Cappella Pratensis

Gaude Virgo! A Renaissance brotherhood celebrates the Virgin Mary - the Den Bosch Choirbooks vol. 1

Price: € 20.95
Format: SACD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917287721
Catnr: CC 72877
Release date: 14 May 2021
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917287721
Catalogue number
CC 72877
Release date
14 May 2021

"He restores here with perfect transparency a counterpoint of exceptional density, which does not eschew dissonances (Kyrie), and the sometimes tortuous melodic designs."

Diapason, 01-10-2021
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Artist(s)
Composer(s)
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About the album

Music clearly fascinated the great Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516); his sketches and paintings are peppered with closely observed depictions of music-making and musical instruments. Bosch, a native of ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Duchy of Brabant, was a life-long brother of the city’s Brotherhood of Our Illustrious Lady, a large and prestigious organization for which sacred music was an essential and highly-valued part of its devotional life. Every Wednesday Bosch could gather with his Confraternity brothers in their opulent chapel in the church of St. John the Evangelist to celebrate a votive Mass in honour of the Blessed Virgin. This recording aims to capture a sense of the devotional soundscape that Bosch experienced throughout his life as a member of this music-loving Marian brotherhood. Instead of the frightening cacophony conjured by the artist’s vision of Hell, we encounter here the joy and serenity of the weekly Marian votive Mass liturgy. We have chosen the Missa Cum jocunditate by Pierre de la Rue (c.1452-1518), who was not only the most renowned composer of the Habsburg-Burgundian court but also an external member of the brotherhood from the early 1490s until his death in 1518. Indeed, La Rue may well have had occasion to meet Bosch during these years. Cappella Pratensis sings from the original notation, reading from scale copies of the confraternity’s manuscripts of plainsong and polyphony, and adopts the Brabant pronunciation of Latin those singers surely employed. They also read together from one large music book, like the men portrayed in the Singers in the Egg sketch attributed to Bosch









Een muzikaal eerbetoon aan Hieronimus Bosch
Dit album bevat een opname van het polyfone meesterwerk Missa cum Jocunditate, maar het is vooral een eerbetoon aan Hieronimus Bosch, wiens 500-jarige overlijden overal ter wereld gelegenheid gaf om zijn werk nogmaals te eren.

Uit afbeeldingen van musici en muziekinstrumenten op zijn schilderijen en schetsen blijkt dat Bosch gefascineerd was door muziek. Hij was een broeder van de Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap in s’Hertogenbosch. Elke woensdag ging Bosch naar de bijeenkomst van de broeders in de kapel in de Sint-Janskathedraal om de mis ter ere van de Heilige Maagd te vieren. Hij zou daar het koor bestaande uit mannen en jongens hebben horen zingen. Ze zongen niet alleen oude Gregoriaanse gezangen, maar ook complexe nieuwe muziek in de vorm van polyfone missen en motetten. Cappella Pratensis probeert op dit album de klanken vast te leggen die Bosch in zijn leven heeft gehoord. De klanken worden niet vertegenwoordigd door de angstaanjagende kakafonie die Bosch’s interpretatie van de Hel oproept, maar door de vreugde en kalmte van de wekelijkse Mariamissen.

De Missa cum Jocunditate van Pierre de la Rue is uitgekozen voor dit album omdat De la Rue niet alleen de meest vermaarde componist van het hof van Habsburg-Bourgondië was, maar ook een extern lid van de broederschap. De la Rue zou Bosch wel eens ontmoet kunnen hebben.

Cappella Pratensis maakt gebruik van de originele notatie, opgeschreven in schaalmodellen van de manuscripten van de Broederschap. Daarnaast wordt de Latijnse tekst op zijn Brabants uitgesproken, iets wat de zangers van de Broederschap zeker gedaan hebben.

Cappella Pratensis is een ervaren ensemble met een groot aantal opnames van polyfone werken bij Challenge Classics. Ze houden zich aan de regels van musicologisch onderzoek en praktijkonderzoek.
Musik war etwas, das den großen niederländischen Künstler Hieronymus Bosch eindeutig faszinierte. Abbildungen von Musikern und Instrumenten zieren Gemälde und Skizzen, doch es sind bei Weitem nicht nur himmlische Szenen, die Bosch ersinnt - Unzüchtiges, Spöttisches, Teuflisches ist ebenso tief verankert. Doch anstelle der furchterregenden Kakophonie von Boschs Höllenvisionen soll hier die friedvolle, feierliche Stimmung dominieren, die Bosch als Mitglied der religiösen Bruderschaft Unserer Lieben Frau Woche für Woche in der Messe gehört hat. Dabei konnten die Sänger der Bruderschaft aus einer Vielzahl von Vertonungen des Ordinariums wählen, und genauso tun es auch die Musiker heute. Mit den sorgfältig ausgewählten Werken sucht diese Einspielung, eine Momentaufnahme der frommen Gesänge zu machen, die Bosch erlebt haben mag. In der Andacht mit Hieronymus Bosch - die Cappella Pratensis macht es möglich.

