Favourites,
Gifts for... Baroque and Early Music fans
With highlights from this year's early music releases (including recordings from Vox Luminis, Mahan Esfahani, Stile Antico and Phantasm), excellent box sets and collections, and some new books, we've selected some perfect presents for lovers of Renaissance and baroque music.
Outstanding 2021 Releases
Lionel Meunier and his Vox Luminis consort join forces with the Freiburger Barockconsort to explore Heinrich Biber's 1692 Requiem and contemporary works - capturing a wide range of styles and moods from the solemnity of the Requiem itself to lively and outgoing motets and instrumental works.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Adriatic Voyage
Bojan Čičić (violin), Gawain Glenton (cornet), The Illyria Consort, Marian Consort, Rory McCleery
Another consort-collaboration, this time between the Marian Consort and the Illyria Consort, takes us on an imaginative journey down the Dalmatian coast at a time when this area was under Venetian rule; works from local composers show their adaptation of the styles being developed in Venice itself, and defy any sense of strict national or cultural boundaries.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
After his thrilling account of Bach's keyboard toccatas in 2019, Mahan Esfahani turns to the six partitas, in performances that once again show off his outgoing approach - drama and emotion aplenty on display, from the brooding opening to the C minor partita BWV826 to the dazzling fireworks of the Giga that closes the B flat major BWV825.
Available Formats: 2 CDs, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
An unexpectedly triumphant venture by Nicola Benedetti into the Baroque violin repertoire, with concerti by Geminiani and Vivaldi. Initially a journey of discovery for Benedetti herself, the results are utterly convincing and show a clear affinity with this kind of music. Hopefully this will prove to be the first of many, rather than a one-off foray.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Following up their acclaimed first album of consort arrangements of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Phantasm now release a second instalment showing again how perfectly Bach's counterpoint suits their instrumentation. Assigning the parts to individual players allows new aspects of the music's texture to come to light in a new way.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Veteran early music consort Stile Antico present a magnificent collection of the vocal works of Josquin Des Prez, interspersing his motets and those of his contemporaries with the movements of his Missa Pange Lingua. It's neither too ethereal a sound nor inappropriately robust - all in all, Stile Antico at their very best.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC, Hi-Res+ FLAC
The first complete recording of Byrd's 1588 collection of "Psalmes, Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie" takes in light-hearted madrigals, grief-stricken laments (both secular and sacred) and intimate devotional works. A true tour de force from Alamire and Fretwork.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
New Box Sets and Collections
In addition to Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, Antoine de Févin’s Mass of the Dead for Anne of Brittany, Fux’s Kaiserrequiem and Cherubini’s Mass à la mémoire de Louis XVI, this collection includes requiems by Sigismund Neukomm (also in memory of Louis XVI), Charles-Henri Plantade (for the thirtieth anniversary of Marie-Antoinette's death), Gilles Henri Hayne (for Marie de Médicis), and Niccolò Jommelli (for the Duchess von Württemberg).
Available Format: 5 CDs
Josquin & the Franco-Flemish School
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Taverner Consort, The Hilliard Ensemble, The King’s Singers et al
2021 marks the 500th anniversary of Josquin's death, and this comprehensive anthology features several of his major works including the Missa Pange Lingua, Missa Maris Stella and Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie, as well as music by other members of the Franco-Flemish school such as Binchois, Dufay, des Prez, Obrecht, de La Rue, Isaac, Roland de Lassus, Willaert and de Wert.
Available Format: 34 CDs
Scimone and his Venetian ensemble embarked on their landmark Albinoni series shortly after joining Erato, at a time when the Italian composer was known almost exclusively for his Adagio; this collection of his complete Albinoni recordings for the label includes Pimpinone and Il nascimento dell’ aurora as well as the Concerti a cinque Opp. 2, 5, 7 9 and 10 and the Trattenimenti da camera Op. 6.
