Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope by Cappella Pratensis & Joshua Rifkin

Various composers

Cappella Pratensis & Joshua Rifkin

Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope

Price: € 14.95
Format: SACD hybrid
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917236620
Catnr: CC 72366
Release date: 29 October 2010
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917236620

Catalogue number
CC 72366

Release date
29 October 2010

"These are excellent interpretations, the sound of cappella catches with transparency, in spite of the tight compositions for eight voices."

Toccata

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Godiamo ci il Papato, poichè Dio ci l’ha dato. ‘Let us enjoy the papacy, since God has given it to us’ – thus, according to a contemporary report, Giovanni de’ Medici, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, on becoming pope in March 1513. Enjoy it he did. In the eight years of his reign, Leo X, as Giovanni now became known, lived extravagantly, holding banquet after banquet, hunt after hunt, and sometimes parading a white elephant through Rome. His costly enthusiasms extracted their price, of course; within two years of taking the throne, he had turned a handsome surplus left him by his predecessor into a deficit, and before long he had to raise funds by such dubious tricks as selling indulgences on a grand scale – provoking what would eventually become the Reformation. Yet Leo did not exhaust the papal treasury on frivolous things alone. A man of extensive humanistic learning, he supported notable scholars and poets, including Pietro Bembo; commissioned major works from Raphael; and initiated significant building projects. Above all, Leo loved music. He knew it from the inside, possessing sufficient technical knowledge to compose in five voices. He staffed the papal choir – the body responsible for music at liturgical services – with some of the most eminent singers and composers of his day, and he maintained a private body of musicians that similarly included several highly prized singers, composers, and instrumentalists.

Much of the music heard at Leo’s court has vanished. We don’t know what his lutenists performed, nor can we retrieve the improvisations of his wind players. But we have an impressive record of the sophisticated polyphony sung around him: several manuscripts and printed books produced at his court or in its immediate orbit preserve works of both his own composers and others favoured by him and his musicians. A particularly vivid image of Leo’s musical world comes from the so-called Medici Codex, a collection of 53 motets possibly meant at first for Leo’s private use but ultimately presented to his nephew Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, as Lorenzo returned with his new bride, the French princess Madeleine de la Tour d’Au-vergne, to Italy in the late summer of 1518. With the exception of the first and last pieces, all the music on this recording comes from the Medici Codex. (source: linernotes written by Joshua Rifkin)

Muziek voor Paus Leo X
Voor de opname 'Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope' heeft het koor Cappella Pratensis samengewerkt met de Amerikaanse befaamde dirigent, pianist, klavecinist en musicoloog Joshua Rifkin. Met als resultaat een geanimeerde en weloverwogen uitvoering van muziek uit de tijd van Giovanni de'Medici, indertijd aangesteld als Paus Leo X. Het is een authentieke uitvoering, vooral ook door het diepgaand onderzoek van Rifkin en het ensemble.
'De acht zangers en hun artistiek leider zijn uitstekend op elkaar afgestemd. Het is heerlijk om de verschillende stemmen te kunnen volgen en horen hoe ze in de andere overgaan of andere stemmen ondersteunen of leiden.' Ludwig van Mechelen november 2010.

Muziek speelde een grote rol in de tijd van paus Leo X (1513-521). Deze genotzuchtige paus spaarde kosten nog moeite en nam de beste zangers, componisten en instrumentalisten in dienst. Hij liet de pauselijke kapel graag en veel voor zich zingen. Om zijn lievelingsmuziek te bewaren liet paus Leo X de Medici Codex maken. Een van de mooiste overgebleven muziekverzamelingen ooit. De bundel bevat 53 zangstukken van grote componisten uit die tijd.
Met uitzondering van twee stukken, komt alle muziek op het album 'Vivat Leo! uit de Medici Codex.

Viel von der Musik, die am Hofe von Giovanni de' Medici (zum Papst gewählt im März 1513 als Leo X.) gespielt wurde, ist heute verloren. Ein besonders lebhaftes Bild von Leos musikalischer Welt findet sich aber im sogenannten Codex Medici, einer Sammlung von 53 Motetten. Mit Ausnahme des ersten und letzten Stücks stammt die Musik auf dieser CD aus dem Codex Medici. Seit mehr als 20 Jahren geht Cappella Pratensis einen eigenen Weg und testet die Grenzen einer historischen Aufführungspraxis aus, diesmal in Partnerschaft mit Joshua Rifkin, der die Musik der vorliegenden CD bestens kennt. Für die erste CD bei CHALLENGE CLASSICS erhielt Capella Pratensis mit Obrechts 'Missa di Sancto Donatiano (FL 72414) im Februar 2010 einen DIAPASON d'Or.

