Concertzender Live

Viva Adriano!

The hymn Mittit ad Virginem from Adriaen Willaert was sung during Advent’s Masses honouring the Virgin Mary, and during the fest of the Annunciation (Lady Day), on March the 25th.

Adriaen Willaert

Though the Annunciation is one of the most portrayed scenes in paintings, it isn’t a much-used theme in musical compositions. Adriaen Willaert used the hymn for his six-voice motet ‘Mittit ad virginem’, a composition that was included in the sacred part of his magnum opus, the Musica Nova, a collection of 27 motets and 25 madrigals.

Willaert composes a Mass with the same title, in honour of his former employer Alfonso II d’Este, the duke from Ferrara, when he takes over after the death of his father Ercole II on 3 October 1559. Tore Tom Denys came across this forgotten Mass in a catalogue and started searching for the manuscript. He uncovered it in the library of Modena, Italy: a beautiful six-voice Mass ordinary (including Kyrie, Gloria etc.) in a large, well-preserved (thus very readable) illustrated gradual, probably from around 1560-1563. Willaert continued the Ferrarese tradition, that was started by Josquin Des Prez with his Mass dedicated to Ercole I d’Este, as Lupus Hellinck did for Ercole II d’Este, while employed at the court chapel.

Tore Tom Denys took photos of the ancient manuscript, written in the original mensural notation, and transcribed it to a modern score.

Dionysos Now!

The Gregorian music selected by Denys for his programme is performed every year at August 15, Assumption, and forms a fitting addition to this Mass for Mary.

Byrd at his finest

Anthony Zielhorst takes the Collegium Musicum Amsterdam back to its roots: the polyphony of the 15th-16th century. Zielhorst studied organ and /choral conducting at the Conservatory in Tilburg, The Netherlands, as well as musicology at Utrecht University. He performed Gregorian music with the Gregorian Choir Utrecht and polyphonic repertoire from the second half of the 16th century with the Collegium Musicum Amsterdam.

Anthony Zielhorst

William Byrd’s career as a composer took of when he was appointed at the Chapel Royal in 1572. This chapel looks after the spiritual needs of the English monarchs and houses performances during religious festivities of the royal family. His appointment was rather unorthodox for the Anglican royals, as Byrd was a Catholic. Queen Elisabeth I had been very resolute in her choice to sever any ties to the pope, but perhaps Byrd’s musical talents were more important.

He compsed and published many works, from psalms and motets to English songs and harpsichord music. He succeeded in developing his own style while still following the rigourous rules of the renaissance polyphony and even develop new genres.

He died while in his eighties on July 4, 1623. Despite conflicts with his employers – and the fines he had to pay because of those – he died a wealthy man and was noted in the Chapel Royal’s records as “Father of Musick”.

Playlist

Adriaen Willaert (1490-1562)

Missa Mittit ad Virginem’ & Motets

Tota pulchra es

Hymnus Mittit ad virginem

Gaudeamus Omnes

Kyrie: Missa

Gloria: Missa

Audi filia

Quando di rose d’oro

A quand’haveva

Sassi, palae, e vu fiume

Ave Maris Stella

Ave Maria

Assumpta es Maria

O gloriosa domina

Sanctus- Benedictus: Missa

Beatam me dicent      

Agnus Dei: Missa

Performing: Dionysos Now! conducted by Tore Tom Denys, with Filip Dámec (countertenor),
Bernd Fröhlich, David Munderloh, Julian Podger, Tore Tom Denys (tenors),
Tim Scott Whiteley (bass-baritone), Simon Whiteley (bass).

Location: Scuala Grande di San Rocco, Venice

Recording technician: Steven Maes

William Byrd (ca. 1540-1623)

Tristitia et anxietas

Mass for Five Voices – Kyrie

Plorans plorabit

Ave Maria

Ave verum corpus

Mass for Five Voices – Sanctus en Benedictus

Ne irascaris, Domine

Miserere nostri

Mass for Five Voices – Agnus Dei

Tribue Domine

Performing: Collegium Musicum Amsterdam conducted by Anthony Zielhorst

Location: Barbarakerk, Culemborg

Sound technician: Theo van Soest