account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
Virgin and Child: Music from the Baldwin Partbooks II
Various composers

Contrapunctus

Virgin and Child: Music from the Baldwin Partbooks II

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212047422
Catnr: SIGCD 474
Release date: 03 February 2017
Buy
1 CD
✓ in stock
€ 19.95
Buy
 
Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212047422
Catalogue number
SIGCD 474
Release date
03 February 2017

"The magisterial Baldwin Voice Books on CD"

Stretto, 19-7-2017
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
Press
EN
NL

About the album

Early music consort Contrapunctus returns on Signum for their second release in the series centered on music of the Baldwin Partbooks. John Baldwin was a member of the choir of St. George's chapel, Windsor, and his transcriptions during the 1570's and 80's create one of the greatest surviving collections of Marian polyphony, composed during the reigns of Henry VIII and Mary Tudor. This volume explores texts celebrating Mary as Mother of God, and on the Virgin and her child. Contrapunctus, led by Owen Rees, couple powerful interpretations with pioneering scholarship. Currently Vocal Consort in Residence at Oxford University, the ensemble's first two recordings, Libera nos and In the Midst of Life, were both shortlisted for the Gramophone Early Music Award.
Het tweede deel uit een serie met opnames van de Baldwin Partbooks
Oude muziekensemble Contrapunctus presenteert het tweede album in hun serie met muziek uit de Baldwin Partbooks. John Baldwin maakte deel uit van het koor van St George’s chapel in Windsor, en zijn transcripties tijdens de jaren 1570-1590 vormen een van de grootste overgeleverde collecties van polyfonie gecomponeerd tijdens de regeerperioden van Henry VIII en Mary Tudor. De Baldwin Partbooks presenteren een prachtig en rijk overzicht van Engelse muziek op Latijnse teksten, met een breed scala aan religieuze thema’s. Dit volume verkent muziek op teksten die Maria als moeder van God huldigen, en teksten over de Maagd en haar Kind.

Contrapunctus, geleid door Owen Rees (tevens dirigent van het Choir of Queen’s College Oxford), koppelt krachtige interpretaties aan baanbrekend onderzoek. De eerste twee albums, Libera nos en In the Midst of Life, ontvingen veel lof van de critici.

Artist(s)

Contrapunctus (vocals)

Coupling powerful interpretations with pathbreaking scholarship, Contrapunctus presents music by the best known composers as well as unfamiliar masterpieces. The group’s repertoire is drawn from England, the Low Countries, Spain, Portugal and Germany, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The scholarly facet of the group’s work – including the discovery of long-lost music and reconstructions of original performing contexts – allows audiences to experience the first performances of many works in modern times. Since its foundation in 2010, the group has appeared in the AMUZ Festival in Antwerp, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Festival van Vlaanderen in Mechelen and Averbode, the Music Sacra Festival in Maastricht, the Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza in Spain, the...
more
Coupling powerful interpretations with pathbreaking scholarship, Contrapunctus presents music by the best known composers as well as unfamiliar masterpieces. The group’s repertoire is drawn from England, the Low Countries, Spain, Portugal and Germany, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The scholarly facet of the group’s work – including the discovery of long-lost music and reconstructions of original performing contexts – allows audiences to experience the first performances of many works in modern times. Since its foundation in 2010, the group has appeared in the AMUZ Festival in Antwerp, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Festival van Vlaanderen in Mechelen and Averbode, the Music Sacra Festival in Maastricht, the Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza in Spain, the Eboræ Musica Festival and Setúbal Festival in Portugal, the concert series at De Bijloke in Ghent, and the Martin Randall Festival of Spanish Music (Seville Cathedral). The ensemble’s first two recordings, Libera nos and In the Midst of Life, were both shortlisted for the Gramophone Early Music Award. As Vocal Consort in Residence at the University of Oxford, the group is a collaborator in the Tudor Partbooks Project, the aim of which is to study the Baldwin partbooks and other sets of Tudor partbooks, to restore the missing voice parts of the repertories they contain, and to broaden public knowledge of this repertory.

less

Owen Rees (conductor)

