Huelgas Ensemble

Huelgas Ensemble, Jos van Immerseel & Paul Van Nevel – Max Reger: Melancholy (Vocal Works) (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Huelgas Ensemble, Jos van Immerseel & Paul Van Nevel – Max Reger: Melancholy (Vocal Works) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:01 minutes | 820 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Harmonia Mundi

This album features the works of German Romantic composer Max Reger by the Woergas Ensemble, which has made numerous rediscoveries in medieval and Renaissance polyphonic music over the past 50 years. Led by choral work specialist Paul van Nervel, the ensemble departs from the usual repertoire of ancient music to explore Reger’s vocal music. Max Reger (1873-1916) is a composer best known for his symphonies and organ works, but his vocal music has been largely ignored. Schoenberg described him as a “genius” and Hindemith called him “the last giant of music. Reger himself wrote that he wanted to be a “breathtaking” composer. Reger was familiar with Bach’s polyphony, and in his own compositions he explored the beauty of construction and masterful imitation of melody. This time the Huelgas Ensemble showcases Reger’s diversity, from emotionally rich arrangements of folk songs such as “The Little Star” and “I Dreamed a Night Dream” to Renaissance-inspired pieces such as “The Time of Man’s Life is Short.” The album also includes pieces such as “With Peace and Joy We Go,” which reflects the spirit of Bach, and harmonically complex pieces such as “O Death, How Thou Art Bitter,” in which Reger explores the limits of sound. Jos van Immerzeel joins as the historically sensitive piano accompanist on the concert grand built by Carl Bechstein in 1870, and as in his performances of Renaissance music, van Nevel, along with the singers, adds a unique touch to the polyphony of this repertoire, beautifully The music is beautifully colored.

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Huelgas Ensemble, Minguet Quartett, Paul Van Nevel – Rihm: Et Lux – Für Vokalensemble und Streichquartett (2009) (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 21, 2023 · Comments off

Huelgas Ensemble, Minguet Quartett, Paul Van Nevel – Rihm: Et Lux – Für Vokalensemble und Streichquartett (2009) (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:30 minutes | 989 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM New Series

„Et Lux“ is an alluring and timeless work for vocal ensemble and string quartet by leading German composer Wolfgang Rihm, here receiving its first recording.

The hour-long piece is dedicated to The Hilliard Ensemble and the Arditti Quartet who gave the world premiere in Cologne in November 2009 and its UK premiere later that month at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. This pairing of a vocal group and a string quartet specializing in early music and contemporary music respectively is replicated by the artists on this ECM disc – the Cologne-based Minguet Quartet and the Belgian early music group, the Huelgas Ensemble whose founder, Paul van Nevel, conducts the recording.

„Et Lux“ emerges as if from centuries ago, and reflects upon the musical processes that have shaped it, including the ritual of the requiem: ‘What we have is not music remembered but music remembering.’ It incorporates text fragments of the Latin Requiem Mass, which appear as components of a progressively realized whole. ‘Great significance is displayed by the reappearance of specific groups of words, for example ‘et lux perpetua luceat’ (and let perpetual light shine upon them). Through circling reflection the comforting yet disturbing meaning of the words may become perceptible.’

Reviewing the premiere performance the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised the work’s interwoven musical and linguistic elements while the Daily Telegraph said of its UK premiere: ‘Beautifully paced and very moving’. ‘Et Lux’ was recorded in February 2014 in Antwerp. The CD booklet includes an introductory statement by Wolfgang Rihm, and liner notes by Paul Griffiths and Wolfgang Schreiber.

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Huelgas Ensemble & Paul Van Nevel – Ludwig Daser: Polyphonic Masses (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · April 20, 2023 · Comments off

This recording is dedicated to German Renaissance composer Ludwig Daser. Paul Van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble have recorded two polyphonic masses by the Munich-born composer, who was a contemporary of famous composers such as Orlando di Lasso and Cipriano di Rore. Ludwig Daser came from a wealthy Munich family. His composition teacher was to be the then famous Ludwig Senfl. Thanks to his compositional talent, Daser was promoted to Kapellmeister in 1552 – a post he held until 1562 (he was to be succeeded by none other than Orlando di Lasso). In 1572 Daser was then appointed Kapellmeister at the Stuttgart court of Duke Ludwig von Württemberg. A post he held until his death in 1589. Paul Van Nevel presents two masterpieces from Daser’s rich Munich church music output with the Huelgas Ensemble. Van Nevel has selected the monumental “Missa Praeter rerum seriem”. It survives in a Munich choir book written between 1544 and 1555. The “Missa Praeter rerum seriem” is a so-called “parody mass”. The model from which Daser was inspired is the six-part motet of the same name by the great Franco-Flemish composer Josquin Desprez. The second work, Daser’s four-part “Missa Fors seulement”, is of a completely different nature, it is an impressive example of the special characteristics of Franco-Flemish vocal music, which Daser had become acquainted with through Ludwig Senfl.

