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Although a lot of mystery shrouds their conception, Bach’s motets count amongst his works which were played uninterruptedly in Leipzig from their origin up until now. For this reason interpretative traditions have overlapped in the course of the centuries in these six remarkable pages. Philippe Herreweghe, at the light of recent research, has found inspiration in the Leipzig practices. These traditions give these motets all their glamour, whilst given them stark relief with very different configurations (simple and double chorus, basso continuo, varied instrumentation). Led by outstanding soloists, Collegium Vocale Gent is at the peak of its art. A new version destined to become a milestone! “"Jesu, meine freude" with just five soloists and continuo is perfectly poised, while "Singet dem Herrn" (which Mozart so revered) and "Der Geist hilft" burst into life with more singers and instruments. Throughout, Herreweghe achieves a supremely flexible responsiveness to the texts.” The Observer, 14th August 2011 “The results reflect Herreweghe's sensibility for tonal nuance and, above all, the fashioning of sung texts. An orchestra of strings and winds doubles his vocal A-team in Singet dem Herrn, an extravagance perhaps but a convincing one nonetheless...Honest-to-goodness quality governs Herreweghe's approach, matched by the heartfelt commitment and excellence of his colleagues and exquisitely balanced recorded sound.” Classic FM Magazine, September 2011 “The one-voice-to-a-part lobby doesn't wholly convince Herreweghe; he approaches the instrumentation of each motet on a case-by-case basis, cornetto and trombones lending grandeur to a finely chiselled account of Furchte dich nicht. Three motets do surrender to one-to-a-part treatment, however - and very successful they are too” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 **** “For expressive eloquence, top marks, but [Herreweghe] is hampered at times by the sense of a "guest" ensemble short on the familiar bearings of a regular vocal outfit - even if this is relative...Vintage Herreweghe in parts, if not in toto.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011 “Herreweghe has assembled a luxuriously attractive group of soloists...None can be singled out, for they are collectively outstanding and, more to the point, intensely persuasive of Herreweghe's decision to perform as 'solo' works certain motets that are more usually heard tutti...For those who have only heard Herreweghe's earlier recording this is an essential upgrade, but it's also a clear front-runner among other impressive recent versions” International Record Review, Septmeber 2011 | | PHI - LPH002 (CD) Normally: $17.50 Special: $13.47 |
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| |  | Mozart: Gran Partita
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The Requiem of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opens a new series of DVDs released by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute presenting outstanding artistic events. The first disc in the series is a recording of a solemn mass celebrated on 17 October 2010 at the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Warsaw, where traditionally on the anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin’s death, in front of his heart, a recreated funeral service is combined with Mozart’s Requiem, which in accordance with the composer’s wishes was performed at his funeral in Paris. During Chopin Year, this event gained a special dimension: the Requiem was treated to a masterful rendition by the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Collegium Vocale Gent and Accademia Chigiana Siena choirs, and the soloists Christina Landshamer, Ingeborg Danz, Robert Getchell and Matthew Brook, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, recorded for the first time ever in its liturgical version, and in its original period sound. Produced in HD film technology, preserving the highest possible sound quality, it conveys in a sophisticated way the unique atmosphere of both the ceremony and the venue. This release also inaugurates the cycle ‘Romantic Requiem’, comprising recordings of funeral masses by nineteenth century composers to be performed in front of Chopin’s heart at Warsaw’s Holy Cross Basilica. The Institute will shortly be issuing Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, also under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe. “The visual impression of grandeur mixed with intimacy is entirely appropriate for the music...Herreweghe conducts with an almost priestly mien at times, though his tempos are generally a bit on the fast side.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2013 *** “The soloists are excellent. Andrew Foster-Williams is solemn and authoritative...[Eerens] floats 'Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit' with a reassuring confidence...As for the filming, it's a model of its kind.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2013 |
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Antonín Dvorak’s daughter Josefa died on 21 September 1875. In response to this bereavement, Dvorak composed the initial version of his Stabat Mater – for four soloists, choir, and piano – between 19 February and 7 May 1876. He then set the work aside without orchestrating it. Soon after this, he lost his other two children in the space of a few weeks, his daughter Ružena on 13 August and his son Otokar on 8 September 1877. At this point he returned to the manuscript abandoned the previous sacred music and established him notably in Great Britain, where his reputation was to remain firm for the rest of his life. This rarely recorded masterpiece has also inspired Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent. Along with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, they strip the work of all Romantic excess. The result is a spiritual journey from the sombre opening bars to the final Amen, underlining the universal grandeur of this major work of sacred music. |
