Capella de la Torre / Katharina Bäuml EARTH MUSIC

TALES OF SILVER, GOLD AND SUBTERRANEAN SECRETS

 

Capella de la Torre / Katharina Bäuml UNA SERATA VENEXIANA

A native of Munich, Katharina Bäuml studied modern oboe, and baroque oboe and historical reed instruments, finishing both degrees with honors.  Since then she has specialized in myriad areas of early music, but her particular interest has been in wind music of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries.  This interest led her, in 2005, to found the ensemble "Capella de la Torre," which has become the most important German ensemble for Renaissance music.  The group has produced twenty CDs, and since 2013 has recorded exclusively for Sony. In 2016 Katharine Bäuml won the ECHO Klassik award with Capella de la Torre for their CD "Water Music".  In addition to early music, her interests include contemporary music played on historical instruments, leading to numerous commissions for her ensemble "Duo Mixtura," which have been performed at such prestigious festivals as the Berlin "Ultraschall" festival, among others. 

Featuring the rarely heard music of the transition from Renaissance to Baroque, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi brings you Una Serata Venexiana (An Evening in Venice). Capella de la Torre, headed by Katharina Bäuml, received the Echo Klassik Award as “Ensemble of the Year” in 2016. This acclaimed group of musicians now spirits listeners away to 16th-century Venice, one of the most important and innovative musical capitals of its day.

Jeanette Köhn / Capella de la Torre NEW EYES ON MARTIN LUTHER

In “New Eyes on Martin Luther” the ensembles have focused on the similarities instead of the differences, and have scrupulously avoided attempts at parody or postmodern extravagance.

Everyone is just doing what they’re best at, and with the open tonality of the renaissance music, they have found the perfect meeting place and playground for it. Swedish soprano Jeanette Köhn together with a small ensemble (Johan Norberg guitar, Magnus Lindgren, flute and clarinet, Eva Kruse, bass) fronted by Nils Landgren, recorded their album “New Eyes On Baroque” with Swedish Radio Choir under the baton of Gustaf Sjökvist (2013) released on ACT: “… how well the timbres of soprano saxophone, trombone and guitar suit the original melodies. The effect in Handel's ’Gia nel seno’ and Purcell's ’When I Am Laid in Earth’ is gorgeous” (The Observer, GB). ”A strong direct quality about the music which is distinctly Nordic in character…a superb piece of music making on the part of all involved” (Euan Dixon, Jazzviews).

Jeanette Köhn is one of Sweden's most versatile sopranos. She has been an established concert- and oratorio- singer for a long time with engagements all over the world. Jeanette Köhn was soloist at the Royal Wedding of H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria with Mr Daniel Westling on the 19th of June in Stockholm. She is also a member of Nils Landgren's highly coveted and successful touring ensemble "Christmas With My Friends”.

Nils Landgren has one of the leading profiles on the European jazz scene, easy recognizable with his red trombone and tasteful tenor voice. With “Funk Unit”, the Swede gives full rein to his grooving side, whereas the highly sentimental Nils Landgren can be seen during Advent with his ensemble “Christmas With My Friends”. When looking for a new challenge he decided to see if it was possible to combine baroque music with Swedish traditional music and jazz.

After the success of the first album “New eyes on Baroque” it was an easy choice to dig even deeper into the history of classical music. In 2016 there was an opportunity to perform a concert with the Capella de la Torre and Knabenchor Hannover conducted by Jörg Breiding at the 500th anniversary of the reformation, an event at NDR's Funkhaus in Hannover.

Capella de la Torre have specialized in historical performance practice with a repertoire of mediaeval and renaissance music. Their instruments are similarly old, from shawms, slide trumpets and sackbut to lute, cow horn and percussion. In 2016 their critically acclaimed album “Water Music – Tales of Nymphs and Sirens” won an ECHO Klassik award in the best recording ensemble/orchestra category.

