Adriano 6

NOTE: All of the music on this program comes from the Ensemble Dionysos Now! directed by Tore Tom Denys. It is on Evil Penguin label and is available as a vinyl disc at number EPRC 0060.

For more information on the ensemble:

www.dionysosnow.com/en/home

The album Adriano 6 by Dionysos Now! pays tribute to Adriaen Willaert (1490–1562). The centerpiece of this recording is the Missa Laudate Deum, a so-called parody mass based on Johannes Mouton’s motet of the same name. This remarkable mass showcases Willaert’s masterful command of polyphony and serves as an homage to his mentor. The Missa Laudate Deum comes from the rare Liber quinque missarum (1536), a collection of five masses where Willaert demonstrates his refined continuation of the Parisian School. By integrating Mouton’s hymn of praise with his own innovations, Willaert created a masterpiece that remains a milestone in the history of mass composition.

In addition to the mass, the album features a selection of Willaert’s madrigals and motets. Works like Qual dolcezza gamai and Amor mi fa morire reveal his ability to merge expressive text with intricate music. Inspired by poets such as Dragonetto Bonifacio, these dramatic madrigals highlight Willaert’s sensitivity to text interpretation and his contribution to new musical forms. Motets like Videns Dominus and Ecce Dominus veniet stand out for their profound emotion and technical brilliance.

Dionysos Now! would like to show you that vocal polyphony of the Renaissance is very captivating music, and deserves to be heard by a wider audience.

Dionysos Now! wants to create cathedrals from sounds, in which you perceive the music as if you were flattering the cathedrals with a drone from far above. The brick stones are overall but they seem to merge into the whole, into the 'gestalt', where the radiant music generates much more effervescent energy than the sum of the tones, the contagious flow in the music is sought and captured, like a surfer who seems to have found the perfect wave and seizes his chance to float on it before it goes away again.

With the wise words of Winston Churchill in mind "Never waste a good crisis", Tore Denys started studying the scores of his fellow townsman Adriaen Willaert during the lockdown and so he rediscovered the wonderful music of this Venetian chapel master over the past few months. A new initiative was born: Dionysos Now! Vienna is a brand new project that aims to spread the magnificent heritage of Adriaen Willaert. With Dionysos Now!, Denys would like to demonstrate that Renaissance vocal polyphony is very captivating music that deserves to be appreciated by a wider audience.