Polyphony

This four-disc set celebrates Flemish vocal polyphony of the renaissance era. Recorded at various times in the 1970s and 1980s by the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, this is a fascinating collection in a well presented box-set, with the liner-notes provided on CD ROM. Practical tip: if you are listening to the CDs through a computer, load the CD-ROM first so that you can access the sleeve notes while listening.

Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495 – c. 1560) - Motets II - Beauty Farm (2017) {Fra Bernardo Official Digital Download FB 1612457}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (prestoclassical.co.uk) -> 577 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 258 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2016, 2017 Fra Bernardo | FB 1612457
Classical / Renaissance / Early Music / Choral / Sacred / Polyphony

The second Gombert project with seventeen of his masterpieces, the motets, some of them being first recorded here. The best description of Gombert’s motets was written by Hermann Finck more than four centuries ago, in 1556: For he avoids pauses, and his work is rich with full harmonies and imitative counterpoint. Beauty farm founded 2014 by Markus Muntean and Bernhard Trebuch is a vocal group focused to the Franco-Flemish polyphony of the renaissance. The international ensemble is based in the carthusian monastery at Mauerbach (Austria). The singers are members of well known ensembles like «Capilla flamenca», «Huelgas Ensemble», «Vox Luminis», «Collegium Vocale Gent» and «Graindelavoix». Beauty Farm exclusively records for frabernardo.

Pamela Thorby has been recording for Linn for most of the label’s existence, both as ensemble player and soloist. This time she joins Andrew Lawrence-King (except for a few unaccompanied pieces) in a varied program of music of the 16th and 17th centuries. In his notes, the harpist has an explanation for the disc title in the literary use of the garden as a place of earthly delights (Hieronymus Bosch’s allusion) where lovemaking is accompanied by recorders and plucked strings. His essay lucidly explains some of the terminology too often taken for granted in music of this period. Diego Ortiz, in Trattado de glosas of 1553, illustrated three ways of playing music on instruments; hence the program uses three of his examples at the beginning, middle, and end of this program.