This hour features new, special CDs with early music. Today: two recently released CDs with music from Italy and Germany.
The first CD is devoted to an unknown Italian composer: Biagio Pesciolini. He was born in Prato, a small town northwest of Florence, and worked there for most of his life. He was in close contact with the De’ Medici family, who governed Florence, which had a crucial influence on his career.
His oeuvre is not extensive and has been preserved partially incomplete. A recently released CD is devoted to the second volume of sacral music he released in 1605. Notable is his preference for double-chorality: ten of the in total thirteen works are eight-part or ten-part.
Biagio Pesciolini (1535-1611)
1. Crucem pro nobis a 5
2. Minuisti eum a 6
3. Mirabile mysterium a 6
4. Adoramus te Christe a 8
5. Dilectus meus a 10
6. Benedicite omnia opera a 10
7. Decantabat populus a 10
Tuscae Voces, La Pifarescha conducted by Elia Orlando
(CD: “Biagio Pesciolini – Secondo Libro di musica sacra, Venezia 1605” – Tactus TC 531602, 2024)
The CPO label will release a series of recordings with music composed in the Hanseatic cities in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading towns in Central and Northern Europe. The first CD is devoted to Stralsund, a small town on the Baltic coast in present-day Germany. As a result of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), the town came under Swedish rule. That lasted until 1815, when it came under Prussian rule. Two of the composers on this CD worked in Stralsund during the time of the Thirty Years’ War.
Eucharius Hoffmann (c. 1540-1588)
8. Cantabo Domino
9. Desine ab ira
Caspar Movius (1610-1671)
10. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein reines Herz
Johann Vierdanck (1605-1646)
11. Der Herr Zebaoth ist mit uns
12. Sonate in d
13. Ich beschwöre euch
14. Ich freue mich im Herren
Europäisches Hanse-Ensemble conducted by Manfred Cordes
(CD: “Musik aus dem alten Stralsund” – CPO 555 578-2, 2023)
aanvulling:
Johann Vierdanck
15. Sonate in d
Europäisches Hanse-Ensemble olv. Manfred Cordes
(CD: see 8-14)
Picture: cover of the CD “Musik aus dem alten Stralsund”