Owen Rees is both performer and scholar, his scholarship consistently informing his performances.  Through his extensive work as a choral director, he has brought to the concert hall and recording studio substantial repertories of magnificent Renaissance and Baroque music, including many previously unknown or little-known works from Spain and Portugal. His interpretations of these repertories have been acclaimed as ‘rare examples of scholarship and musicianship combining to result in performances that are both impressive and immediately attractive to the listener’, and he has been described as ‘one of the most energetic and persuasive voices’ in this field.   He has conducted at festivals worldwide, and is increasingly busy as a leader of workshops on performance of Renaissance polyphony. He has broadcast...
more
Owen Rees is both performer and scholar, his scholarship consistently informing his performances. Through his extensive work as a choral director, he has brought to the concert hall and recording studio substantial repertories of magnificent Renaissance and Baroque music, including many previously unknown or little-known works from Spain and Portugal. His interpretations of these repertories have been acclaimed as ‘rare examples of scholarship and musicianship combining to result in performances that are both impressive and immediately attractive to the listener’, and he has been described as ‘one of the most energetic and persuasive voices’ in this field. He has conducted at festivals worldwide, and is increasingly busy as a leader of workshops on performance of Renaissance polyphony. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and on Portuguese, Spanish, and Norwegian radio. He has released CD recordings on the Hyperion, Signum, and Avie labels to consistently high critical acclaim and his work has been shortlisted for the Gramophone Early Music Award.
Owen Rees began his academic and conducting career as Organ Scholar at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, studying with Peter le Huray and Iain Fenlon. After a period as College Lecturer in Music at St Peter’s College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, he joined the Music Department at the University of Surrey, where he was promoted to the post of Reader. In 1997 he returned to Oxford, where—in addition to his posts of Fellow in Music at The Queen’s College and Director of Music of the Choir of The Queen's College—he is Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College and a Professor in the Faculty of Music. His numerous published studies include work on the Spanish composers Cristóbal de Morales and Francisco Guerrero and the English composer William Byrd.

less

Composer(s)

Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music, and is considered one of England's greatest composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship. No contemporary portrait of Tallis survives: that painted by Gerard Vandergucht (illustration), dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a likeness. In a rare existing copy of his black letter signature, the composer spelled his last name 'Tallys.' Tallis is known for his work with William Byrd. He started to teach the much younger Byrd at the Chapel Royal in London. Later, they were both appointed as organists of the Chapel. 
more

Thomas Tallis was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music, and is considered one of England's greatest composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship. No contemporary portrait of Tallis survives: that painted by Gerard Vandergucht (illustration), dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no reason to suppose that it is a likeness. In a rare existing copy of his black letter signature, the composer spelled his last name "Tallys." Tallis is known for his work with William Byrd. He started to teach the much younger Byrd at the Chapel Royal in London. Later, they were both appointed as organists of the Chapel.


less

John Taverner

John Taverner was amongst the most important and most influential English composers of his generation. Only little is known about his life. He was apparently born somewhere in Lincolnshire, and served as organist and master of the choristers in Christ Church, Oxford. Taverner composed primarily sacred vocal works with florid polyphony, extended climaxes for accomplished soloists and room for innovation. He is mainly known for his masses and Magnificats, amongst others the Western Wynde Mass and the Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas. The latter mass gave origin to an instrumental genre known as In nomine, named after the mass section of which an instrumental arrangement appeared that gave rise to the composition of similar works. This genre remained popular within English music until the time of Purcell.
more
John Taverner was amongst the most important and most influential English composers of his generation. Only little is known about his life. He was apparently born somewhere in Lincolnshire, and served as organist and master of the choristers in Christ Church, Oxford.
Taverner composed primarily sacred vocal works with florid polyphony, extended climaxes for accomplished soloists and room for innovation. He is mainly known for his masses and Magnificats, amongst others the Western Wynde Mass and the Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas.
The latter mass gave origin to an instrumental genre known as In nomine, named after the mass section of which an instrumental arrangement appeared that gave rise to the composition of similar works. This genre remained popular within English music until the time of Purcell.

less

Press

The magisterial Baldwin Voice Books on CD
Stretto, 19-7-2017

Play album Play album

Often bought together with..

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 / Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op. 36 / Sheherazade, Op. 35
Vasily Petrenko | Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
Henry Purcell
King Arthur
Gabrieli Consort
John Taverner
Taverner Gloria Tibi Trinitas
Contrapunctus

You might also like..

Kenneth Leighton
That Sweet City - Leighton – Veris Gratia Op.6, Vaughan Williams – An Oxford Elegy
Choir of the Queen's College, Oxford
Claudio Monteverdi
Harmonies of Devotion
Contrapunctus
Giovanni Bononcini
How Are The Mighty Fallen Choral Music by Giovanni Bononcini
Choir of The Queen's College Oxford
Various composers
The Sweetest Songs: Music from the Baldwin Partbooks III
Contrapunctus
Various composers
A Ceremony of Carols
Choir of the Queen's College, Oxford
Various composers
Salve, Salve, Salve - Josquin's Spanish Legacy
Contrapunctus