Music / renæssance -> 1600

Miserere mei Deus : funeral motets & deplorations


Reviews (5)


MusicWeb international

2018 November

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Gary Higginson

2018 November

"It may be that a disc of seemingly sombre funereal motets sounds a little mawkish. Yet these pieces make a wonderfully cohesive and not at all a dull samey collection ... The setting of Miserere mei, Deus, Psalm 51 ... is a real masterwork, with its regular, never tedious repetitions of 'Miserere, mei Deus'. It also is a very moving performance ... Daniel Reuss seems to take the view that Josquin composed beautiful music, which needs a smooth approach ... The Amsterdam Choir, twelve singers, are equally thoughtful about suitable tempi but have more space around. That creates a sheen of holiness, which is very suitable".


BBC music magazine

2019 February

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Kate Bolton-Porciatti

2019 February

"An entire disc of funeral motets and deplorations might not sound like fun, but Josquin's music and the timeless poetry of his texts assuage and trancend. The beautifully shaped programme starts with Josquin's celebrated tributes to his older contemporary Ockeghem and closes with Nicolas Gombert's memorial to Josquin ... Conductor Daniel Reuss shapes fluid, softly contoured lines here ... so Josquin's polyphony flows like honeyed balm ... The acoustic of Amsterdam's Walloon Church ... adds a delicate bloom without being too splashy ... promises lovely things to come".


Fono Forum

2019 März

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Malte Hemmerich

2019 März

"Wenn Josquín ... zwischen kunstvoller Polyfonie und schmeichelnden homofonen Passagen wechselt, ist es ein Verdienst der Sänger der Capella Amsterdam mit Dirigent Daniel Reuss, dass das so ohrenöffnend funktioniert. Es gibt keine bahnbrechenden Neudeutungen, dafür sorgsamste Gestaltung: Mit den weichen, gut geformten, aber nie aufmüpfigen Stimmen der Sänger klingt das harte Latein sanftmütig und farbig. Ja geradezu lebendig".


Diapason

2018 novembre

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David Fiala

2018 novembre


The gramophone

2018 December

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Fabrice Fitch

2018 December

"I've sometimes found Josquin easier to admire than to love; but perhaps because contrapuntal wizardry is toned down in these works, this disc reminds me how deeply moving his music can be. Cappella Amsterdam are a mixed choir singing roughly two to a part. Their sound is situated midway between their Flemish and English counterparts, and their performance style is on the cool side, though never forbidding or overly objectified ... This seems to me an admirable introduction to the motet repertory as a whole".