Chœur de Chambre de Namur / Millenium Orchestra / Leonardo García Alarcón GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Samson

SAMSON

Bor Zuljan DOWLAND A Fancy

A FANCY

L'Amoroso / Guido Balestracci A SCHUBERTIADE WITH ARPEGGIONE

                                            A SCHUBERTIADE WITH ARPEGGIONE

Alice Foccroulle, Reinoud Van Mechelen, InAlto, Lambert Colson TEATRO SPIRITUALE (ROME, C. 1610)

This recording transports us to Rome’s Chiesa Nuova, the Oratory Church where in 1600 the premiere took place of the first spiritual opera, La Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo by Cavalieri. That pioneering spirit has inspired this programme devised by InAlto. Among the manuscripts in the church’s library is an anonymous source, probably dating from the very beginning of the 17th century, containing a complete cycle of settings of those seven psalms that ever since the time of Saint Augustine have been called the ‘Penitenial Psalms’. This Roman score is absolutely unique of its kind, being monodic, and composed in the early operatic melodic narrative style of recitar cantando. InAlto presents here a completely original approach, one that puts this early 17th-century repertoire in its context by recreating, in the tradition of the Oratorian spiritual exercises, an imaginary ritual that might unfold in the days preceding Holy Week, one in which each of the penitential psalms takes on its full meaning; while the extraordinary musical dissonances encoded in this manuscript are guaranteed to shock the listener...

Yoann Moulin CANTILENA ANGLICA FORTUNAE

For his first recording with Ricercar, and as a prelude to an anthology of German Baroque harpsichord music, Yoann Moulin tackles works by two of Sweelinck’s most illustrious disciples. The preludes, chorales, fugues, dances and arias with variations of this repertory offer great diversity and enable us to grasp the personalities of the two composers, the introverted Scheidt and the more flamboyant and Baroque Scheidemann.

Cappella Mediterranea / Doulce Mémoire / Choeur de Chambre de Namur JACQUES ARCADELT Madrigali - Chansons - Motetti

Although named in every history of music as an important composer and as one of the creators of the Italian madrigal, principally known for the madrigal Il bianco e dolce cigno and even more so by an incorrectly attributed Ave Maria that amateur choirs have been performing since the Romantic period, Jacques Arcadelt has not yet gained the position that he deserves in the musical world of today. He was in the service of the Medici, the papacy and the kings of France; he could hardly have had a more impressive career. The recording sessions for this set created a real emotional shock on several occasions: we were convinced that Jacques Arcadelt was a true genius and it was easy to understand why his contemporaries regarded him as truly exceptional.

Mariana Flores / Cappella Mediterranea / Leonardo García Alarcón CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Lettera Amorosa

After the success of their album of music by Francesco Cavalli, the same performers now return in a programme devoted entirely to works a voce sola by Claudio Monteverdi, from the famous Lamento d’Arianna to the sublime (and much less well-known) Voglio da vita uscir. Mariana Flores embodies here the most touching personalities of this section of Monteverdi’s output.

Ensemble Mare Nostrum / Andrea De Carlo LE CONCERT DES VIOLES

Whilst Italian composers had taken up the ‘modern' form of the sonata and adapted it to the violin at the beginning of the 17th century, French composers remained faithful to the principles of polyphonic music with their fantaisies that were still intended for ensembles of viols; the role of the violin in France at that time was still limited to providing music for dancing. Such knowledge of polyphony was demanded not only from composers of vocal music but also from organists, one of whom was Louis Couperin and who was also dessus de viole de la chambre du Roi. Our recording comes to a fitting conclusion with the last French work to be written for ensemble of viols: Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Concert à quatre parties de violes.

Scherzi Musicali / Nicolas Achten ANTONIO BERTALI La Maddalena (reupload)

Through the combination of sacred and profane that she embodies, the profoundly human personality of Mary Magdalene greatly inspired artists of the Baroque era, whether painters, poets or composers. It was in the sphere of influence of Italian oratorios, highly prized at the court of Vienna, that Antonio Bertali devoted a most moving sepolcro to her in 1663, a genre traditionally played during Holy Week. In 1617, in Mantua, it was in the form of theatrical interludes that she was honoured by court composers such as Salomone Rossi, Muzio Effrem and Claudio Monteverdi, who wrote the prologue for this other Maddalena.