Ockeghem & Josquin Desprez Masses
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin Desprez
Label: Archiv Produktion
Magazine Review Date: 4/1986
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Catalogue Number: 415 293-2AH
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Missa Pro defunctis |
Johannes Ockeghem, Composer
Bruno Turner, Conductor Johannes Ockeghem, Composer Pro Cantione Antiqua |
Missa, '(L')homme armé' super voces musicales |
Josquin Desprez, Composer
Bruno Turner, Conductor Josquin Desprez, Composer Pro Cantione Antiqua |
Author: David Fallows
This represents very good value for money. In the black disc versions each work took up one-and-a-half sides; so the Compact Disc, in addition to its technical advantages, has almost 70 minutes of music. It also couples Ockeghem's most renowned work, the earliest surviving polyphonic Requiem Mass, with one of Josquin's most successful works, the Mass chosen to open the very first printed volume of Mass music in 1502.
The Josquin is surely among the finest recorded performances Pro Cantione Antiqua have ever made. Everything is lucid, sung with energy and passion but without interfering with the music, which is allowed to unfold miraculously. Their performance of the Ockeghem Requiem, on the other hand, never satisfied me in the past: there was something about the thickness of the vocal and instrumental sound that made it soporific. But it is astonishing what the transfer has achieved in making that sound more transparent; and a slight new emphasis on the higher partials seems to me to make the whole performance infinitely more persuasive. It should be mentioned that most of the Ockeghem is doubled by with wind players of the Hamburger Blaserkreis fur alte Musik; but once again in the transfer their effect seems more to enhance the sound.
For some reason the original sleeve-notes by Bruno Turner and Jeremy Noble—who edited the works for the recordings—have now been replaced by entirely new material. But there is plenty of reading matter here; and full texts are included.'
The Josquin is surely among the finest recorded performances Pro Cantione Antiqua have ever made. Everything is lucid, sung with energy and passion but without interfering with the music, which is allowed to unfold miraculously. Their performance of the Ockeghem Requiem, on the other hand, never satisfied me in the past: there was something about the thickness of the vocal and instrumental sound that made it soporific. But it is astonishing what the transfer has achieved in making that sound more transparent; and a slight new emphasis on the higher partials seems to me to make the whole performance infinitely more persuasive. It should be mentioned that most of the Ockeghem is doubled by with wind players of the Hamburger Blaserkreis fur alte Musik; but once again in the transfer their effect seems more to enhance the sound.
For some reason the original sleeve-notes by Bruno Turner and Jeremy Noble—who edited the works for the recordings—have now been replaced by entirely new material. But there is plenty of reading matter here; and full texts are included.'
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