Artist(s)

Cappella Pratensis

Cappella Pratensis specializes in the music of Josquin Desprez (= Josqinus Pratensis) and other polyphonic composers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The ensemble performs its own programs and original interpretations, which are based on academic research. As was customary in the renaissance, the singers of Cappella Pratensis usually stand around a central music stand, singing from facsimiles of original choirbooks. This creates a unique perspective on the repertoire. The ensemble, founded in 1987, is now under the artistic direction of singer and conductor Stratton Bull. In addition to regular concerts in the Netherlands and Belgium, Cappella Pratensis performs in leading international festivals and venues in France, Portugal, Germany and the United States. The ensemble also has also released several CD...

In addition to regular concerts in the Netherlands and Belgium, Cappella Pratensis performs in leading international festivals and venues in France, Portugal, Germany and the United States. The ensemble also has also released several CD recordings which have been greeted with rave press reviews and awards, including the Diapason d’Or and the Prix Choc. From 2005 to 2007, Cappella Pratensis was ensemble-in-residence at the Fondation Royaumont (France), where it gave courses and concerts, and worked with several prominent musicians. In 2009, it released a DVD/CD production of the Missa de Sancto Donatiano by Jacob Obrecht, which contained a reconstruction of the first performance of this mass, filmed on location in Bruges, supplemented with extensive documentation. This production was awarded with a Diapason découverte and the highest rating in the professional magazine Classica.

The CD Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope (2010), directed by guest conductor Joshua Rifkin, was awarded a Diapason d’Or. A successful series of concerts of the Requiem of Pierre de la Rue was led by guest conductor Bo Holten. A DVD of one of these concerts, performed as part of the event Jheronimus Bosch 500, was released in 2010 under the title Bosch Requiem.

In January 2012 a new CD, containing the earliest surviving polyphonic requiem masses in music history, those by Johannes Ockeghem and Pierre de la Rue. In February 2014 the ensemble released a CD containing music written for the feast of the Assumption and transmitted in choirbooks from the Vatican, including Josquin Desprez’s masterpiece Missa Ave maris stella. In late 2015, the ensemble recorded the Missa Cum Jocunditate by Pierre de la Rue.
In 2016, Cappella and the Nederlands Kamerkoor performed eight concerts of the world premiere of the Missa Unitatis, composed in 2008 by Anthony Pitts (* 1969) in a unique partnership with choirs in Antwerp, Breda, ’s-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven, Tilburg and Helmond. It has also performed during the Early Music Festival in Utrecht, and presented five performances of the program Christmas with Josquin in the Season of Early Music.

Cappella Pratensis shares its vision and approach to vocal polyphony with professionals and amateurs in masterclasses, with multimedia presentations, and also in a week-long summer school that takes place annually during the festival Laus Polyphoniae in Antwerp. In a structural collaboration with the universities of Leuven and Oxford, the musical manuscripts of the workshop of Petrus Alamire are explored by musicologists and adapted for use by other musicians.

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Robert Buckland

The tenor Robert Buckland commenced singing with the Regensburger Domspatzen. He studied with Barbara Peason and Diano Forlano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and was also taught by Peter Kooij, Michael Chance, Marius van Altena and Jill Feldman. He sings regularly with the Huelgas Ensemble, Collegium Vocale Gent and the Netherlands Bach Society and is a member of the soloists’ ensemble Vox Luminis. Robert Buckland has sung both the arias and the evangelist’s role in Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions. He collaborated with Concerto Köln, Les Muffatti, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam and Les Agrémens, working under Frieder Bernius, Jos van Veldhoven, Jan Willem de Vriend, Guy van Waas, Peter van Heyghen and Joshua Rifkin. In 2008 he...