Artist(s)

Cappella Pratensis

The vocal ensemble Cappella Pratensis is a leader in the performance of polyphonic masterpieces from the 15th and 16th centuries, with a particular focus on the Low Countries. The group goes straight to the source, performing from facsimiles of original partbooks or choirbooks, the latter placed on a central music stand or projected on a large screen. Its programmes are intensively prepared and based on thorough musicological research, often in collaboration with leading scholars. Cappella Pratensis also enjoys a formal partnership with the Alamire Foundation, International Centre for the Study of Music in the Low Countries (University of Leuven). This multi-faceted approach results in a deep engagement with the music, in performances that get to the heart of this extraordinary repertoire....
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The vocal ensemble Cappella Pratensis is a leader in the performance of polyphonic masterpieces from the 15th and 16th centuries, with a particular focus on the Low Countries. The group goes straight to the source, performing from facsimiles of original partbooks or choirbooks, the latter placed on a central music stand or projected on a large screen. Its programmes are intensively prepared and based on thorough musicological research, often in collaboration with leading scholars. Cappella Pratensis also enjoys a formal partnership with the Alamire Foundation, International Centre for the Study of Music in the Low Countries (University of Leuven). This multi-faceted approach results in a deep engagement with the music, in performances that get to the heart of this extraordinary repertoire. Cappella Pratensis also appears in surprising new contexts, regularly collaborating with dance companies, jazz artists, theatre makers, and composers.
In addition to regular appearances at concert venues in the Netherlands and Belgium, Cappella Pratensis performs at leading international festivals and concert series throughout Europe, North America and Japan. The group has been ensemble-in-residence at Harvard University, the Fondation Royaumont (France), and Boston University, giving courses, presenting concerts and working with distinguished musicians. Its CD recordings have met with critical acclaim and distinctions from the press (including the Diapason d’Or and the Prix Choc). Gramophone magazine recognised the ensemble’s recording of the Ockeghem Requiem as the best out of more than 20 recordings made over the last 40 years.
Cappella Pratensis makes a priority of passing on its knowledge to both professionals and amateurs through masterclasses, workshops, multimedia presentations, and an annual summer course. In addition, it trains young singers within the ensemble itself.

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Olivier Berten

After studying communication and multimedia, Olivier Berten enters the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels where he gets a diploma in opera-singing with Marcel Vanaud. He is going to advanced studies in the conservatories of Amsterdam, Metz and Brussels with Udo Reinemann and other masters of Lied. He was in 2004-2005 part ofOperastudio Vlaanderen in Ghent.  He makes his debut in the Monnaie opera house as Brühlmann ('Werther' van Massenet) under the baton of Kazushi Ono. In 2008, he was on the stage of the Flemish Opera in the leading role of Villa Vivaldi by Wouter van Looy en Jan Van Outryve. Upcoming projects include 'L'enfant et les sortilèges' with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and 'Ne criez pas au loup' in the Opéra Royal de Wallonie.
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After studying communication and multimedia, Olivier Berten enters the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels where he gets a diploma in opera-singing with Marcel Vanaud. He is going to advanced studies in the conservatories of Amsterdam, Metz and Brussels with Udo Reinemann and other masters of Lied. He was in 2004-2005 part ofOperastudio Vlaanderen in Ghent. He makes his debut in the Monnaie opera house as Brühlmann ("Werther" van Massenet) under the baton of Kazushi Ono. In 2008, he was on the stage of the Flemish Opera in the leading role of Villa Vivaldi by Wouter van Looy en Jan Van Outryve. Upcoming projects include "L'enfant et les sortilèges" with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and "Ne criez pas au loup" in the Opéra Royal de Wallonie.

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Composer(s)

Pierre de La Rue

Pierre de la Rue was a true Belgian: born in Tournai, he worked the first decades of his life in Brussels, Ghent and 's-Hertogenbosch, and spent his final years in Kortrijk. All the while, he only ever took one position as a composer, at the Flemish Chapel of the Burgundian court. There, he developed himself into a prolific composers, who wrote a large number of missas, motets and chansons. In these works, he shows his virtuosity particularly in the use of complex counterpoint. He wrote, for example, complete four-voiced missas based on a single melody.  De la Rue was also one of the first to compose polyphonic Requiems as a unique cycle of compositions in different keys based on the magnificat. Strangely,...
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Pierre de la Rue was a true Belgian: born in Tournai, he worked the first decades of his life in Brussels, Ghent and 's-Hertogenbosch, and spent his final years in Kortrijk. All the while, he only ever took one position as a composer, at the Flemish Chapel of the Burgundian court. There, he developed himself into a prolific composers, who wrote a large number of missas, motets and chansons. In these works, he shows his virtuosity particularly in the use of complex counterpoint. He wrote, for example, complete four-voiced missas based on a single melody.

De la Rue was also one of the first to compose polyphonic Requiems as a unique cycle of compositions in different keys based on the magnificat. Strangely, Pierre de la Rue's music is generally less known than the music by Josquin and his other contemporaries, yet there are just as many gems to discover in his body of work!


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Press

He restores here with perfect transparency a counterpoint of exceptional density, which does not eschew dissonances (Kyrie), and the sometimes tortuous melodic designs.
Diapason, 01-10-2021

The five-part series about the Den Bosch choirbooks starts with a de la Rue-Mass of disarmingly high quality, embedded in a coherent liturgy format: sympathetically brought to life by Stratton Bull and Cappella Pratensis in the literal sense of the word.
Klassik.com, 12-7-2021

Play album

Often bought together with..

Ezekiel's Eagle - A Renaissance Brotherhood celebrates St John the Evangelist - The Den Bosch Choirbooks vol. 2
Cappella Pratensis / Stratton Bull
Complete Works for Piano Trio vol. 5
Van Baerle Trio | Residentie Orkest The Hague
Visions of Joy | The Chapel of Hieronymus Bosch
Cappella Pratensis
Brahms & Bruckner Motets
Tenebrae Choir
Roaring Twenties
Calefax / Cora Burggraaf
Symphony no. 5 - Slavonic March op. 31
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin / Yutaka Sado

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