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Huelgas Ensemble & Paul Van Nevel – The Music Prints of Christophe Plantin (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

The French printer-publisher Christophe Plantin (1520-1589), who has lived in Antwerp more or less all of his adult life, is not just anyone. He is credited with some two thousand publications, an absolutely astounding number in this era in which everything was done by hand, including the press done page after page, and yet he’s managed to publish a new book approximately every week during his 34-year career, with more than a thousand copies for each—up to eight thousand copies for his Hebraic Bible. His workshop included sixteen hand presses, served by thirty-two printers, twenty typographers, three proofreaders and many servants of all kinds: a true company. Hisopus magnum is a Bible in five languages: Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaean and Syriac. He is also credited with works in the fields of medicine, botany, cartography, anatomy, mathematics, religion of course… And yes, also music! Because he published several major partitions, gathering contemporary sacred works from Jacobus De Kerle, Palestrina, Philippus De Monte, as well as several chansonniers gathering pieces from Andries Pervenage, Claude Le Jeune and colleagues. It is in this incredible stock that the beautiful Ensemble Huelgas drew, alternating between profane and sacred, choral and soloist, a sort of condensed musical Renaissance oscillating between ferocious Catholics (Antwerp was then under Spanish domination, and Philip II was very touchy about religion) and rebellious Protestants.

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Huelgas Ensemble & Paul Van Nevel – La Oreja de Zurbarán (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

The Huelgas Ensemble was founded by director Paul Van Nevel in 1971. It has specialized in choral music, frequently with instrumental support, from the thirteenth century on to the early Baroque. Their recordings of the High Renaissance have been especially prized. They have also been pioneers in the performance of the difficult Ars Subtilior repertory of the late medieval era.

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Huelgas Ensemble – The Mirror of Claudio Monteverdi (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

Monteverdi was a pioneer of the musical style we now call Baroque, but the Mass on this record is in classic Renaissance style and the music might have been written in the 1500s rather than the 1600s. In between the five parts of Monteverdi’s Mass, four madrigals have been placed by composers of an earlier generation, who shifted borders at their time and sound chromatic, sometimes enharmonic, or are dramatically charged. They were written before Monteverdi’s Mass, but in a more progressive style. Thus, the album gives a surprising insight into the styles of this period and provides an impressive new view onto Monteverdi’s monumental “Messa in illo tempore”.

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Huelgas Ensemble – The Magic of Polyphony (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

The Belgian Huelgas Ensemble under the direction of its founder Paul Van Nevel has been setting standards with its recordings of vocal music. Their new album “The Magic of Polyphony” is a 3 album set celebrating the magical vocal polyphony that flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance featuring many unknown pieces by anonymous and unjustly forgotten composers, but also those by the great masters of polyphony – among others, Orlandus Lassus, Nicolas Gombert, Cipriano de Rore, Pierre de Manchicourt and Pierre de la Rue. The recordings were made during the concerts given by Paul Van Nevel and his ensemble at their own Festival de Pentecôte 2019 in a small village called Talant in France. The highlights of the six concerts are featured on this album.

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Huelgas Ensemble – The Ear of Christopher Columbus (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

Without the help of blaring drums or castanets, culture-filled aesthete Paul van Nevel gives the opportunity to hear the music that Christopher Columbus heard during his travels and adventurous life. This has resulted in a rigorous selection of (many unknown) a capella works, by Italian and Spanish composers from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Beginning with childhood memories of Christopher Columbus (a carnival song evoking an erotic joke about chimney sweeps), the album ends with pieces by Agricola most likely heard by the navigator at the end of his final voyage in 1506. This virtual musical journey begins in 15th century Venice and reaches the court of Ferdinand and Isabella in Madrid, Seville, Cordoba and Valladolid. This offers an exciting programme benefitting from the exceptional quality of singers of the Huelgas Ensemble, specialised in medieval and Renaissance polyphony and founded in 1971 by Paul van Nevel. – François Hudry

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Huelgas Ensemble – Simone de Bonefont: Missa pro Mortuis (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

Each new album of the Huelgas Ensemble directed by Paul van Nevel is expected as a rare and precious delicacy thanks to extremely neat performances, in an almost perfect choral intonation. The discovery of a repertoire often unpublished is also the source of a happiness as intellectual as moving. Paul van Nevel continues to surprise us with this mass of the dead in five parts, composed by Simone De Bonefont, quite delectable.

