COMPÈRE Music for the Duke of Milan

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Alexander Agricola, Gaspar van Weerbecke, Loyset Compère, Heinrich Lübeck, Johann Paul Aegidius Martini

Genre:

Vocal

Label: Arcana

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 65

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: A436

A436. COMPÈRE Music for the Duke of Milan

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Ave Domina Sancta Maria a 4 Alexander Agricola, Composer
Alexander Agricola, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Ave, pulcherrima regina a 3 Alexander Agricola, Composer
Alexander Agricola, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
L'homme banni Alexander Agricola, Composer
Alexander Agricola, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Tota pulchra es Alexander Agricola, Composer
Alexander Agricola, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Missa Galeazescha Loyset Compère, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Loyset Compère, Composer
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Ave Maria, gratia plena Loyset Compère, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Loyset Compère, Composer
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Etzliche Punctenn aus einer Sonade Heinrich Lübeck, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Heinrich Lübeck, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Sonata No 6 Heinrich Lübeck, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Heinrich Lübeck, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Sonata No 100 Heinrich Lübeck, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Heinrich Lübeck, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
La Martinella Johann Paul Aegidius Martini, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Johann Paul Aegidius Martini, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Toujours bien Johann Paul Aegidius Martini, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Johann Paul Aegidius Martini, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Ave, stella matutina a 4 Gaspar van Weerbecke, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Gaspar van Weerbecke, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Christi mater, ave Gaspar van Weerbecke, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Gaspar van Weerbecke, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Mater digna Dei Gaspar van Weerbecke, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Gaspar van Weerbecke, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
Virgo Maria Gaspar van Weerbecke, Composer
Ensemble Pian & Forte
Gaspar van Weerbecke, Composer
La Pifarescha
La Reverdie
Odhecaton
Paolo da Col, Director
This is only the third anthology devoted to Loyset Compère, whose 500th death-anniversary falls next year; but it is a fitting commemoration, for both music and performance are on a pleasingly high level. It recreates the music at the court of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan, a colourful and aesthetic megalomaniac whose obsession with women and hunting was equalled only by a determination to establish a chapel choir to rival those of more illustrious rulers. Compère joined the ensemble two years before Galeazzo’s spectacular murder in 1476 resulted in a mass clear-out. He and his colleague Gaspar van Weerbeke were among the most renowned composers of the time, and enough music survives to suggest that those years must indeed have been splendid.

The recital’s centrepiece is the so-called Missa Galeazescha, a cycle of motets likely intended for performance while Mass was being said. This is interleaved with other motets by Weerbeke and Agricola, bringing together several ensembles in different combinations (including as soloist the organist Liuwe Tamminga, playing on a Bolognese instrument built in the very decade the music was composed).That voices and instruments combined as they do here in some movements of the Missa Galeazescha is by no means a given, but the groups are so well blended (and indeed opulent) that one imagines that Galeazzo would have been delighted. In fact, the variety of approaches on offer is one of this disc’s most attractive aspects. Two moments stand out for me: Tamminga’s rendering of organ intabulations (particularly Weerbeke’s Virgo Maria), an awe-inspiring sound; and a passage in the Missa Galeazescha when Compère abruptly switches styles, as though directly grafting a popular lauda into his music. At this point voices give way to instruments altogether; it’s a very moving moment.

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