Pierre Attaingnant: Que je chatoulle ta fossette, Danceries

The several volumes of Danceries occupy an important place amongst the numerous works published by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris. Although they were principally intended to give pleasure to instrumentalists, the ordering of the various pieces suggests that they also could well have been used to accompany dancers � and this has not been forgotten by the musicians of Doulce M�moire. Ricercar have added a number of songs to these dances, songs whose titles or character provide a reminder of the close connections that existed between music for dancing and vocal music at that time.

Musique and Sweet Poetrie

�This exquisite collection of musical gems is arranged so as to represent a tour around Europe at the end of the Renaissance. �there is a feast of pleasing musical detail here from both performers, beautifully captured by superb recording techniques.� --BBC Music Magazine, April 2007 *****

International Record Review: outstanding

A unique lute, built by Sixtus Rauwolf in Augsburg around 1590, was the starting point for this very special recital, which incorporates lute songs and solos by composers from different parts of Europe around 1600. Presenting a wealth of forms and national styles - from French airs de cour to Elizabethan pavans and examples of early Italian monody - the disc is a fascinating survey of the musical life of the time. But in the hands of these interpreters it becomes much more than that: Emma Kirkby and Jakob Lindberg, playing his historic lute, bring this music to life with incomparable immediacy. It is as if we were present when Shakespeare first heard Robert Johnson's setting of his 'Full fathom five', Ariel's song from The Tempest, or when Georg Schimmelpfennig, court composer to Landgrave Moritz in Kassel, showed the daughter of his employer the florid solo madrigal 'Dolce tempo passato', set to her own poem.

Some of the names represented on this disc are familiar to all: John Dowland, with three songs, and Heinrich Sch�tz, with one of his Kleine geistliche Konzerte, a setting of Psalm 70. Others, like Schimmelpfennig or the Antwerp-born lutenist Gregory Huwet, are far less known to the general public. But all of them created musical jewels, which Emma Kirkby and Jakob Lindberg - collaborators of long standing - have gathered together into a glittering diadem encircling a large part of Europe at the dawn of the 17th century.

The Voice of Emotion

This album gathers highlights from Montserrat Figueras� career for the Astr�e, DHM, EMI and Alia Vox labels. 5 of the 35 tracks have already been reissued in a portrait album released in the 1990s by Astr�e, La 'Voix de l� Emotion'. Jordi Savall wanted to keep the same title for this much more comprehensive double album, in tribute to the late Montserrat Figueras, his wife and collaborator of 43 years.

35 year-career: 35 tracks

The Harp of Luduvico

Fantasias, arias and toccatas by Frescobaldi and his predecessors

GRAMOPHONE CRITICS' CHOICE

'This is a quite stunning record. Treat yourself to it, even if it means pawning something you can live without' --Gramophone

'This is a stunning record' --Fanfare, USA

Lux Femin�

 

�Figueras is in her element. She can be dramatic or passionate, facetious or sorrowful; a young girl who wants her freedom and is only restrained with difficulty; and a saintly soul in a mystical union with God. Highly recommended.� --Gramophone Magazine, October 2006

�the best kind of musical archaeology, performed with imagination and unquenchable enthusiasm.� --The Guardian

 

Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice - October 2006
BBC Music Magazine Choral & Song Choice

This collection of mostly unfamiliar music from 900 to 1600 forms an homage to womanhood, femininity, sung by one of the most captivating early-music singers on disc. The ensemble, though made up of familiar personnel including her husband Jordi Savall, her daughter Arianna, Pierre Hamon, and Andrew Lawrence-King, is not credited as Hesp�rion XXI. The program is framed by Flavit Auster, a sequence in honor of the Blessed Virgin from Codex Las Huelgas that begins and ends the program. Other women honored are the Sibyl in an abridged rendition of the first Cant de la sibilla that Figueras recorded, and Beatriz de Dia, the first trobairitz. Sacred and profane music follow in succession, with a C�rceres villancico about a wife inviting another man to come in followed by a mystical poem of the Carmelite St. Teresa set as a contrafactum to an unknown melody. A kind of philosophical cast is thrown over the program by notes that divide the songs among seven aspects of womanhood.

Figueras is a supreme artist. The performances are uniformly first-rate, and the surround sound is palpable. The packaging is exactly like two recent Orlando Consort issues, a bound CD-size book of 172 pages, lavish with color printing; texts with six sets of notes and translations; and all the necessary documentation. The total product could not be done better. Buy this and you will treasure it. --FANFARE: J. F. Weber

Lament for Spain: Sephardic Romances and Songs

"Overall, I find this new release more enjoyable� I found Ferrero�s tenor an especially pleasing contrast to the female or countertenor voice. Second, the overall selection of Ladino songs offers more contrast of lyric content and gives an excellent overview of the repertoire. Third, and perhaps to me most significant, I find the arrangements and especially the instrumental accompaniments quite tasteful." --American Record Guide, November 2010

Sephardic music, from the ancient domain of al-Andalus (Andalusia), lies at the heart of this selection of songs in remembrance of a lost homeland.

The word endechar comes from a time before the expulsion of the Jews and their culture from Spain in 1492; within the Jewish community it meant �to sing funeral dirges� or �to lament�.

After leaving Spain, the Sephardim kept alive the tradition of singing endechas (laments), romances (narrative ballads), and other songs in their traditional language, ladino, or Judaeo-Spanish, which was based on ancient Castilian.

This was enriched by the addition of words from Hebrew and then from the languages, music and instruments of the places to which they travelled, such as Greece, the Balkans, Turkey and Morocco.