Renaissance Devotion

I. Willaert e la Scuola Fiamminga a San Marco (Cappella Marciana/La Pifarescha/Marco Germani). Concerto CD 2117.

Concerto Classics presents an exclusive recording project “Willaert e la Scuola Fiamminga a San Marco”, with music especially conceived for the exhibition “Da Tiziano a Rubens. Capolavori da Anversa e da altre Collezioni Fiamminghe” at Palazzo Ducale in Venice from 5th September 2019 to 1st March 2020. La Pifarescha was originally conceived as an alta cappella ensemble, a configuration of wind and percussion instruments that was immensely popular throughout medieval and renaissance Europe. This type of group enjoyed such widespread popularity for its unique ability to function both on its own and in supporting roles with other instrumental ensembles, vocal ensembles, and dance companies. La Pifarescha incorporates a fascinating and diverse selection of instruments. Shawms, sackbuts, cornetts, trumpets, bagpipes, dulcians, flutes, fiddles, lutes, viols, percussion, and many others, join together to alternate the sounds of “alta” with the “bassa cappella”, offering a highly variable sonority unique to this group.

World premiere recordings marked with an asterisk *

II. Treasures of Devotion: European Spiritual Song c. 1500 (The Boston Camerata/Anne Azéma). Music and Arts CD 1296.

For more information: https://bostoncamerata.org/

This collection of early Renaissance spiritual pieces (and their related secular songs) were intended not for grand cathedrals or public ceremony, but for personal meditation, private chapels and rooms, family houses and assemblies. Directly inspired by the examples of intricately carved boxwood devotional objects housed at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, these contemporaneous musical works are precise in their craftsmanship, rich in subtle details, and lead us to wonder and to contemplation.

Few things small enough to fit in the palm of the hand can inspire wonder about the limitless potential of human creativity. A collection of early Renaissance devotional objects—elegantly precise boxwood carvings of miniature rosaries, prayer beads and altarpieces, on display as part of a major international exhibition—served as the direct inspiration for this musical program.

These objects draw viewers into a private and intimate world of meditation; religious scenes carved with precision and poetry evoke a bygone world of intense spiritual devotion—sometimes tormented, sometimes luminous, but always fascinating.

The music in this program is designed to elicit similar sensations in listeners. Originating in northern European circles, contemporary with those who produced these boxwood carvings, these spiritual pieces are not intended for grand cathedrals or public ceremony, but for personal meditation, private chapels and rooms, family houses and assemblies. Like the beads and rosaries, their craftsmanship is precise, superb; rich in subtle details, they lead us to wonder, and to contemplation.

III. Cristóbal de Morales: Super Lamentationes Hieremiae Prophetae (Capella de Ministrers/Carles Magraner). CdM CD 2048.

Morales’ Lamentations were his best-known works, together with his Masses and Magnificats. This repertoire enjoyed an extraordinary international fame in Europe and the New World within the context of Pre-Tridentine and Post-Tridentine liturgy, owing principally to the fact that these works were composed to be performed in some of the most prestigious chapel choirs of the Renaissance. This recording by Capella de Ministrers recovers the interpretative con- text of this repertoire in acccordance with the musical practice of Emperor Carlos V’s Royal Chapel Choir, whereby the Lamentations were sung polyphonically with an instrumental accompaniment on violones.

From MusicaAntiqua.com: Capella de Ministrers has published Super Lamentationes, Hieremiae Prophetae by Cristóbal de Morales (Seville, 1500 - Marchena o Málaga, 1553), a disc in which he performs the renowned work of the Andalusian composer of the Spanish polyphonist school of the 16th century. This composition of the Lamentations are of extraordinary beauty, and filled with music the central days of the Passion Week (Thursday, Friday and Holy Saturday).

The recording centers around the prophecies of Jeremiah, and will be distributed in more than 28 countries around the world. It is number 60 in a benchmark historical music formation, an ensemble with a 33-year presence on the international scene. The recording includes 6 works in which Carles Magraner rediscovers this repertoire according to the musical practice of the Royal Chapel of Emperor Charles V, in which the Lamentations were sung polyphonically with instrumental accompaniment of violons or bow violins, as he presents in the notes from Professor Manuel del Sol (University of Valladolid).

Del Sol assures us that due to its musical quality, talent and sound, these works " should be considered masterpieces of the history of western music" so "the recovery of this heritage will make us understand why Cristóbal de Morales is one of the most admired composers of the Modern age, and enjoys a privileged position within the historical canon of European cultured music of the 21st century ”. The researcher also points out that Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria, among others, introduced, in the composition of their own versions of the Lamentations, “explicit polyphonic references extracted from these Super Lamentations ”.

Morales's Lamentations were, together with his masses and magnificats, the composer's best-known works and managed to be widely disseminated in Germany, France, Italy ... through prestigious publishers in cities such as Alcalá de Henares, Antwerp, Lyon, Milan, Nuremberg , Paris, Rome, Seville and Venice, among others. The Sevillian musician was the master of the Chapel of the Cathedral of Ávila, the Cathedral of Toledo and Malaga.