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Stratton Bull

Christopher Kale

Christopher Kale, tenor, was born in Pennsylvania, USA. He graduated from Boston University with a Bachelors and a Masters degree (cum laude). He then won an international scholarship for study in Amsterdam with Max van Egmond. Christopher Kale is mainly active in the renaissance and medieval repertoire as a member of Cappella Pratensis, Huelgas Ensemble, Capilla Flamenca, Aventure, the Boston Camerata, and the Nederlands Kamerkoor. As a soloist, he has made many commercial CD recordings of, among others, the Messiah (Händel), Lamentations (Gilles), Vespers (Monteverdi), and many Renaissance masses and motets, Medieval songs, and Early American music. Christopher Kale has been heard as a soloist in old music festivals worldwide, such as in Utrecht, Boston, Ghent, Bruges, York, Victoria, Cuenca,...

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Lior Leibovici

Lionel Meunier

Pieter Stas

Julien Freymuth

Jeroen Spitteler

Joshua Rifkin (conductor)

Joshua Rifkin’s work as conductor, pianist, and harpsichordist has spanned music from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. His recordings and concert performances with the Bach Ensemble, which he founded in 1978, set an internationally recognized mark for historically informed and musically vital interpretation of their namesake composer. He has received acclaim in many countries for performances with modern orchestras of Strauss, Stravinsky, and more recent composers; has directed ‘period’ ensembles in works of Monteverdi, Schütz, Haydn, and many others; and has led operatic productions in Switzerland and Germany. In 1999 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Dortmund for his contributions to Bach interpretation. Joshua Rifkin has also published widely as a scholar, most notably in the fields...

Joshua Rifkin’s work as conductor, pianist, and harpsichordist has spanned music from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. His recordings and concert performances with the Bach Ensemble, which he founded in 1978, set an internationally recognized mark for historically informed and musically vital interpretation of their namesake composer. He has received acclaim in many countries for performances with modern orchestras of Strauss, Stravinsky, and more recent composers; has directed ‘period’ ensembles in works of Monteverdi, Schütz, Haydn, and many others; and has led operatic productions in Switzerland and Germany. In 1999 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Dortmund for his contributions to Bach interpretation.
Joshua Rifkin has also published widely as a scholar, most notably in the fields of Renaissance and Baroque music. He has held guest seminars, workshops, and master classes at universities and conservatories throughout Europe, the U. S., and Japan, and holds a position as Professor of Music and Fellow of the University Professors Program at Boston University. His collaboration with Cappella Pratensis returns him for the first time in many years as a performer to Renaissance polyphony.

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Composer(s)

Adrian Willaert

Adrian Willaert can be viewed as pivot point between the late Renaissance and the early Baroque. Born in Bruges, he soon moved to Italy for his education. There, he worked for a short period in Ferrara to eventually settle in Venice, where he worked until his death for the St Mark's Basilica - a period of over 34 years. Besides his activities as a musician and a composer, he also educated a unique group of talented students, among which Cipriano de Rore and Costanzo Porta. A central part of his body of works is the large number of motets, especially the influential collection Musica nova, published in 1559. A few years before, he already caused a stir with polyphonic compositions for each of the seasons (like the vespers), in which hymnes for the whole Ecclesial year could be found. This focus on the seasons is remarkbable for his age, in which composers mostly focused on composing missas. Willaert also played an important part in the development of the instrumental ricercare. Moreover, he was also an important predeccesor to the rich polyphonic choral tradition of Venice.

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Josquin Desprez

The fact that Josquin Desprez would turn out to be one of the most influential composers of the Renaissance, is partly due to the many praises by Martin Luther. Luther saw Josquin's music as the perfect example of how to express text musically while maintaining the intended meaning. If you listen to Josquin's music, you will know what Luther meant. His motets are particularly appealing and engaging. His popularity led a large number of publishers to publish music with Josquin's name on it, even though it wasn't composed by him at all, as this would undoubtedly generate better sales. Unfortunately, this meant that nowadays it is not always clear which works are written by him, and which are not... His authentic works,...

His popularity led a large number of publishers to publish music with Josquin's name on it, even though it wasn't composed by him at all, as this would undoubtedly generate better sales. Unfortunately, this meant that nowadays it is not always clear which works are written by him, and which are not... His authentic works, however, can be distinguished by their remarkable clarity, ingenuity and depth. Some highlights are his motets Miserere mei, Stabat Mater, his famous Ave Maria, Ut Phoebi Radiis, and his lamentation after the death of Johannes Ockeghem (La Déploration).

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Jean Mouton

Andreas de Silva

Johannes de la Fage

Costanzo Festa

Press

These are excellent interpretations, the sound of cappella catches with transparency, in spite of the tight compositions for eight voices.
Toccata