Jörg Breiding took over as conductor of the Knabenchor Hannover in 2002. Together they have made several recordings and in 2003 released a new CD with Georg Friedrich Handel’s “Messiah” with “Barockorchester L’Arco”. In 2006 the Knabenchor Hannover was awarded “ECHO Klassik” in the category “Choral Work Recording of the Year”

”New Eyes on Martin Luther” is an experiment based on Nils Landgren's relentless conviction that “music is music” and “nothing is impossible”. With those words serving as a motto, the three ensembles just dived into the music without pre-conceptions. The traditional German folksong “Die Gedanken sind frei” is here performed with a percussive flute solo, and Landgren’s smooth voice on top of a funky rhythm. Sometimes he joins Capella de la Torre with a trombone solo and when all musicians play together it sounds as if the music was originally written with this in mind. It moves seamlessly between genres and what you can hear is the sound of really skilled musicians together - and just having fun.

Vocal Concert Dresden / Capella de la Torre / Peter Kopp JOHANNES ECCARD Preussische Festlieder

The CD cover is actually a little misleading. As well as the Leonardo portrait often said to be of a musician the only composer listed is Johannes Eccard, whereas four of the tracks are devoted to his pupil Johannes Stobaeus. Stobaeus, a generation older, was a new name for me. He was responsible for the publication of sixty-one hymns and ‘Festal songs’ some thirty and more years after his master’s death. His style is often more ornate, more reminiscent of Gabrieli especially in its instrumental ornamentation. This however is never over-intrusive. Listen to Gott einen hellen Wunderstern written, somewhat improbably, for the ‘Thanksgiving of the Augsburg Confession’ in 1630. 

I must also confess, because I am, what my son calls, a little sad, to have been wondering about Eccard. He was a pupil of Lassus by the way. I wondered whether any of his music would materialise during this, the quincentenary of his death - actually in January 2011. So at last some recognition has been made and in delightful and thoughtful performances. 

The publication referred to above was Preussische Festlieder. It appeared in both 1642 and 1661 and comprises 61 hymns in five, six, seven or eight parts. These are arranged in accordance with the church year. Peter Kapp’s choice reflects just that, beginning on the first Sunday in Advent ( Lift up your heads you mighty gates) through Christmas, Epiphany, via Easter to Pentecost. Also included is Eccard's’ ‘ Gott einen hellen Windertern’ (God long ago lit a bright miraculous star) written for a thanksgiving on the centenary of the Augsburg Confession in 1630. Consequently these pieces encompass a wide range of moods. These range from the joyous Easter hymn ( Zu dieser osterlichen) contrasting with the sombre, and lengthy, rather archaic and motet-like Mein Sund mich kränkt written for Holy week and Freu dich, du wertr Christenhalt a warm and yet thoughtful hymn for the Annunciation.
For UK singers, the four strophes of Maria, das Jungfräulein will be best known as it is often wheeled out at Evensong around 2 February for the Feast of the Purification Candle Mass. It is known as ‘When to the temple Mary went’. It is typical of his style of restraint, dignity and concision.
Another attractive aspect of the performances can be heard in the Ascension hymn Freut euch, ihr Christen alle. There are just two verses but in between there is an instrumental episode with discreet ornamentation in the cornetto part. In addition the first verse is sung by unison female voices and the second by unison male. As one works through the CD there is therefore a wide variety in colour, tempo and instrumentation. Der Zacharias ganz verstummt, a hymn for the feast of St. John the Baptist, has four verses with no change of instrumentation or dynamic. This which might grate on you after a while but one must remember that this is primarily liturgical music. The next track begins with wind only before the voices emerge.
The essay in the booklet has been translated in a somewhat odd fashion but the beautiful texts are attractively done. It seems that they were written by Paul Gerhard but adapted by Carl von Winterfled in the 1840s. It was he who rediscovered Eccard, calling him the ‘Protestant Palestrina’. 

Don’t get thinking that these hymns are boringly foursquare and consistently homophonic. True, the melodies are simple and folk-like. True, last lines are often repeated like the choruses of a Victorian Moody & Sankey hymn but some of these are quite memorable. An example is the catchy declamation of ‘Das sei ja, das sei jah’ in the Whitsuntide hymn ‘ Der helig geist vom Himmel hoch’. So these pieces are ‘music’ and although suitable for congregational use can be enjoyed in these more sophisticated versions.
The instrumental contributions are is not just for choral support. They vary a little from piece to piece and often function as instrumental verses. Sometimes instruments will accompany a single voice on the lower or surrounding parts.
Although I am struggling to think of Eccard as a Palestrina-clone these pieces do have a spirituality of their own which can be quite captivating in small doses. This is not a reflection on the performers. They evidently understand the style, have ideal intonation and clear diction with immaculate instrumental support.
For its period and for its aims the music works well. (Gary Higginson, MusicWeb International)

