Supersize Polyphony by Armonico Consort

Armonico Consort

Supersize Polyphony

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212056028
Catnr: SIGCD 560
Release date: 24 May 2019
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Label
Signum Classics

UPC
0635212056028

Catalogue number
SIGCD 560

Release date
24 May 2019

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Supersize Polyphony is a celebration of large-scale choral works from the 16th century, performed here by the Armonico Consort and the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, under their musical directors Christopher Monks and Geoffrey Webber. The unique programme features epic motets, such as Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium and Alessandro Striggio’s Ecce Beatam Lucem, alongside his rarely performed 60 part Missa Ecco Si Beato Giorno. Interspersed with the serene beauty of ethereal chants by Hildegard of Bingen, this new recording presents works of magnitude and polyphonic drama in stellar performances by two of the UK’s leading choral ensembles.

Supersize Polyphony is een viering van grootschalige koorwerken uit de 16e eeuw, uitgevoerd door het Armonico Consort en het Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambrigde, onder leiding van Christopher Monks en Geoffrey Webber. Dit uniek programma bevat epische motetten zoals Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium en Alessandro Striggio’s Ecce Beatam Lucem, naast zijn zelden uitgevoerde zestigstemmige Missa Ecco Si Beata Giorno. Deze opname presenteert werken van belang en polyfoon drama in uitstekende uitvoeringen door twee vooraanstaande koren uit het Verenigd Koninkrijk, afgewisseld met de serene schoonheid van de etherische gezangen van Hildegard von Bingen.

Artist(s)

Armonico Consort

Armonico Consort is a British company founded in 2001 by conductor and organist Christopher Monks, which specialises in producing performances of Renaissance music and Baroque music. In 2002 the company oversaw the creation of a series of academies designed to provide choral training for schoolchildren. The company’s period musicians and instrumentalists have an international reputation in the field, and its partners and collaborators have included Sir Willard White, Dame Emma Kirkby, and Dame Evelyn Glennie. Armonico Consort is known for its innovative productions, most notably its 2005 production of Henry Purcell’s The Fairy-Queen and its performances of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Barbican Centrein London in 2007. In 2012 Armonico Consort’s opera, Too Hot To Handel, featuring the music of Baroque composer George Frideric Handel, attracted highly positive reviews from critics. Choirs from Armonico Consort’s academies will perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2013.

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The Choir of Gonville & Caius College Cambridge

The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge is one of the UK's leading collegiate choirs. The twenty-four singers and two organ scholars, under the direction of Geoffrey Webber, perform a wide range of sacred and secular choral music spanning the centuries. Alongside familiar repertoire from the Anglican choral tradition and beyond, the choir performs much new music and has commissioned works by composers such as Francis Grieg, Robin Holloway, James MacMillan, Stuart MacRae, Judith Weir and Gabriel Jackson.
The Choir sings Chapel services during the University term and has a busy schedule of additional activities including concerts, recordings and broadcasts. The Choir travels extensively abroad, performing at a variety of venues ranging from major concert halls to universities, cathedrals and churches in Europe, America, and Asia, often in connection with other professional ensembles such as Opera Nothern Ireland, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco, and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine.
The Choir's recorings have often specialised in the re-discovery of forgotten choral repertoires, including previously unpublished music from within the English choral tradition and beyond.

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Christopher Monks (conductor)

Geoffrey Webber (conductor)

Composer(s)

Hildegard von Bingen

No other woman in the Middle Ages has been so influential and versatile as Hildegard von Bingen, who was an abbess at the monastery of Bingen in Germany. In a patriarchal men-driven society, it is quite exceptional that popes, emperors, kings, bishops and abbots asked Hildegard for advice, for which she didn't mince her words. Hildegard was a theologian, medical doctor, prophetess, poet and composer. Her books Physica and Cause Et Cure are about natural medicine, her book Ordo Virtutum is a mystery play. In Scivias, she dscribers het visions and Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum is a collection of Hildegard's music and poetry.

No other woman in the Middle Ages has been so influential and versatile as Hildegard von Bingen, who was an abbess at the monastery of Bingen in Germany. In a patriarchal men-driven society, it is quite exceptional that popes, emperors, kings, bishops and abbots asked Hildegard for advice, for which she didn't mince her words. Hildegard was a theologian, medical doctor, prophetess, poet and composer. Her books Physica and Cause Et Cure are about natural medicine, her book Ordo Virtutum is a mystery play. In Scivias, she dscribers het visions and Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum is a collection of Hildegard's music and poetry.

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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.

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.

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Alessandro Striggio

The Italian composer Alessandro Striggio wrote numerous madrigals as well as dramatic music. By combining the two genres, he became the inventor of the madrigal comedy.
Striggio was born in Mantua. Records of his early life are sparse, but he must have gone to Florence as a young man. He began working for Cosimo de' Medici on 1 March 1559 as a musician. During the 1580s he began an association with the Este court in Ferrara and composed music in the progressive style he heard there, which unfortunately is lost. In 1586 he moved to Mantua, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Striggio wrote both sacred and secular vocal music, sometimes with instrumental accompaniment. He was very influential in his lifetime, as shown by the distribution of his music through Europe in the late 16th century. One of his most impressive works is his motet Ecce beatam lucem for 40 independent voices. Of an even larger scale is the Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno with an Agnus Dei for 60 voices. This work was long thought to be lost, but was recently discovered by the American musicologist Davitt Moroney.

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