Huelgas Ensemble

Founded and directed by Paul Van Nevel, the Huelgas-Ensemble has emerged as one of Europe’s premiere vocal ensembles dedicated to the performance of music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Combining academic erudition with extraordinary skill and verve, the Huelgas Ensemble brings to life long-forgotten works of music that all too often have lain in dark corners of archives and libraries across the European continent. Through his work with the Huelgas Ensemble, Van Nevel initially focused on contemporary music. He gradually began to concentrate more on Medieval and Renaissance music, developing a specialty in the rich repertoire of Flemish polyphony. He approaches this music from an historical perspective and his interpretations reflect the spirit of the age.

At the heart of the group’s interpretative style is the recognition of the symbiotic relationship that existed between the arts in the Medieval and Renaissance mind. Bringing together everything from Albertus Magnus’s study of temperaments to the "memory theatre" of Giulio Camillo and the oratorical techniques espoused by rhetoricians of the period, the Huelgas Ensemble offers performances that are at once surprising and yet singularly apt. The Huelgas Ensemble has been awarded many prestigious prizes for their work including the Prix in Honorem from the Académie Charles Cros in 1994, the Diapason d’Or de l’année in 1996, the German ECHO in 1997 and the Cannes Classical Award in 1998.

The group’s first recording for harmonia mundi Lamentations of the Renaissance (HMC 901682) was awarded the Diapason d’Or and the Recommandé par Classica and was hailed by The Sunday Times as "impeccably sung". Future projects include the June 2000 release of O Gemma Lux 13 Isorhythmic Motets by Guillaume Dufay (HMC 901700) and the Fall 2000 release of Precum Vespertinarum by Christophorus Demantius.

In addition to his extensive work with the Huelgas Ensemble, Van Nevel has devoted much time to researching and transcribing music from the Medieval and Renaissance periods. A number of these transcriptions are available through the German publishing house Bärenreiter. His articles include a monograph on Johannes Ciconia and a popular essay, "Nicolas Gombert and the adventures of Flemish polyphony". Currently, he is preparing a piece on the "Franco-Flamands", the French-Flemish composers in Northern France during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Paul Van Nevel has appeared as guest conductor for several renowned groups, including the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Nederlands Kamerkoor and the choir of the Nederlandse Bach Vereniging, and has served as a guest lecturer at the Sweelinck School of Music in Amsterdam where he taught a course on notation and interpretation to the choirmaster section.

Discography

La Quinta Essentia

Missa "Tous les regretz" - Roland De Lassus Missa "Ave Maria" - Thomas Ashewell Missa Ut re mi fa sol la - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

For their latest release, Paul Van Nevel and the Huelgas-Ensemble have distilled the quintessence of vocal polyphony. Their spectacular new recording illustrates the dominant styles of the Renaissance as reflected in the Masses by its three greatest masters. The strict counterpoint of the Roman school is evident in the Missa Ut re mi fa sol la by Palestrina (c. 1525-1594); the ripe perfection of the Franco-Flemish school can be heard in the Missa "Tout les regretz" by Roland de Lassus (1532-1594) and the flamboyance of Late Gothic England shines through in the Missa “Ave Maria” by Thomas Ashewell (c. 1478-c. 1513). An entire world recreated in gorgeously vivid sound

40 Voices

Nomen mortis infame - Willem Cuelleers Gloria - Juan Bautista Comes Qui habitat - Josquin Desprez Jesus autem / Credo in Deum - Robert Wylkynson Ecce beatam lucem - Alessandro Striggio, Sr. En venant de Lyon - Pieter Maessins Lauda Jerusalem - Joao Lourenco Rebelo Exaudi me Domine - Giovanni Gabrielli Spem in alium - Thomas Tallis

While the latter half of the sixteenth century saw the first stirrings of the Baroque, this period also witnessed the creation of the finest cathedrals in sound, with their foundations in the distant Gothic era of music . . . Composers vied with each other in daring and ingenuity, presenting works with twelve, sixteen, twenty-four and even, in the case of Tallis’s famous Spem in alium, forty different voices! The Huelgas Ensemble celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary with a spectacular selection of these works.

8821 SACD $21.95

Le Chant de Virgile

Dulces exuviae - Josquin Desprez Dulces exuviae - Jehan Mouton Dulces exuviae - Mabriano de Orto Mollis inertia cum tantam diffuderit imis - Ludwig Senfl Non usitata nec tenui ferar - Ludwig Senfl Petti, nihil me sicut antea juvat - Ludwig Senfl O socii neque enim - Adriaan Willaert O socii neque enim - Cipriano de Rore Vulcan fondz dedans ton four - Richard de Renvoisy Lamech, Judith et Rachel - Anonyme francais Donec gratus eram tibi - Cipriano de Rore Vivons, m'amye et l'amour poursuyvons - Dominique Phinot Dulces exuviae - Jakob Vaet Dulces exuviae - Theodoricus Gerarde Dulces exuviae - Roland de Lassus

In this selection of settings by masters like Willaert and de Rore, among others, of the verse of Virgil, Horace and Catullus, Paul Van Nevel offers us, with the subtlety of perception and the rigorous but flexible attention to detail we have come to expect from him, another dazzling excursion into the rich and fascinating by ways of early Renaissance vocal music.

Lassus

Solo e pensoso S'una fede amorosa Di pensier in pensier Tutto'l di piango Cantai, hor piango Che fai, alma? La ver' l'aurora Mia benigna fortuna Io son si stanco sotto I'vo piangendo

It was in seeking to set to music the emotions they found in literary texts and poems – imitar le parole – that the madrigalists of the early sixteenth century rediscovered the poetry of Francesco Petrarca. The rich imagery of his language provided the springboard for Orlande de Lassus, in particular, to show his mastery over a period of nearly forty years as one of the greatest composers of madrigals.

Jacobus de Kerle

Credo Agnus Dei Cantio octo vocum de sacro foedere contra Turcas Super omnia ligna Requiem aeternam Dies Irae Libera me Domine Come nel mar A cinq voix A sept voix Media Vita

Perhaps Jacobus de Kerle, contemporary and peer of Orlande de Lassus, Clemens non Papa and Philippe De Monte, needed a tireless pioneer of the calibre of Paul Van Nevel to rediscover him for the 21st century. This master of polyphony, who was active in Flanders, Italy and Germany before finally settling in Prague, left works of timeless beauty - as this CD will prove.

Ferrabosco

Dolci ire Aupres de vous In nomine I Peccantem me quotidie Prima pars Secunda pars Tertia pars Quarta pars Quinta parso Sexta pars Septima pars Octava pars Nona parso Decima pars Undecima pars Bruna sei tu, ma bella Domine, non secundum peccata nostra Quel sempre acerbo

Alfonso Ferrabosco ‘Il Padre’ has suffered a curious fate: he has long been neglected on record, yet in his own time he was the most eminent representative of a famous Bolognese musical dynasty. After emigrating to England at an early age, he spent most of his life in the service of Elizabeth I, earning the admiration of his peers. Though implicated in some distinctly murky affairs – could he have been a secret agent for the queen? – Ferrabosco was above all a musical genius, capable of equally felicitous expression in the motet, the madrigal or the polyphonic chanson.

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