Cappella Pratensis & Stratton Bull
Release Date: 10 March 2014
Label: Challenge Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 608917263220
Genres: Classical Rennaissance
Description
The Dutch-based vocal ensemble Cappella Pratensis was founded in 1987, and is renowned for championing the music of Josquin Desprez and other polyphonists of the 15th and 16th centuries. On this recording they perform Josquin's Missa Ave maris stella under the direction of the ensemble's current conductor Stratton Bull.
Cappella Pratensis combines historically informed performance practice with inventive programmes and original interpretations based on scholarly research and artistic insight. As in Josquin's time, the members of Cappella Pratensis perform from a central music stand, singing from the original notation scored in a large choir book. This approach, together with attention to the linguistic origin of the compositions and the modal system on which it is based, offers a unique perspective on the repertoire.
This recording aims to recapture a sense of the ceremonial context that would have surrounded Josquin's sacred polyphony, in this case the Saturday Mass for the Blessed Virgin that took place is the Sistine Chapel in Rome during Advent. In order to approach closer to the original performance practices of the papal chapel, Cappella Pratensis here sings whenever possible from scale copies of the very books used by the papal chapel. Here, as then, the ensemble is all male (there were no boys in the papal chapel) and the number of singers is small, just two to a part, with duo and trio sections taken by solo voices. In light of the fact that most papal singers in this period were native French-speakers, the Latin of Josquin's polyphony as well as the Proper plainsongs is sung with a French accent.
For Challenge Classics, Cappella Pretensis have previously recorded Requiems by Ockeghem and De La Rue and 'Vivat Leo! Music for a Medici Pope' (with Joshua Rifkin).
Personnel: Cappella Pretensis, Stratton Bull (musical director)
Tracklisting
The Counterpoints
Narratio Quartet
Aart Bergwerff
Roberto Prosseda
Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Dejan Lazic, Jan Willem de Vriend
Ton Koopman
Duo Saraswati
Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull
Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull
Cappella Pratensis & Stratton Bull
Cappella Pratensis & Stratton Bull
