Joh Lakos

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is recognised as being the UK’s most in-demand orchestra, an accolade that would have pleased Sir Thomas Beecham, who founded the RPO in 1946. His mission was to lead a vital revival of UK orchestras after World War II and form an ensemble that comprised the finest musicians in the country. The Orchestra has since attracted a glittering list of principal conductors, including Rudolf Kempe, Antal Doráti, Walter Weller, André Previn, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Temirkanov, Daniele Gatti and Charles Dutoit. Performing approximately 200 concerts each season and with a worldwide audience of more than half-a-million people, the Orchestra embraces a broad repertoire that enables it to reach the most diverse audience of any British symphony orchestra.

Giaches de Wert (1536‐1595) was born in Flanders. He became one of the foremost composers of the Golden Age of Renaissance vocal polyphony, together with other illustrious composers: Dufay, Ockeghem, Obrecht, Josquin and Lassus. At an early age he went to Italy, where he became Maestro di Cappella of the Santa Barbara Basilica of Mantua, built by Guglielmo Gonzaga, head of the ruling family who were central in the development of the high cultural climate of Mantua. De Wert’s music is firmly rooted in the stately Franco‐Flemish polyphonic tradition, in which he introduced “Italian” elements expressing the emotional content of the text, such as sadness, sorrow, joy and exaltation. This new recording contains the First Book of Motets, a first recording, sung by one of the foremost Early Music Choirs of The Netherlands, the Collegium Musicum Amsterdam, conducted by Anthony Zielhorst.

Such a debut is rare. Matthias Boguth, born in 1996, has been studying at the University of Applied Sciences in Leipzig for three years, has already gained some stage experience as leader of various Bands and projects, but has not yet released an Album before Milk Wood