Scumann Missa Sacra

This recording project – the culmination of a research work that started out in 2020 – follows the released record of the third book of madrigals (Tactus, TC531601, 2021) by the same author, which was the result of the first collaboration between conductor Elia Orlando, ensemble Tuscae Voces – that he conducts – and record label Tactus. It is safe to say that the outcomes confirm how the musical landscape in Renaissance Prato deserves way more attention than it has drawn so far, and that Biagio Pesciolini – besides being closely connected to the Florentine court – was an author whose vision went beyond the city walls of Prato. Although praised by peers Ludovico Zacconi and Antonio Brunelli for his mastery of those techniques that belong to Flemish-origin ars musica, he skilfully took on both “orthogonal” writing for double choir and winding compositions for five and six voices, which proves that Biagio Pesciolini was indeed open and receptive to the different tendencies of Italy’s most important musical centres.

This is an enterprising programme of late-renaissance music selected from the choirbooks of the Hardenrath (otherwise known as Salvator) Chapel in Cologne. Three Flemish polyphonic masters are represented: Lassus, Philippe de Monte and Jean de Castro, the latter a composer I had not known until now.

Mazarin managed to sign the Treaty of Paris which validates the future Peace of the Pyrenees, and therefore the marriage of Louis XIV with the Infanta of Spain in 1660. In the context of these celebrations, the French ambassador in Venice commissions a mass from Cavalli, the greatest composer of his time. He thus composed this sumptuous Missa, performed in January 1660 in the Basilica of San Giovanni e Paulo and brought together the best voices and most famous musicians around viols, violins, cornets and trumpets in a spatialisation in the Venetian manner. In this recording, Benjamin Chénier takes on this chef d'oeuvre which celebrates France and Louis XIV with brilliant soloists and a strategy of spatialisation in the Royal Chapel which recreates the splendid sound of 1660.

This 10 CD-Set offers a collection of the most popular Mass compositions from the Viennese Classics up to the romantic period. It includes famous masterpieces like Mozart’s „Coronation Mass“, Beethoven Missa solemnis, Haydn „Harmony Mass“, Gounod St. Cecilia Mass but also rarities like „Missa Sancti Joannis Nepomuceni“ by Michael Haydn, the „Coronation Mass“ by Cherubini, „Missa sacra“ by Robert Schumann and the „Misa solemnis“ of the german romantic composer Friedrich Kiel. Performed by well known artists like the Vienna Boys’ Choir, RIAS Chamber Choir, Tölzer Boys’ Choir, Wiener Akademie and last but not least also includes the spectacular recording of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with conductor Michael Gielen.

Mazarin managed to sign the Treaty of Paris which validates the future Peace of the Pyrenees, and therefore the marriage of Louis XIV with the Infanta of Spain in 1660. In the context of these celebrations, the French ambassador in Venice, commissions a mass from Cavalli the greatest composer of his time. He thus composed this sumptuous Missa performed in January 1660 in the Basilica of San Giovanni e Paolo and brought together the best voices and most famous musicians around viols, violins, cornets and trumpets in a spatialization in the Venetian custom. In this recording, Benjamin Chénier takes on this chef doeuvre which celebrates France and Louis XIV with brilliant soloists and a strategy of spatialization in the Royal Chapel which recreates the splendid sound of 1660.

Born in Bohemia in 1656 Fischer’s early musical educative experiences seem to have been lost. He was at the Piarist College in Schlackenwerth and clearly travelled. But our next substantive detail is that by 1690 he was court conductor at Sachsen-Lauenburg. The complexities of the marriages, regencies and instabilities of late seventeenth century nobility are briefly alluded to in the notes but what matters, as far as Fischer is concerned, is that the bulk of his printed compositions date from the years 1690-1715.

Per celebrare il quinto centenario della morte di Leonardo da Vinci, il genio italiano che nel suo Trattato della pittura scrisse «La musica non è da essere chiamata altro che sorella della pittura», la Elegia Classics è orgogliosa di presentare un disco interamente dedicato a Franchinus Gaffurius, compositore lodigiano oggi quasi dimenticato, ma che ebbe lo straordinario onore di venire ritratto da Leonardo. Il programma è imperniato intorno alla Missa De Carnaval, una delle sue opere più significative, composta per l’ultima domenica prima della quaresima del rito ambrosiano, alla quale fanno corona alcuni mottetti di suggestiva bellezza, che tratteggiano un affascinante spaccato del panorama musicale negli ultimi anni del XV secolo.

Per celebrare il quinto centenario della morte di Leonardo da Vinci, il genio italiano che nel suo Trattato della pittura scrisse «La musica non è da essere chiamata altro che sorella della pittura», la Elegia Classics è orgogliosa di presentare un disco interamente dedicato a Franchinus Gaffurius, compositore lodigiano oggi quasi dimenticato, ma che ebbe lo straordinario onore di venire ritratto da Leonardo. Il programma è imperniato intorno alla Missa De Carnaval, una delle sue opere più significative, composta per l’ultima domenica prima della quaresima del rito ambrosiano, alla quale fanno corona alcuni mottetti di suggestiva bellezza, che tratteggiano un affascinante spaccato del panorama musicale negli ultimi anni del XV secolo.