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| 1 SACD |
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| Label Challenge Classics |
UPC 0608917263220 |
Catalogue number CC 72632 |
Release date 17 February 2014 |
"The sound pattern is very clear and the style of singing fluent, with a perfect legato and a brilliant mixture of voices. Since the acoustic is also approriate, this CD be called successfull by any account."
Toccata, 10-11-2014Cappella 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.
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).
The sound pattern is very clear and the style of singing fluent, with a perfect legato and a brilliant mixture of voices. Since the acoustic is also approriate, this CD be called successfull by any account.
Toccata, 10-11-2014
(...) the textures are in general exceptionally clear and (...) the lines are beautifully relaxed.
Gramophone, 01-8-2014
The liveliness of acoustic and tonal beauty of both recordings and performance from the eight male voices pf Cappella Pratensis, celebrating the Annunciation in renaissance Rome with the Missa Ave maris stella by Josquin in liturgical format with plainsong Propers, is a pukka piece of aural time-travel. Their Franco-Italian pronunciation, evoking the papal choir of Josquin's time, is particularly piquant.
Choir & Organ, 31-7-2014
4 1/2 stars
Fono Forum, 01-6-2014
Avocal textured, warm blanket that fully suits the Annunciation. The eight voices are impressive depicted in the church hall.
Opus Klassiek, 19-5-2014
The end result is ensemble singing of the highest order.
De Gelderlander, 10-3-2014
The voices are never in each others way and they seem to float in the space
Katholiek Nieuwsblad, 07-3-2014
"Balanced sonority"
Volskrant, 05-3-2014
On this album Cappella Pratensis is at her best: flawless beauty of sound linked to a faithful interpretation of old scores.
Brabants dagblad , 20-2-2014
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