La Rue Masses
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Pierre de La Rue
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Magazine Review Date: 9/1989
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: HMC40 1296
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Missa, '(L')homme armé' |
Pierre de La Rue, Composer
(Clément) Janequin Ensemble Pierre de La Rue, Composer |
| Missa pro defunctis |
Pierre de La Rue, Composer
(Clément) Janequin Ensemble Pierre de La Rue, Composer |
Composer or Director: Pierre de La Rue
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Magazine Review Date: 9/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 48
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: HMC90 1296
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Missa, '(L')homme armé' |
Pierre de La Rue, Composer
(Clément) Janequin Ensemble Pierre de La Rue, Composer |
| Missa pro defunctis |
Pierre de La Rue, Composer
(Clément) Janequin Ensemble Pierre de La Rue, Composer |
Author: David Fallows
The Clement Janequin Ensemble are on cracking form here. They approach the L'homme arme Mass with just the kind of dangerous and spirited music-making that most performers of renaissance music today tend to avoid. It is risky, but evidently very well rehearsed. One is left breathless at their virtuosity, which matches Pierre de la Rue's technical wizardry in being able to squeeze so much dazzling invention out of the L'homme arme melody. The work is a blatant tour de force: each composer who composed a L'homme arme Mass did so with an awareness of his predecessors in the genre, including, in this case, Dufay, Busnoys, Josquin, Obrecht and Ockeghem. Pierre de la Rue is unashamedly attempting to trump them with technical brilliance: his Mass fairly bristles with canonic treatment and makes more extensive use of the original melody than, I think, any previous setting, and his challenge finds its apt parallel in this headlong performance.
Holten's recent record of the same work (SteepleChase Kontrapunkt/Harmonia Mundi) obviously cannot match that, though it is excellent, and there are many passages in which his more thoughtful approach works better: listen for example, to his wonderfully sensitive handling of the Agnus Dei. But to my ear there is just no challenging the Clement Janequin Ensemble when they hit this kind of form: on occasions like this they seem to me possibly the best vocal group in Europe.
Rather less so in the Requiem, however. Certainly they produce some glorious sounds, espedally in the low-pitched sections; and again this is above all things a spirited performance with some awe-inspiring technical displays. But Pierre de la Rue's Requiem is a rather different kind of work. Holten's reading, which takes about half as long again in several movements, is surely far closer to the mark: it actually sounds like a Requiem Mass rather than an opportunity for vocal display. So the new Requiem seems to me mainly a curiosity, however skilled its performance. For theL'homme arme Mass, though, the record is an absolute winner.'
Holten's recent record of the same work (SteepleChase Kontrapunkt/Harmonia Mundi) obviously cannot match that, though it is excellent, and there are many passages in which his more thoughtful approach works better: listen for example, to his wonderfully sensitive handling of the Agnus Dei. But to my ear there is just no challenging the Clement Janequin Ensemble when they hit this kind of form: on occasions like this they seem to me possibly the best vocal group in Europe.
Rather less so in the Requiem, however. Certainly they produce some glorious sounds, espedally in the low-pitched sections; and again this is above all things a spirited performance with some awe-inspiring technical displays. But Pierre de la Rue's Requiem is a rather different kind of work. Holten's reading, which takes about half as long again in several movements, is surely far closer to the mark: it actually sounds like a Requiem Mass rather than an opportunity for vocal display. So the new Requiem seems to me mainly a curiosity, however skilled its performance. For the
La Rue Masses
La Rue Masses
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