Project Harmonia Mundi - Part 30

In 1726 Bach entered a new period of creative innovation in Leipzig: renouncing the chorus, he built up a constant dialogue between solo arias and finely sculpted instrumental parts. The three cantatas presented here represent the culmination of this development, and have established their place as a peak of the recorded repertoire.

Fretwork illuminate the mysteries of The Art of Fugue. Vividly performed on viols, Bach’s culminating musical achievement springs to life, complete and unencumbered by posthumous additions.

The distant godfather to Chopin’s famous 24 Preludes op.28 is Johann Sebastian Bach, whereas the sources for the four Ballades are works by the Polish writer Mickiewicz. Yet in these two cycles Chopin also reveals himself as the ‘poet in sound’ venerated by Heinrich Heine, who tells stories all his own in the language of music and who, in this case, pointed the way to the future with his transformations of both miniature and epic forms.

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.

A composer to discover or rediscover! Long overshadowed by the reputation of his Bohemian compatriots Smetana, Dvořák and Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů is at last enjoying his fair share of the limelight. Commentators have so often confined themselves to describing his music in terms of multiple influences – Roussel, French music, the 18th-century concerto grosso – that they have tended to forget his own strong personality and his perfect assimilation of Baroque style. The three works presented on this recording display the Czech composer’s endless creativity within the framework of a vivid concertante language.

Each time Schoenberg sought to synthesise his views on God and the world, his understanding of art and religion, of artists and seers, and to open out perspectives on human history, the resulting works remained fragments. This is the situation with Jacob’s Ladder, which is nonetheless a major landmark in his œuvre. Schoenberg here explores new compositional paths, breaking free from conventional tonality to restructure the harmonic space.

The Trio Wanderer celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2007! To mark the occasion, these two CDs offer a chance to rediscover the group’s recording of Schubert’s complete music for piano trio, which was enthusiastically received by the critics on its release in 2000. The set closely follows the composer’s evolution from his beginnings as a gifted schoolboy to his maturity, illustrating the gradual emancipation of his style through constant struggle with the masters of the past – Mozart, Haydn, and of course Beethoven. These trios enjoyed a new lease of life in the 1970s thanks to the success of the film Barry Lyndon.

Paris, 1968: with the premiere of Stimmung, Stockhausen redefined the very notion of what vocal music is. This series of sonic sequences, entirely built on the overtones of B flat in multiple combinations, embraces new musical techniques and explores the inner world of speech and song. Paul Hillier, a specialist in contemporary vocal repertoire, proves in his new recording that this milestone of 20th-century music is still as relevant as ever.

Since the late twelfth century, the Cathedral of Santiago in Compostela has possessed a manuscript entitled Jacobus (or Codex Calixtinus). How it found its way to Compostela is not known for certain, but it is undoubtedly a French product, probably compiled or written in Cluny around 1150. Although they represent a mere ten percent of the music in Jacobus, the polyphonic works have received attention from scholars because they are among the earliest such pieces to have been written down. But the notation in Jacobus is ambiguous as to rhythm and meter, as well as to alignment of pitches between the voice parts in the polyphony…

Machaut’s extraordinary Messe de Nostre Dame was not only the first complete mass setting in history, but also the first whose composer can be identified, making it emblematic of the Ars Nova style of the 14th century. In this recording, the Orlando Consort performs the mass in parallel with a work by Tarik O’Regan (born in 1978) which was inspired by it. Scattered Rhymes links two texts from the same period as Machaut’s mass, one by Petrarch, the other an anonymous English poem. Both of them subtly combine earthly and divine love, while the music blends polyphonic tradition and contemporary inspiration.