Yorkstonthornekhan Everything Sacred (2016)

La Compagnia del Madrigale is currently the most eminent madrigal ensemble of today's international early music scene. The group was founded 2008 on the initiative of Rossana Bertini, Giuseppe Maletto, and Daniele Carnovich: after singing madrigals and sacred polyphony together for over 20 years, they decide to self-manage their own activity without a musical director and integrate into the group Francesca Cassinari, Elena Carzaniga, Raffaele Giordani and Marco Scavazza.

This 2016 release followed on an immensely successful 2014 performance of the Fauré Requiem, Op. 48, and in many ways it's a partner to the earlier recording. The Fauré had a historical-performance aspect, re-creating the 1889 premiere even down to the specific organ stops used. In this case, historical performance is not involved: the version of the Duruflé Requiem performed is not the original, but a 1961 revision for mezzo-soprano, chorus, organ, and chamber orchestra. But the forces bring the music close to the overall effect of the Fauré, with boy sopranos of the Choir of King's College connecting the two performances. In both recordings, the organ is brought to the foreground and issues almost electronic-like sounds that shoot beams of mystic light through the small Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. It's gorgeous, and it might easily result in a revival for this version of the work. Conductor Stephen Cleobury does wonderfully with his mezzo-soprano soloist: for sampling, you could luxuriate in the "Pie Jesu," with its restrained instrumental backing making the music less operatic and more cantata-like. You also get a pair of little-known Duruflé works, the Quatre Motets sur des thèmes Grégoriens, Op. 10, and the Messe "Cum jubilo," Op. 11, with chorus, organ, and one soloist; each of these could challenge the conception of Duruflé as a one-hit wonder. Yet the biggest news here is the Duruflé Requiem itself, and the way the work retains its slightly otherworldly quality in this intimate version.

Roland de Lassus (1532-1594) - Canticum Canticorum - Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Leonardo García Alarcón, Ensemble Clematis (2016) {Ricercar Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 44kHz/16 bit - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 281 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 157 Mb | Artwork (pdf+jpg) | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Ricercar / Outhere Music | RIC 370
Classical / Renaissance / Choral / Sacred Vocal Music

At the height of the Renaissance, the music of Orlande de Lassus frequently combines the emotion of secular music with sacred compositions. With their erotic connotations, the texts of The Song of Songs are an ideal source for bringing together sacred and profane feelings. Based on his most famous song, Lassus wrote one of his unitary masses: Suzanne un jour. Along with the Magnificat that he composed on De Rore’s madrigal Ancor che col partire, here are two religious compositions of which the themes are borrowed from evocations of amorous turmoil.

Hildegard von Bingen - O Eterne Deus - Vajra Voices (2016) {Music & Arts Official Digital Download}
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© 2016 Music & Arts | CD-1291
Classical / Medieval / Early Music / Sacred Vocal Music

The music of the 12th century poet and composer Hildegard von Bingen continues to exert a spell on the modern imagination, and not just among those who are (rightly) eager to seize on her as an early feminist icon. The chant melodies, rendered here with heartfelt elegance by the women’s chorus Vajra Voices under the direction of Karen R. Clark, are striking in both their shapeliness and the spiritual fervor that runs through them. To a modern listener, accustomed to hearing melodic lines combined in contrapuntal mesh or harmonic byplay, the spareness of these textures - even with the deft accompaniment of Shira Kammen on the vielle (a bowed string instrument) and medieval harp - can make them seem attenuated. But listen more closely, and Hildegard’s careful attentiveness to the liturgical texts, with all their implications, becomes ever more affecting.

Psallentes - Hendrik Vanden Abeele - Fragmenta Tungrensia (2016) {Le Bricoleur LBCD-09}
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© 2016 Le Bricoleur | LBCD/09
Classical / Medieval / Early Music / 14th Century / 15th Century / Polyphony / Plainchant / Sacred Works / Vocal

The Teseum in Tongeren contains many ecclesiastical treasures, including late mediaeval plainchant manuscripts. From these beautiful sources, Psallentes has chosen a series of real gems: chant from the liturgy for the great feasts — such as Christmas and Easter— and chant with a more local colour — such as the hymns for saints such as Maternus and Servatius. This recording thus offers a fine image of the richness of the liturgy in Tongeren in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

To create a sense of the Venetian liturgical celebrations attendant on the birth of Louis XIV in 1638, Benjamin Chénier and the Galilei Consort have constructed a sumptuous performance from various works composed by Giovanni Gabrieli, Giovanni Rovetta, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Claudio Monteverdi, and Giovanni Bassano. Rovetta had been chosen by Louis XIII to assemble the singers and instrumentalists, and his Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo from the Messa e Salmi Concertati form the core of this historical simulation, which is completed by a Sanctus and Agnus Dei by Rigatti, and various instrumental pieces and motets.