namely that published by Girolamo Scotto, with the same contents and minimal differences. Two years later, also in Venice, Scotto would publish Francesco da Milano’s Libro settimo which also includes keyboard pieces by Giulio Segni da Modena intabulated for the lute by Giovanni Maria da Crema. Some of these intabulations had already appeared in Giovanni Maria da Crema’s Libro primo without mention of Giulio Segni’s authorship of the keyboard original.

This is an extremely enjoyable disc of music for Recorder Consort as it might have been played at the Courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. It includes pieces by Henry himself and by William Byrd, but most of it is by non-English composers because, as is explained in the notes, much of the fine English music of the time is not feasible for a Recorder Consort. The composers are very fine, though, and include Isaac, Arcadelt, Lassus, both Ferraboscos and others. It makes a thoroughly enjoyable programme.

In 1968, six former choral scholars from King’s College, Cambridge established the King’s Singers, later described by The Times as “the superlative vocal sextet”. The group has always comprised two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass, and over the years it has proved consistently exceptional for vocal distinction and breadth and diversity of repertoire. This celebratory collection of eight CDs focuses on Renaissance composers from Italy, England, France, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries.

Die Blockflötistin und ECHO Klassik-Preisträgerin Dorothee Oberlinger ist mittlerweile weit über die Alte Musik- und die Klassik-Szene hinaus bekannt. Erst Ende vorigen Jahres widmete die Vogue ihr einen Artikel und in der Talkshow »3nach9« begeisterte sie die Zuschauer, auch durch ihr Duett mit Klaus Doldinger. Auf ihrer neuen CD »Flauto Veneziano« widmet sich Dorothee Oberlinger ganz der Flötenkunst Venedigs von der Renaissance bis zum Spätbarock. Die Blockflöte, im Italienischen bis zum Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts schlicht »flauto«, war in Venedig bis zur Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts ein sehr beliebtes und verbreitetes Instrument.