Song of Songs

EAC | APE+CUE+LOG | Covers | 401 Mb

Date CD: April 14, 2009 | Harmonia Mundi | 77:42

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Stile Antico's third recording won the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music, reached the top of the US Classical Chart and was named in Amazon's Best of 2009 list. The beautiful and erotic texts of the Song of Songs, a love-poem traditionally attributed to King Solomon, inspired the great composers of the Continental Renaissance to some of their most ardent music. This rich selection traces an emotional arc from the intensity of the Flemish masters to the most vivid, madrigialian motets by Vivanco and Victoria.

British vocal ensemble Stile Antico are the polished and stylish vehicle for transmitting this beauty and truth to our ears, and they do this consistently throughout a program that will intrigue and entice all Renaissance choral music fans... Victoria's huge Vadam et circuibo [has been] recorded many times by others but never better than here. You get a good feeling listening to this recording: good energy, good sound, good music, good sense of style and of the music's underlying emotional and spiritual context. What more is there to say, except "Happy listening!" 10/10 (David Vernier, Classics Today, 28.4.09)

Stile Antico's reading... is magnificently intelligent, enlivening every page with a jubilation appropriate to the theme. When we add to these qualities a truly rare coherence of sound, and a togetherness perhaps explained by the lack of a musical director, it will confirm that Stile Antico is one of today's finest mixed-voice ensembles. (Sophie Roughol, Classica CHOC, 5.5.09) 

This ensemble, its members still in their 20s and just a dozen beautifully blended voices singing a cappella, has emerged as one of the best and freshest early music choirs around... Palestrina's flowing lines... blur the boundaries of sacred and profane to sumptuous effect. (Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 3.5.08)

tracklist:

1. Clemens non Papa: Ego Flos Campi

2. Palestrina: Osculetur me

3. Plainchant: Dum esset rex

4. Guerrero: Surge, propera amica mea

5. Gombert: Quam pulchra es

6. Plainchant: Nigra sum

7. Lassus: Veni, dilecte mi

8. Victoria: Vadam et circuibo

9. Plainchant: Alleluia, tota pulchra es

10. Guerrero: Ego flos campi

11. Lheritier: Nigra sum

12. Plainchant: Laeva eius

13. Ceballos: Hortus Conclusus

14. Palestrina: Nigra sum

15. Plainchant: Speciosa facta es

16. Vivanco: Veni, dilecte mi

17. Guerrero: Trahe me post te

18. Plainchant: Iam hiems transiit

19. Victoria: Vidi speciosam

I'm beginning here to resurrect some of the works that "disappeared" from Avax or were "abandoned" from the original uploaders. There's not a real thought behind it, I'm just cleaning up my HDs and following the wind. What I downloaded long ago is flowing back. All credits go to the first uploader. Enjoy...