Markus Becker / Michel Godard / Capella de la Torre / Katharina Bäuml RENAISSANCE GOES JAZZ

Renaissance ensemble Capella de la Torre on the one side, tuba player and composer Michel Godard and pianist Markus Becker on the other, combine jazz with the alien distance of the renaissance instruments by letting the past and the present meet and collide. They give worlds of differing memories a new form and let the heterogeneous become something new and homogenous. A co-production with NDR 1.

 "With the Renaissance ensemble Capella de la Torre on one side, and tuba player/composer Michel Godard and pianist Markus Becker on the other, jazz collides with an alien universe of renaissance instruments. The result in this live recording is entirely unexpected and brilliant, capturing the flavor and zest of the Renaissance's addictive mix of old and ancient instruments, providing an elusive, ingenious musical experience that refuses to be generalized." (Huffington Post)

Capella de la Torre / Katharina Bäuml VINUM ET MUSICA

What you get on this release by veteran countertenor Dominique Visse and the Capella de la Torre is something less accessible than what is suggested by the Vinum et Musica title but more accessible than the pedantic subtitle "Songs & dances from Nuremberg sources (15th & 16th century)." The collection of pieces here is a sort of tour of the city of Nuremberg, an important German city in Renaissance times but not one that was home to its own compositional school. Indeed, its influence seems to have been reflected instead in the diverse musical tastes of its residents, who imported music from far and wide. Each of the four categories of the program --"The Emperor's Castle," "The Principal Churches," "The Feast," and "Humanism" -- contains not only German music but that from Italy, France, or the Low Countries. The last of these rests merely on the premise that the four works were part of a songbook compiled by a noted Nuremberg citizen with broadly humanist interests, and it doesn't quite wrap up the whole package. But as a whole the album shows in a unique way how Renaissance styles were refracted through different performance contexts. The Capella de la Torre, with multiple shawms, cornetts, dulcians, and recorders, plus sackbut and organ, can handle anything from the imposing anonymous Fanfare at the beginning to the folklike Ich spring an diesem Ringe (track 12) from the "Feast" section, a grab bag of several different styles. Sacred pieces were part of everyday life and appear in all four sections; mixing them so thoroughly with secular material is a rarity on recordings but probably corresponds closely to how they were actually used. Notable works include the L'homme armé setting by Robert Morton from the middle 15th century, perhaps the earliest written one in existence, and the Kaddish à 5 by Italian Jewish composer Salomone Rossi, present not because there was a synagogue in Nuremberg but because one was destroyed in a pogrom of 1352 and a church erected on the spot. Visse's voice is reedier than it once was, but in general this album is well situated to take the casual Renaissance listener deeper into the music. (James Manheim)

Capella de la Torre / Katharina Bäuml CIACONNA

Capella de la Torre is a group of musicians who have made a name for themselves as specialists in historical performance practice. The ensemble's aim is to give listeners an immediate experience of the rich and hitherto neglected repertoire of mediaeval and renaissance music by performing it to a professional standard. 

The name "de la Torre" has a double meaning. In the first place, it pays homage to the Spanish composer Francisco de la Torre, who wrote his "Danza Alta" at the beginning of the 16th century. This is probably the most famous piece for what was then known as "capella alta", an ensemble of wind instruments such as shawms, dulcians, sackbuts and cornetti. Capella de la Torre has specialized in music written for the "capella alta". Secondly, the name may be taken in a literal sense: "de la Torre" means "from the tower" and groups of wind players (Spanish: ministriles) often played on towers or balconies at festivals and other official occasions. "Torres de los Ministriles" are still to be found in many Spanish towns today. 

Capella de la Torre does not confine itself to Spanish music, however, but also plays music written throughout the rest of Europe for the "hauts instruments" or "loud instruments". In general, it tries to breathe life into the old traditions of "ministriles", "piffari" and "Stadtpfeiffer". In the music world of today there are very few ensembles centred around historical double-reed instruments. This is particularly so in Germany.