(The) Complete Hildegard von Bingen, Vol. 1
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Stevie Wishart
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Celestial Harmonies
Magazine Review Date: 9/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 62
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 13127-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Favus distillans |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| Et ideo puelle |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| O tu illustrata |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| O vos angeli |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| Studium divinitatis |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| O rubor sanguinis |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| O orzchis ecclesia |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| O gloriosissimi lux vivens angeli |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| Rex noster promptus est |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| Deus enim in prima muliere |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| De patria |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| Sed diabolus in invidia |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| Nunc gaudeant materna |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye Stevie Wishart, Composer |
| O ignee Spiritus |
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer
Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, Composer Oxford Girls' Choir Sinfonye |
Author: mberry
After Gothic Voices, with their Gramophone Award-winning CD that launched the cult of Hildegard (Hyperion, 7/82), after the female section of Sequentia, who further revealed the beauty of Hildegard’s seemingly unending melodic lines (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 5/95), after the light and grace of a performance by Emily Van Evera, sadly obliterated by modern instrumental overlay (Virgin Classics), after so many other attempts at interpretation, here is one that catches the imagination by the freshness and genuineness of its approach: Sinfonye, three mature female singers together with the Oxford Girls’ Choir. Stevie Wishart, in her enthusiastic discovery of Hildegard, has found fulfilment of an earlier student ambition of hers to promote the musical genius of women. She succeeds in putting Hildegard’s music across, partly because she has benefited from the experiments of others, but chiefly, I think, by her imaginative choice of singers, which includes quite young girls. The tuneful, unsophisticated timbre of the youngest voices – as, for example, that of Vickie Couper in Deus enim in prima muliere – acts as a foil to the sturdy chest voices of the older women – which have a quality of their own, somewhat akin to that of Hungarian folk singers. Such contrasts seem to me to be typical of the whole Hildegardian picture. Hildegard herself was made up of contrasts: she is ecstatic and at the same time quietly tender; she can be passionate while maintaining a sense of decorum; she is erotic but also chaste.
I could have done without the hurdy-gurdy; I could have dispensed with the drones and the improvised organum. What is left is an understanding, a penetration of Hildegard’s music, which rarely comes through in other interpretations. I am thinking particularly of the composer’s portrayal of the mystery of the Incarnation in O tu illlustrata and also, particularly, of the remarkably sustained lines of ecstasy in O vos angeli – this extraordinary outpouring ranging over two octaves, but which yet has shape and structure for all Hildegard’s protestations that she had never studied her art formally. Very highly recommended.'
I could have done without the hurdy-gurdy; I could have dispensed with the drones and the improvised organum. What is left is an understanding, a penetration of Hildegard’s music, which rarely comes through in other interpretations. I am thinking particularly of the composer’s portrayal of the mystery of the Incarnation in O tu illlustrata and also, particularly, of the remarkably sustained lines of ecstasy in O vos angeli – this extraordinary outpouring ranging over two octaves, but which yet has shape and structure for all Hildegard’s protestations that she had never studied her art formally. Very highly recommended.'
(The) Complete Hildegard von Bingen, Vol. 1
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