Josquin Desprez Motets and Chansons

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Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Loyset Compère, Josquin Desprez

Label: Reflexe

Magazine Review Date: 3/1984

Media Format: Vinyl

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: ASD143573-1

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Ave Maria, gratia plena...virgo serena	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Absalon fili mi	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Veni, Sancte Spiritus	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
De profundis clamavi	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Scaramella va alla guerra	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
In te Domine speravi, per trovar pietà	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
(El) grillo è buon cantore	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Mille regretz	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Petite camusette	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Je me complains	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
En l'ombre d'un buissonet au matinet	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Je ne me puis tenir d'aimer	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Nymphes des bois/Requiem, 'La déploration de Johannes Ockeghem'	Josquin Desprez, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Josquin Desprez, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor
Scaramella fa la galla	Loyset Compère, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Loyset Compère, Composer Paul Hillier, Conductor

Author: Iain Fenlon

Few composers of any century can have been so much written about and yet so little performed as Josquin Desprez. The subject of a two-volume monograph in German published in the 1960s, and of an International Festival Conference held in New York (with its deliberations published by the Oxford University Press in 1976), Josquin still commands precious few inches in Gramophone. At a time when scholars are talking about preparing a new edition of the composer's complete works, it is not unreasonable to point out how little practical use has been made of the old one.
Perhaps that is all to change, for here is a major British record company bringing out a record completely devoted to Josquin's music. The result is arguably the finest account of the composer's music since the old Bach Guild LP masterminded and conducted by Jeremy Noble (HM3SD, 2/73—nla). The complete record is made with only eight singers (an entirely plausible number in view of what is known of contemporary choir sizes), but the variety of tonal contrast and vocal styles that the Hilliard Ensemble produce is remarkable. With such a small group of singers it is not so surprising that there is great clarity and cleanness of detailing in these performances, but the richness and sonority of its 'full choir' effect, the lightness of touch in Petite camusette, the rustic dynamism of Scaramella—these are all testimony to a fine versatility as well as a sensitive understanding of the styles that Josquin was able to command. The acoustic though vibrant is not overtly so, and the engineers have produced a sensitive account.'