Viol Consort

William Byrd (c.1540–1623) was an English composer who wrote in every genre prevalent in his day and displayed proficiency in each musical category he attempted. Whether it was sacred or secular vocal music, his consort writing for viols, or his music for the keyboard, Byrd was a supreme musical architect. His writing reached the height of musical sophistication in England during his lifetime.

VA - Consort music & Airs for flute - S. Sempé, Capriccio Stravagante
Renaissance/Baroque | Easy CD-DA, APE, Cue | No Log | 1 CD, covers | 419 MB | RS
Paradizo PA0001 | 2006

Harpsichordist and musicologist Skip Sempé leads the ensemble Capriccio Stravagante in an eclectic selection of late Renaissance and early Baroque dances and songs mostly from England and Germany. Sempé has selected an attractive variety of pieces, ranging from soulful pavans to animated galliards. The ensemble plays with exemplary crispness, brightness, and warmth.

Schola Cantorum Nürnberg - Maria Magdalena. Renaissancemusik aus Nürnberger Handschriften (2016) [Digital Download 16-44.1] {Spektral}
Official Digital Download 16-44.1 (qobuz.com) | FLAC (tracks) -> 343 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 166 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Spektral | SRL4-15146
Classical / Renaissance / Early Music

The Egidien Choir Books are an outstanding testimony to the high-quality church music with an international outlook, as it was performed in Nuremberg’s churches in the 16th century. This recording focuses on a diverse and richly instrumented selection of works as performed during the Easter liturgy in St-Egidien Church. Intense samples and four days recording are now behind us. It was a wonderful collaboration with the Basel ensemble I Fedeli, the Lute Consort with Thomas Boysen and a viol consort. The Schola Cantorum and the Nuremberg Egidien Chor Nürnberg were highly concentrated and at its best!

William Byrd (c.1540–1623) was an English composer who wrote in every genre prevalent in his day and displayed proficiency in each musical category he attempted. Whether it was sacred or secular vocal music, his consort writing for viols, or his music for the keyboard, Byrd was a supreme musical architect. His writing reached the height of musical sophistication in England during his lifetime.

This remarkable recording marks the first relationship on disc between an ensemble and the label Opus Arte, until now known for DVDs of live opera, ballet and theatre. Its new partnership with the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, one of Britain's oldest and finest choral institutions, begins with Buxtehude's sublimely tender 1680 meditation on the crucified Christ, Membra Jesu Nostri. In the future, we are promised works by the glorious John Sheppard, a 16th-centuryinformator choristarum at the college, and contemporary pieces from Matthew Martin, a former Magdalen scholar recently given a British Composer award.

In 1601, English composer Thomas Morley published a volume of madrigals called The Triumphs of Oriana. The music was intended to honor the aging Queen Elizabeth I, referred to as Oriana for reasons about which historians disagree (one version of the story is given in the detailed and informative notes by Thomas Elias). Each madrigal concluded with some variant of the couplet "Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana/Long live fair Oriana," allowing the composer (there were 23 different ones for the 25 pieces) to strut his polyphonic stuff at the end of the song.

The much-recorded set of seven Pietistic cantatas Fanfare 12:5) and the other (Weckmann’s) by Max van Egmond (16:4). In addition to the 17 versions of the main work listed earlier (31:5), Jörg Breiding has recently led a new version which, like this one, has generous fillers. The present version uses one voice to a part along with the Purcell Quartet (violins and organ) and Fretwork (a viol consort), almost exactly the makeup of the favored version under Harry Christophers (34:1). The new version is five minutes longer than that one, not counting the fillers, but neither one approaches the extremes of fast and slow that were noted in the earlier survey.