account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope
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
Buy
1 SACD hybrid
✓ in stock
€ 14.95
Buy
 
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
EN
NL
DE

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)

Capella Pratensis

Cappella Pratensis | Tim Braithwaite  For almost forty years, the Gramophone Award-winning ensemble Cappella Pratensis has been renowned for its innovative approach to the performance of Renaissance polyphonic music, being one of only a handful of professional ensembles in the world who perform directly from historical notation, as opposed to transcriptions in the form of a modern choral score. In recent years, the ensemble has dived further into the musical traditions surrounding this repertoire by exploring historical methods of improvisation and pedagogies, as well as working within the contexts of liturgical reconstruction. The result is an inherently immersive approach, in which the performers draw on a truly embodied relationship with past musical cultures in order to provide convincing and engaging performances.  The...
more

Cappella Pratensis | Tim Braithwaite

For almost forty years, the Gramophone Award-winning ensemble Cappella Pratensis has been renowned for its innovative approach to the performance of Renaissance polyphonic music, being one of only a handful of professional ensembles in the world who perform directly from historical notation, as opposed to transcriptions in the form of a modern choral score. In recent years, the ensemble has dived further into the musical traditions surrounding this repertoire by exploring historical methods of improvisation and pedagogies, as well as working within the contexts of liturgical reconstruction. The result is an inherently immersive approach, in which the performers draw on a truly embodied relationship with past musical cultures in order to provide convincing and engaging performances.

The singers of Cappella Pratensis all specialise in Renaissance music, and many hold positions at higher educational institutions at European universities and conservatoires, including the Conservatoire of Amsterdam, the University of Vienna, and the Schola Cantorum in Basel. Cappella Pratensis also enjoys a formal partnership with the Alamire Foundation, International Centre for the Study of Music in the Low Countries (Leuven) as ensemble in residence. The ensemble’s programming draws on both the wealth of knowledge and experience within the ensemble, as well as collaborations with leading scholars in the field. Cappella Pratensis increasingly combines this approach with innovative performance contexts, including regular collaboration with actors, digital animators, dance companies, and composers.

In addition to regular appearances at concert venues in the Netherlands and Belgium, Cappella Pratensis has performed at leading international festivals and concert series throughout Europe, North America, South America, and Japan, including the Boston, Berkeley, Utrecht, and York Early Music Festivals. The ensemble’s recordings have met with critical acclaim and distinctions from the press, including the Diapason d’Or, the Prix Choc and, for the last three CDs, three consecutive Gramophone Editor’s Choice mentions. Gramophone magazine recognised the ensemble’s recording of the Ockeghem Requiem as the best out of more than twenty recordings made over the last forty years. In 2022, Cappella Pratensis won the prestigious REMA-EEMN Heritage Project of the Year Award with the CD recording Apostola apostolorum. The ensemble’s 2023 recording of Obrecht’s Missa Maria zart won the Premio Abbiati della critica musicale, was awarded with a Disco Excepcional by the Spanish music magazine Scherzo, and was rated five stars by the Spanish magazine Ritmo. In 2024, the recording won a Gramophone Classical Music Award, perhaps the most important award for Classical Music in the world.

Cappella Pratensis makes it a priority to pass on the wealth of knowledge and experience within the group through an established educational program, which ranges from introductory outreach sessions in local schools to appearances at international conferences and festivals, including an annual ‘Summer School’ hosted by the Antwerp-based festival Laus Polyphoniae, the group engages in regular workshops at a higher educational level, which have been held with great success at such notable institutions as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford.

www.cappellapratensis.nl


less

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...
more
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 performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe in New York.
less

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,...
more
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, Saintes, and Kostenevica. His trips to the Romantic repertoire are usually as a member of a duo with Jelma van Amersfoort.

less

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...
more
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.

less

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...
more
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.
less

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,...
more

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, 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).


less

Press

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

Play album Play album

Often bought together with..

Alexander Borodin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Borodin & Tchaikovsky
Artists of Spannungen Festival 2018
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Gran Partita
Quatuor Dialogues / Ewald Demeyere
Josquin Desprez
Missa Ave maris stella
Cappella Pratensis / Stratton Bull
Johannes Ockeghem, Pierre de La Rue
Requiem
Cappella Pratensis
Hector Berlioz
La Damnation de Faust
Bernard Haitink & Radio Filharmonisch Orkest & Groot Omroepkoor
Jacob Obrecht
Missa De Sancto Donatiano (bruges 1487)
Cappella Pratensis

You might also like..

Various
Feast of the Swan - Den Bosch Choirbook Vol. 4
Cappella Pratensis | Stratton Bull | Sollazzo Ensemble
Jacob Obrecht
Missa Maria zart
Cappella Pratensis | Stratton Bull
Pierre de La Rue
Gaude Virgo! A Renaissance brotherhood celebrates the Virgin Mary - the Den Bosch Choirbooks vol. 1
Cappella Pratensis
Jean Mouton
Ezekiel's Eagle - A Renaissance Brotherhood celebrates St John the Evangelist - The Den Bosch Choirbooks vol. 2
Cappella Pratensis / Stratton Bull