From the Imperial Court: Music for the House of Hapsburg
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Label: Harmonia Mundi
Cat No: HMU807595
Format: Hybrid SACD
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 15th September 2014
Contents
Works
Carole magnus erasAndreas Christi famulus
Mille regretz
Magnificat primi toni
Mille regretz
Virgo prudentissima
Versa est in luctum
Jubilate Deo
Absalon fili mi
Quis dabit oculis
Loquebantur variis linguis
Artists
Stile AnticoAbout
One of Europe’s most extraordinary ruling dynasties, the Hapsburgs, ruled greater or lesser portions of Europe from the 11th century until 1918, their heyday coinciding with the supreme musical flourishing of the 16th century. Their rule saw a particular increase during the reign of Maximilian I, secured first by his marriage to Mary of Burgundy in 1477 and then by the union of their son Philip ‘the Handsome’ with Joanna ‘the Mad’ of Castille.
Thus his grandson Charles V essentially ruled Spain, Germany, Austria, Burgundy and the Low Countries, before he in turn divided his territories between his son Philip II and his brother Ferdinand of Austria in 1555-6. As these successive generations enlarged their power and territory, they gathered around themselves the leading composers of the day.
Stile Antico present music closely associated with Maximilian I, Charles V and Philip II in this programme of sumptuous works by Thomas Tallis and the finest Spanish and Flemish polyphonists of the 15th & 16th centuries.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Morales - Jubilate Deo
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2Crecquillon - Andreas Christi famulus
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3Tallis - Loquebantur variis linguis
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4Despres - Mille regretz
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5Senfl - Quis dabit oculis
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6Gombert - Magnificat primi toni
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7de la Rue - Absalon fili mi
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8Gombert - Mille regretz
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9non Papa - Carole magnus eras
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10Lobo - Versa est in luctum
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11Isaac - Virgo prudentissima
Europadisc Review
It opens with a sumptuous performance of Jubilate Deo, a six-voice motet by Spanish composer Cristóbal de Morales written to celebrate the peace treaty of 1538 between Charles V and Francis I, King of France. It’s an extraordinary work, in which the counterpoint is woven around successive repetitions of the plainsong incipit Gaudeamus in the first tenor part. This is followed by Thomas Crecquillon’s festive eight-voice motet Andreas Christe famulus, probably written for a meeting of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1546. One could perhaps imagine a performance that made more of the music’s bold harmonic clashes, but not a more lovingly sung one, with the upper voices radiant yet superbly controlled.
The connection between the Hapsburgs and Thomas Tallis’s seven-voice Loquebantur variis linguis is more tenuous, but it may have been designed for a joint performance by Mary I’s Chapel Royal and the Flemish Capilla Flamenca of her Spanish husband, Philip II. If so, the text – ostensibly about the speaking ‘in different tongues’ of the apostles as they received the Holy Spirit – could also allude to the linguistic divide among the choristers. Happily there are no such disjunctions here: the performance is as beautifully blended as it is buoyant.
Josquin Desprez’s famous four-voice chanson Mille regretz is included as it was said to be one of Charles V’s favourite songs: here it provides an intimate point of repose in the programme. Nicolas Gombert’s six-voice expansion of the same chanson is also included, Gombert being a singer with the Capilla Flamenca. The inclusion of the mournful four-part motet Quis dabit oculis is more problematic. It is attributed in the liner notes to the Swiss-born composer Ludwig Senfl, as a lament on the passing of Maximilian I in 1519; in fact, it was written five years earlier by the Italian Costanzo Festa, on the death of Anne of Brittany, Queen of France, and is thus unconnected with the Hapsburgs.
Gombert’s Magnificat primi toni, with its alternation of plainchant and polyphony, and its carefully varied textures (with sections in three, four, five and six parts) is a joy from start to finish, stunningly performed.
Another motet of mourning, the exquisitely crafted four-voice Absalon fili mi, is variously attributed to Josquin or the Flemish composer Pierre de La Rue. It may have been composed on the early death in 1506 of Maximilian’s son, Philip ‘the Handsome’; if so, he could hardly have been paid a more heartfelt tribute, and it’s meltingly sung here.
Jacob Clemens’s Carole magnus eras is a joyful and fulsome paean to Charles V himself, probably dating from 1549, while Alonso Lobos’s sublime Versa est in luctum returns to a funerary theme, this time marking the death of Charles’s son Philip II in 1598. The final item is the most expansive and one of the earliest: Heinrich Isaac’s Virgo prudentissima, written in 1507 for the Reichstag which confirmed Maximilian as Holy Roman Emperor. With contrasting sections of virtuosic polyphony and imposing block chords, it provides a majestic yet sensitively shaped conclusion to a splendidly recorded and beautifully presented disc.
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