Musica aldersoetste konst (Polyphonic songs from the Low Countries) () Huelgas Ensemble & Paul Van Nevel

• Gheerkin De Hondt (1490 - 1547): Het was mij wel te vooren gheseijt (VRT Muziek Edition - Instrumental Version):
• 1Hondt: Het was mij wel te vooren gheseijt (VRT Muziek Edition - Instrumental Version)01:24
• Anonymous: Een wyflic beildt ghestadt van sinne (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 2Anonymous: Een wyflic beildt ghestadt van sinne (VRT Muziek Edition)02:14
• Alexander Agricola (1446 - 1506): In mijnen zin (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 3Agricola: In mijnen zin (VRT Muziek Edition)03:36
• Anonymous: Wy en sullen niet bedien (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 4Anonymous: Wy en sullen niet bedien (VRT Muziek Edition)03:05
• Ghisternavent was ic maecht (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 5Anonymous: Ghisternavent was ic maecht (VRT Muziek Edition)03:02
• Myns liefkins claer anscauwen (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 6Anonymous: Myns liefkins claer anscauwen (VRT Muziek Edition)04:07
• Jacob Obrecht (1457 - 1505): Petrucci Odhecaton: Tandernaken (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 7Obrecht: Petrucci Odhecaton: Tandernaken (VRT Muziek Edition)02:26
• Laurentius D.A.: Waer is hy nu? (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 8D.A.: Waer is hy nu? (VRT Muziek Edition)01:39
• Jacobus Clemens non Papa (1510 - 1555): Ick quam ghereden in een dal (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 9Papa: Ick quam ghereden in een dal (VRT Muziek Edition)00:53
• Anonymous: Ic quam cheredem (VRT Muziek Edition - wind instruments version):
• 10Anonymous: Ic quam cheredem (VRT Muziek Edition - wind instruments version)00:49
• Wie sach oit blider dach (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 11Anonymous: Wie sach oit blider dach (VRT Muziek Edition)01:37
• Een meijsken dat te werbe gaet (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 12Anonymous: Een meijsken dat te werbe gaet (VRT Muziek Edition)01:21
• Tsinghen van der nachtegale (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 13Anonymous: Tsinghen van der nachtegale (VRT Muziek Edition)01:52
• Ic quam cheredem (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 14Anonymous: Ic quam cheredem (VRT Muziek Edition)00:57
• Ic zie de claren dach (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 15Anonymous: Ic zie de claren dach (VRT Muziek Edition)04:17
• Antoine Brumel (1460 - 1512): Tandernac (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 16Brumel: Tandernac (VRT Muziek Edition)02:26
• Noë Faignient (1537 - 1578): Musica aldersoetste konst (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 17Faignient: Musica aldersoetste konst (VRT Muziek Edition)01:46
• Josquin Desprez (1450 - 1521): O Venus bant (VRT Muziek Edition - recorder, cornetto, fiddle):
• 18Desprez: O Venus bant (VRT Muziek Edition - recorder, cornetto, fiddle)01:49
• Heinrich Isaac (1450 - 1517): O Venus bant (VRT Muziek Edition - 2 shawms, recorder, trombone):
• 19Isaac: O Venus bant (VRT Muziek Edition - 2 shawms, recorder, trombone)01:04
• Anonymous: Maria sart (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 20Anonymous: Maria sart (VRT Muziek Edition)05:47
• Alexander Agricola: Mijn alderliefste moeselkin (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 21Agricola: Mijn alderliefste moeselkin (VRT Muziek Edition)02:03
• Dat meysken opter laden lach (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 22Agricola: Dat meysken opter laden lach (VRT Muziek Edition)01:43
• Anonymous: O Jesus bant (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 23Anonymous: O Jesus bant (VRT Muziek Edition)04:18
• Jacobus Flori (1550 - 1599): Staet ons bij Heer (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 24Flori: Staet ons bij Heer (VRT Muziek Edition)01:52
• Anonymous: Truren moet ic nacht ende dach (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 25Anonymous: Truren moet ic nacht ende dach (VRT Muziek Edition)03:31
• Gheerkin De Hondt: Het was mij wel te vooren gheseijt (VRT Muziek Edition):
• 26Hondt: Het was mij wel te vooren gheseijt (VRT Muziek Edition)01:31
• Total Runtime01:01:09

Info for Musica aldersoetste konst (Polyphonic songs from the Low Countries) ()

During the 15th and 16th centuries Franco-Flemish polyphony was the most important musical style at the great courts all over Western Europe. Franco-Flemish means here: on both sides of the language border that runs through the Low Countries and which played no part on an artistic level. The flourishing was due to the excellent choir schools of the cathedrals of Tournai, Cambrai and Liège and to important churches in for example, Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels and Mons. There talented boys learned from a choirmaster how to embellish the mass with Gregorian chant and polyphonic song.

