Ricercar Consort

These performances by the Ricercar Consort and its legendary quartet of soloists, from the series Deutsche Barock Kantaten, were created at a time when historical performance practice was new and sprang from original research into the performance practice. This style of music-making is now completely integrated into contemporary musical life thanks partly to these Baroque pioneers.

The Ricercar Consort is a Belgian instrumental ensemble founded in 1980 together with the Ricercar record label of Jérôme Lejeune.The founding members were violinist François Fernandez, organist Bernard Foccroulle, and viola da gamba player Philippe Pierlot. The initial repertoire was focussed on the German Baroque, and the Consort was closely identified with the series Deutsche Barock Kantaten. In recordings and concerts the Consort was joined by baroque specialist singers including; Greta De Reyghere, Agnès Mellon, countertenors Henri Ledroit and James Bowman, tenor Guy de Mey and bass Max van Egmond, as well as the cornett player Jean Tubéry.

The Stabat Mater Dolorosa is a sequence, not a chant, and no unified melody was established for it until the mid-nineteenth century; it was even banned for a time by the Council of Trent, but restored to liturgical use in the late 1720s by Pope Benedict XIII. Much as Prohibition did not stem the tide of alcohol use, the Council of Trent's ban on the text did not diminish the popularity of the Stabat Mater. It was during the official, 160-year-long period where the Stabat Mater was not heard in churches that Giovanni Felice Sances composed the title work on this Mirare CD Stabat Mater, featuring Carlos Mena, Philippe Pierlot, and the Ricercar Consort.

Après avoir été organiste de l’église Saint-Paul à Paris, le Liégeois Henry Du Mont devient maître de chapelle de Louis XIV. Dès la publication de son premier recueil de motets en 1652, les Cantica Sacra, il s’impose comme l’un des créateurs du motet français et compose les premiers motets à voix seule, genre qui se développera durant les générations suivantes. Cet enregistrement est complété par quelques motets de Léonard Hodemont, maître de chapelle de la cathédrale Saint-Lambert de Liège.

Bach wrote his passion-oratorio during the first year of his assumption of duties in Leipzig. The city fathers were rather strict in their Lutheranism, and forbade anything that remotely smacked of the newly-found opera craze that was infecting the country at the time, and seeped into the passion music of such luminaries like Telemann. As a result Bach was constrained, if such a word can be used, to employing the gospel only as the source of his libretto. Because of this the St. John Passion has perhaps the greatest text of any passion ever written, and Bach was determined to make the piece worthy of the scriptures he was setting.

There is no shortage of performances of the two Bach cantatas on this release by the Ricercar Consort and the Collegium Vocale Gent, under the direction of gambist Philippe Perlot. They are two of the most imposing among Bach's examples of the form, with two large sections, a variety of movement types and elaborate orchestration, and Bach strove to impress with both. Good readings are available in cycles by conductors John Eliot Gardiner, Masaaki Suzuki, and others, but there's a lot to be said for Perlot's approach, which has been developed over a deliberate set of recordings of cantatas that have something to say to each other.

Spanish countertenor Carlos Mena is not one of those who evoke the powerful castrati who might have sung these sacred arias in Vivaldi's day; his voice is smooth and precise, with a tendency toward emotional restraint. This isn't blood-and-guts Vivaldi, but it's quite lovely. Even the final Nisi dominus, RV 608, with its virtuoso arias and sharp contrasts, is kept under control at all times rather than being treated as a set of operatic numbers. Mena is technically flawless in this work (listen to the rather chilling long notes in the "Cum dederit dilectis," track 22), which stands somewhat apart from the rest of the program – the intent is to close the proceedings with a burst of energy after two sad pieces that offer refined tragedy in Mena's readings.

…in the Stabat mater… Nuria Rial's clean-toned singing in 'Vidit suum' has impressive control, clarity and profound expression. The two voices blend effectively in 'Quis est homo'. Some aspects are superbly judged: several ritornelli are perfectly weighted and the Ricercar Consort play with sensual warmth - a sensation encouraged by a larger body of strings than is used in some performances.