Lamentationes (2004)

In the liner notes of the CDs it issues, Germany's MDG label offers a blurb touting its "genuine reproduction with precise depth gradation, original dynamics, and natural tone colors." It's reminiscent of the specs-crazy 1960s, but once in a while the engineers do meet the musicians at a charmed spot. Lamentationes is a disc of fairly obscure Renaissance choral music that's not going to hit the top of the classical charts, but put it on a high-end stereo and it'll get the attention of anyone who stops by. The small, seven ... Read More

In the liner notes of the CDs it issues, Germany's MDG label offers a blurb touting its "genuine reproduction with precise depth gradation, original dynamics, and natural tone colors." It's reminiscent of the specs-crazy 1960s, but once in a while the engineers do meet the musicians at a charmed spot. Lamentationes is a disc of fairly obscure Renaissance choral music that's not going to hit the top of the classical charts, but put it on a high-end stereo and it'll get the attention of anyone who stops by. The small, seven-voice Josquin Capella performs three works that illuminate the special vocabulary associated with mourning in the High Renaissance. The disc opens with a set of Lamentationes Hieremiae Prophetae (Lamentations of Jeremiah) by Costanzo Festa, better known for his contributions in the zippy frottola genre. A marvelously expressive setting of this Holy Week text, it's followed by the Requiem of Johannes Ockeghem, perhaps the first complete polyphonic setting of the Mass for the Dead. The... Read Less