Madoka Nakamaru, Wouter Dekoninck
Release Date: 27 June 2025
Label: Etcetera
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 8711801018393
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Rosary Sonatas Mysteries Of Life
Description
This CD takes you on a remarkable musical journey as we explore the full potential of the unique combination of a great organ and a violin. Inspired by H.I.F. Biber's Rosenkranz-Sonaten also known as the Mysterien-Sonaten, we have created our own version of a rosary by combining Biber's works with compositions by Buxtehude, J.S. Bach and an anonymous composer. The album develops three central themes: music for both Catholic and Protestant liturgies, the stylus fantasticus, and the combination of violin and organ.
The rosary is both a series of prayers and a string of beads that Roman Catholics use as they recite those prayers. A meditation on a "mystery" or event from the life of Christ or the Virgin Mary is inserted after a set number of prayers have been said. The current form of the rosary originated in the 16th century. In Biber's lifetime there were fifteen mysteries that were organised into three cycles: the five joyful mysteries of life, the five sorrowful mysteries of suffering and death and the five glorious mysteries of the resurrection. Each of Biber's fifteen Rosenkranz-Sonaten is therefore a musical portrayal of a mystery from the life of Christ or the Virgin Mary. For this CD we have selected a number of these sonatas from each of these themes - life, suffering and death, resurrection - and combined them with Protestant chorales in arrangements by Buxtehude, J.S. Bach, and an anonymous composer. This combination of Catholic and Protestant music forms a profound dialogue that not only reflects the mysteries of Christ and the Virgin Mary but is also a symbolic representation of universal and profoundly human experiences and emotions. We here lead our listeners into a personal experience of the rosary, beginning and ending with a passacaglia. Alpha and Omega: the circle is complete.
Tracklisting
Elias Agsteribbe, Samuel Van De Velde
Madoka Nakamaru, Wouter Dekoninck
Ensemble Les Alizes, Clemence Comte
Mihai Cocea, Oana Zamfir
Musica Gloria, Nele Vertommen, Beniamino Paganini
Luc Berge, Jan Michiels, Inge Spinette, Ilse Eerens
Ryelandt Trio, Linde Verjans, Seamus Hickey
Jonas Seeberg
Joseph Skypala, Anna Gregg, Rosalie Curlett, Belfast Sinfonia, Icon Strings
Yale Symphony Orchestra; William Boughton
Weser-Renaissance; Manfred Cordes
Vladimir Feltsman
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra; Ari Rasilainen
Tippett Quartet
The Rossetti Ensemble
Theo Hillborg; Filip Graden; Swedish Radio Choir; Kaspars Putnins