The composers and singers from the Low Countries were particularly popular in the rest of Europe. Polyphonists like Josquin des Prez, Jacob Obrecht, Adriaan Willaert and Philippus de Monte went to the important courts and churches and in so doing ensured the spread of the Franco-Flemish repertoire in Europe.

Huelgas Ensemble
Paul Van Nevel, director

Huelgas Ensemble
For over fifty years, the Huelgas Ensemble has been one of the most acclaimed ensembles specialising in the performance of polyphonic music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The ensemble is internationally renowned for its innovative programming, often featuring lesser-known works. The perspectives employed by the ensemble and its pitch precision consistently astonish audiences.

The historically informed interpretations of the Huelgas Ensemble are shaped by a profound understanding of the aesthetic principles of music and vocal practices from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Voices in the press and media repeatedly praise the ensemble's spontaneous vitality and extraordinary clarity in delivering its repertoire, consistently setting new standards. It is precisely these musical qualities that lead more and more contemporary composers to invite the Huelgas Ensemble to perform their works (including Wolfgang Rihm and James MacMillan).

The Huelgas Ensemble performs in internationally renowned venues, including the Lincoln Center (New York), Cité de la Musique (Paris), Berliner Philharmonie, Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms, London), Wiener Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon), Filharmonia Narodowa (Warsaw), BOZAR (Brussels), AMUZ (Antwerp), and Concertgebouw Bruges. The ensemble is also regularly featured at significant early music festivals, where it often performs in its 'natural environment' of centuries-old chapels, churches, and monasteries. In this way, it builds an interdisciplinary bridge between polyphonic music and architecture. ​

In 2019, the Huelgas Ensemble organized its very own 'Pentecost Festival' for the first time; an international festival held in the picturesque Burgundian village of Talant, near Dijon. The ensemble found an ideal platform for musical experiments, performances of entirely unknown outstanding repertoire, new concert forms and variations in concert setup, and musical interaction with the audience. The fact that the event is dedicated to a single ensemble is a new concept in the festival world.

The discography of the Huelgas Ensemble includes over one hundred and twenty recordings of vocal and instrumental works from the 12th to the early 17th century. It features works by Dufay, Brumel, de Rore, Richafort, de Kerle, Ferrabosco, Palestrina, Lassus, and Ashewell, among others. The ensemble has recorded for Seon, Sony Classical, Harmonia Mundi France, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Cypres, and ECM. Recent discography includes The Eton Choirbook, The Treasures of Claude Le Jeune, Le mystère de ‘Malheur me bat', L’héritage de Petrus Alamire, The Ear of Zurbáran, Firminus Caron : Twilight of the Middle Ages, The Mirror of Claudio Monteverdi, The Ear of the Huguenots, ET LUX by German composer Wolfgang Rihm for eight voices and string quartet, La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina by Francesca Caccini (the first recording of the opera with reconstructed instrumental dances), The Music Prints of Christophe Plantin, The Ear of Theodoor van Loon, The Ear of Christopher Columbus, Simone de Bonefont : Missa pro mortuis, The Magic of Polyphony (3CD box-set, live recording of Pentecost Festival 2019), En Albion (polyphony from 14th century England), The Landscape of the Polyphonists, and Ludwig Daser: Polyphonic Masses. ​

In addition, the ensemble has made numerous radio recordings of concerts broadcast worldwide, as well as film recordings, including complete film productions, concert livestreams, documentaries, interviews, concert introductions by artistic director Paul Van Nevel, and experimental recordings in collaboration with video artists.

Paul Van Nevel and his ensemble have received numerous awards, including several Caecilia prizes from the Belgian music press, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Edison Classical Music Award, Cannes Classical Award for Early Music, Prix in Honorem from the Académie Charles Cros, Carrièreprijs from VRT Klara, a prize from the European Radio Union and the Canadian Radio, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, German ECHO Klassik (prizes in 1994, 1997, 2010, and 2011), several Diapason d'Or for various recordings, Diapason d'Or de l'année 2014, and Diapason d'Or de l'année 2015. More recent awards include Choc du mois from the magazine Classica in February 2017, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (Bestenliste 1/2017) for the CD recording The Mirror of Claudio Monteverdi, and OPUS KLASSIK 2019, the opera recording of the year award (opera up to the 18th century) for the CD recording Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina. In October 2022, the ensemble received a Choc d’or from the magazine Classica for the CD recording The Landscape of the Polyphonists, and the OPUS KLASSIK (Berlin) as the Ensemble of the year 2022 for the CD recording En Albion. Lastly, in October 2023, the ensemble received the prestigious Gramophone Award in the Early Music section for the CD recording Ludwig Daser: Polyphonic Masses.

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