Emily D’Angelo ENARGEIA

 

ENARGEIA

The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park FADING

 

FADING

 

Gyða Valtýsdóttir EPICYCLE

EPICYCLE

The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park FADING

                                                                          FADING

Taracea AKOÉ

                                                                          AKOÉ

Ars Chroralis Coeln / Maria Jonas HILDEGARD VON BINGEN Ordo Virtutum

Hildegard of Bingen's (1098-1179) visionary works and chants demonstrate an artistic synthesis the likes of which cannot be rivaled. Hildegard's ORDO VIRTUTUM is the earliest extant mystery play to survive in written form in Europe. Even today, Hildegard's love of giving artistic form to her ideas, as well as creating dramatic productions, is impressive -- like when she lets the Virtutes (the virtues), Anima (the soul), and the Diabolus (the devil) perform and sing: Hildegard's vision of a sounding divine order.

With our recording, we would like to document some of the characteristic features of our interpretation of ORDO VIRTUTUM, features which we have developed over many years of intense work in the field of medieval music:
- Lucia Mense (recorder and traverse flute) mimes the role of the devil, while improvising suitable music in both a medieval as well as contemporary manner.
- The devil speaks through Anima, the soul. Cora Schmeiser, an outstanding singer and performer, plays this double role.
- We are the first ensemble to utilize the concept of absolute pitch levels when singing ORDO VIRTUTUM: In the twelfth century, the notation of pitch was a rather new and innovative practice. The musical staff had just recently been invented. The only chromatic tone which could be notated within this system was b-flat. This led to a notated practice of relative pitch levels, which did not reflect the actual sounding tones. Through intense research, the director of the ensemble, Maria Jonas, was able to create a transcription which comes at least close to corresponding to the sound at that time. Therefore, in our recording, several songs from the ORDO will be heard for the first time as they may have sounded in Hildegard's time.

Discantus / Brigitte Lesne VON BINGEN Hortus Deliciarum

‘Hortus deliciarum’ is truly a garden of delights, a recital of mainly 12th-century pieces, planned by Marie-Noël Colette and Brigitte Lesne and performed unaccompanied by Discantus. Some of the pieces come from a transcription made in 1818 of Herrad of Landsberg’s wonderful manuscript of that name, sadly destroyed in 1870. Others come from various manuscript sources, including Hildegard von Bingen’s Symphonia Harmoniœ cœlestium revelationum. 

The programme revolves chiefly around the Christmas season, with Mary the Mother of Jesus as the central figure. It begins with five stanzas from Sedulius’s wonderful alphabetical poem, A solis ortus cardine, starting at the letter E, ‘Enixa est puerperal’. We hear a few examples of traditional chants, including pieces of the Proper: the gradual Dilexisti, from the Common of Virgins, and the Offertory Offerentur regi virgines in a particularly beautiful and highly ornamental version. The singers have their own way of interpreting the rhythm of the early notation, and the overall impression of constant flow which they achieve is impressive. Other pieces include several troped items from the Ordinary.

The unison singing is quite remarkable for its clarity and smoothness. The singers have discovered, too, how to manage repercussions, subtly but entirely convincingly. The ordering of the recital, with its frequent use of First Mode pieces juxtaposed, and its judicious groupings, is successful and never monotonous. The listener is left with a good sense of how sacred music was developing in the 12th century by leaps and bounds in so many directions, even to the extent of cantillated readings being occasionally sung in three parts. (Gramophone)

Elin Manahan Thomas ETERNAL LIGHT

The Welsh soprano won a choral scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge where she read Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. Thomas joined the Monteverdi Choir in 2000 and has sung with The Sixteen, Polyphony, Cambridge Singers and the Gabrieli Consort. Increasingly she is in great demand as an international soloist. Thomas has specialised in performing early music especially with the choral group The Sixteen. Her release titled Eternal Light on Universal covers music from the Renaissance and the Baroque period. The release titled Byd Y Soprano - Soprano World comprises mainly music from the Romantic period with some Classical and a Baroque piece. Late-Romantic music is not repertoire that one usually associates with Thomas in solo performance. It is not surprising that this highly talented singer will want to show her versatility by singing a wide range of repertoire. This stance will naturally invite comparisons with the finest singers in world. I cannot think of a finer exponent of early music around today than Thomas. Her soprano voice has an exceptional purity, with a silky smooth tone and light creamy fluidity. The voice isn’t heavy but neither is it over-bright and piercing. When listening to The Sixteen I was easily able to distinguish her voice owing to its clarity and carry yet I wouldn’t describe it as being over-distinctive. On the disc Eternal Light Thomas’s performance was a revelation, revealing a glorious voice of elevated quality which wonderfully suited to Renaissance and Baroque music. I believe it to be superior to Emma Kirkby in her prime. Of the sixteen well chosen tracks not one disappoints. In addition there are two ‘killer’ tracks that are so exceptional, containing a special element of spirituality that one rarely encounters. Those ‘killer’ tracks are Eternal Source of Light Divine and When I am laid in earth (Dido's Lament) from Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. Eternal Light is worth obtaining for those two tracks alone. I have played selections from this release at several Recorded Music Societies and Thomas’s performances have drawn considerable attention.(Michael Cookson)