Available Format: 16 CDs
Recent Books on Early, Medieval, and Baroque Music
Bach's six Cello Suites are among the most cherished of all works in the classical music literature. Shrouded in mystery - they were largely unknown for some two hundred years after their composition - they have acquired a magical aura which continues to attract and fascinate audiences the world over. By offering his own very personal observations of the music, award-winning cellist Steven Isserlis's aim is to take the reader further into the world of the suites in order to enhance the experience of hearing some of the greatest works ever composed.
Available Format: Book
J. S. Bach's Material and Spiritual Treasures: A Theological Perspective
Noelle M. Heber; Boydell & Brewer; Hardback
This book explores themes related to earthly and heavenly 'treasures' in Bach's sacred music. Through an examination of selected texts from Bach's personal theological library, it is organised around concepts present in Lutheran thought and in Bach's compositions, such as the poverty and treasure of Christ and parables that contrast material and spiritual riches.
Available Format: Book
Motets constitute the most important polyphonic genre of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This volume aims to provide a comprehensive guide to them, addressing matters such as how the motet developed; the rich interplay of musical, poetic, and intertextual modes of meaning specific to the genre; and the changing social and historical circumstances surrounding motets in medieval France, England, and Italy.
Available Format: Book
With The Sixteen, Harry Christophers has nurtured a choir of exceptional calibre, establishing a business model that includes a record label and extensive tours to capacity audiences, mining a rich variety of repertoire, and combining enormous popularity with the stamp of approval from experts. This collection of conversations, now available in paperback, will appeal to anyone interested in the sound of the human voice.
Available Format: Book
Music and Instruments of the Elizabethan Age: The Eglantine Table
Michael Fleming & Christopher Page (editors); Boydell & Brewer; Hardback
The reign of Elizabeth I has often been regarded as the Golden Age of English music. No single source presents this rich culture more vividly than the inlaid surface of the Eglantine Table. This astonishing piece of furniture was made in the late 1560s; its upper surface bears a wealth of marquetry that depicts numerous musical instruments in exquisite detail. This book assesses each of the depicted instruments, placing the Table and its musical components in relation to Elizabethan life.
Available Format: Book
Examining the roots of the classical fugue and the early history of non-canonic fugal writing, this book explores the three principal fugal genres of the period: motet, ricercar, and canonza. Taking a two-tiered approach, it examines fugue from the perspective of contemporary musicians and also takes into account fugue's later history and the elements that came to play a significant role in its formation.
Available Format: Book
The Dorset Rotulus: Contextualizing and Reconstructing the Early English Motet
Margaret Bent, Jared C. Hartt, & Peter Lefferts; Boydell & Brewer; Hardback
In 2017, substantial new fragments of medieval polyphony came to light, originating at the Benedictine monastery of Abbotsbury, located high above Chesil Beach on Dorset's Jurassic Coast. This book introduces the manuscript, relates it to other scrolls of late medieval music, contextualises its motets within the larger corpus of Latin-texted motets, and reconstructs each of the motets, providing performable transcriptions of three of these compositions as well as three of its large-scale comparands.
Available Format: Book
Tempo and Tactus in the German Baroque: Treatises, Scores, and the Performance of Organ Music
Julia Dokter; Boydell & Brewer; Hardback
Before the advent of the metronome, there was little in the way of a standardised method for precisely communicating how fast music should be performed. Baroque musicians developed notational cues for relative speed, primarily through combinations of time signatures and note values. This book helps to decode these cues, investigating metric theory in music treatises from roughly 1600 to 1790, and exploring the scores of pivotal composers such as J.S. Bach, Buxtehude, and Bruhns.
Available Format: Book
Music and Memory in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds
Lauren Curtis & Naomi Weiss (editors); Cambridge University Press; Hardback
In Greek mythology, the Muses are Memory's daughters. Their genealogy suggests a deep connection between music and memory in Graeco-Roman culture, but how was this connection understood and experienced by ancient authors, artists, performers, and audiences? This volume explores music's role in the discourses of cultural memory, communication, and commemoration in ancient Greek and Roman societies.
Available Format: Book
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