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Huelgas Ensemble – Mirabile Mysterium – A European Christmas Tale (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

Seit über 40 Jahren gehört das Huelgas Ensemble zu den weltweit besten Vokalensembles und befasst sich besonders mit der Mehrstimmigkeit des Mittelalters und der Renaissance. Die originellen und musikwissenschaftlich fundierten Programmideen des Leiters Paul van Nevel sowie die herausragende Musikalität begeistern Publikum und Presse gleichermaßen: “Mit lupenreiner Intonation, funkelnder Musizierfreude und strahlend transparentem acapella-Klang” (Crescendo 06/2014).

Nun widmet sich das Alte-Musik Ensemble der bekanntesten Bibelgeschichte. In vier Abschnitten beschreibt “Mirabile Mysterium” die Weihnachtsgeschichte um die Geburt Jesu mit Kompositionen aus dem Mittelalter bis ins 19. Jahrhundert. Neben Weihnachtsmotetten der Renaissance von Lassus, Sweelinck, Manchicourt und Gallus, welche die Ankuft der drei Weisen aus dem Morgenland beschreiben, umfasst das Programm auch unbekannte englische Carols und volkstümliche spanische Gesänge des Mittelalters. Ein französisches Weihnachtslied aus dem 18. Jahrhundert, ein romantisches Lied von Peter Cornelius über einen Weihnachts-Choral von Johann Sebastian Bach sowie eine Motette aus dem 14. Jahrhundert runden die musikalische Reise durch Weihnachtsmusik aus fünf Jahrhunderten ab.

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Huelgas Ensemble – Le mystère de “Malheur me bat” (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

The chanson “Malheur me bat” (Misfortune strikes me) exerted a tremendous appeal on composers of the High Renaissance, inspiring them to write a large number of works that take this fascinating material as their starting point. Paul Van Nevel and his Huelgas Ensemble attempt to shed light on this mystery and offer listeners a gripping insight into the compositional technique of polyphony and the world of Renaissance counterpoint.

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Huelgas Ensemble – Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (Live) (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

Huelgas Ensemble – Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (Live) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:28:30 minutes | 1,59 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi

Francesca Caccini was one of the leading musical figures at the Medici court in the first half of the 17th century. Even today it is still unusual for a woman to be equally successful as a professional singer, a published composer and a singing teacher. La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina was commissioned by Maria Maddalena of Austria, who married Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici in 1608, and was written to be performed on the occasion of a visit by Crown Prince of Poland. A single extravagantly staged performance took place on 3 February 1625, ending with an equestrian ballet performed by no fewer than twenty-four horsemen.

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Huelgas Ensemble – Firminus Caron – Twilight of the Middle Ages (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 11, 2023 · Comments off

“There are two things on which listeners can invariably rely with Paul Van Nevel: whatever he unearths, it is without exception wonderful music; and what he offers with his Huelgas Ensemble is always on the very highest level” (BR Klassik). For more than forty years the Huelgas Ensemble has been one of the world’s finest vocal ensembles.

Paul Van Nevel’s original and well researched programmes revolve in particular around the fascinating polyphonic tradition of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The life of the Franco-Flemish polyphonist Firminus Caron is shrouded in mystery, and we know little about him except that he was probably born in Amiens in around 1440. And yet his works were already famous during his own lifetime and have survived in some of the most important music manuscripts of the second half of the 15th century, including a number of the Vatican’s principal choirbooks. The Huelgas Ensemble compares and contrasts five movements from the composer’s four-part cantus firmus Masses with four secular chansons and in that way provides an impressive demonstration of his exceptional individuality, to say nothing of the imagination and variety that make Caron one of the most exciting composers of the late Middle Ages.

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Huelgas Ensemble & Paul Van Nevel – The Landscape of the Polyphonists (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 6, 2023 · Comments off

Huelgas Ensemble & Paul Van Nevel - The Landscape of the Polyphonists (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

On “The Landscape of the Polyphonists,” the Huelgas Ensemble and Paul Van Nevel present the intense melancholic and imitative style of Franco-Flemish polyphonic music on two fantastic CDs, exploring how the music was shaped by the particular character of the landscape in which each composer spent his life. twenty-four selected landscape photographs and images of Flemish cathedrals and their surroundings transport the listener to the world of the Flemish lands of the Renaissance as the Huelgas Ensemble performs the works of extraordinary composers such as Antoine Busnois, Nicholas Gombert, Josquin Desprez, as well as lesser known but equally remarkable composers such as Josquin Baston, Jean l’Héritier, and Jean Mouton. The audience can directly experience the complex interaction between historical landscapes, architecture and music in their respective places of origin.
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