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This title was released for the first time in 1999 and was one of the first to use Jonathan del Mar's edition in which textual errors and ambiguities are corrected. “expressive but on a tight rhythmic leash” BBC Music Magazine, April 2013 **** |
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The Collegium Vocale Gent and Orchestre des Champs-Elysées interpret Beethoven's Missa Solemnis for PHI. This major work of the sacred repertoire, high on the list alongside Bach's Mass in B minor and the Mozart Requiem, is Beethoven's longest work and assuredly the one that demanded the most work. The composer even considered the Mass his finest work. Philippe Herreweghe shares this opinion and judges the Missa Solemnis to be one of the apogees in the history of classical music. With four superb soloists, a refined chorus and orchestra, Philippe Herreweghe invites us to a thoroughly transcendental experience. “With a smallish orchestra, period practices and a tight grip on tempos, this is one of the least relenting performances I have heard.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2013 **** “The orchestra is a period band but the sceptical and unkeen can rest assured that this is an expressive and weighty performance, to be ranked with any on modern instruments...The orchestra is a constant delight...The adoption of a pitch at nearly a semitone below today's standard helps danger spots...The choir is excellent, with an impressive precision...matched by the soloists, especially by Marlis Petersen.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013 “There's a combination of transparency, rhythmic energy and spaciousness in his approach to the work that produces a radiance and power matched by few others...The smaller forces used by Herreweghe here never lack body or impact and the choir is outstanding.” International Record Review, June 2013 “this recording has a seasoned, generous wisdom combined with the transparency and rhythmic elasticity of “period instrument” performance...The chorus never forces its tone...However, the real stars of the recording are the orchestral players...Combined with the transparent and highly coloured sound, [Herreweghe's speeds allow] the strangeness of Beethoven’s sound-world to emerge with clarity...If you’ve always had your doubts about the piece, this may be the recording that quells them.” The Telegraph, 25th January 2013 ***** | | PHI - LPH007 (CD) Normally: $17.50 Special: $13.47 |
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| |  | JS Bach: Ach süßer Trost!Leipzig Cantatas
The four cantatas selected by Philippe Herreweghe for this recording date from the first year of Bach's activity in Leipzig. Written at a tight pace between late July and early September 1723, they underscore, above all, the composer's obvious effort to establish original musical proposals. He continually showed the musicians and listeners that he was not serving them routine 'cantor's music' but was writing sacred music as a true Kapellmeister. In this first volume of Bach cantatas for the PHI label, the Collegium Vocale Gent is interpreting a few cantatas (BWV 25 and 46) for the first time. “The virtues of Philippe Herreweghe’s interpretations are lean textures, clarity and superb, light-fingered instrumental dexterity. The drawbacks are a tendency towards ponderous, dogmatic, slightly stabby phrasing from the choir. However, Hana Blazikova supplies ravishing soprano solos, and the supple-voiced British tenor Thomas Hobbs also impresses.” The Times, 1st December 2012 *** “the choral sound is lean and alert, helped by lively tempos. Its near-solo tone, though, mingles rather than contrasts with the similar-scaled orchestra...Of the soloists, Thomas Hobbs is outstandingly expressive and vocally at ease, while bass Peter Kooij too is magnificent...this is Bach at his most inventive, in a sensitive and polished performance.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 **** “Especially in BWV25, Collegium Vocale Gent create the most ravishing of luminescent textures...Perfect balance is found here and Hana Blažiková's sparkling singing contributes to a memorable account...I defy anyone to find a more deploring and anguished reading of 'Wie zittern', with oboist Marcelle Ponseele performing the obbligato oboe even more exquisitely than before...a reading of experience and great beauty: quite simply a 'must-have' for Bach lovers.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 | | PHI - LPH006 (CD) Normally: $17.50 Special: $13.47 |
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| |  | Victoria: Officium Defunctorum
Tomás Luis de Victoria is definitely one of the most important composers in the music history of Spain. His masterpiece is the ‘Officium Defunctorum’, published in Madrid in 1605. In this requiem – written for the funeral of Maria of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles V – the composer reached a mystical intensity of expression. Philippe Herreweghe just loves composers “who know how to build entire worlds with sounds, recognizable from the first notes, profound and full of richness”. For him Tomás Luis de Victoria is one of them, “one of the greatest musical minds ever”. So it was an obvious choice for Philippe Herreweghe to make a recording of this heavenly ‘Officium Defunctorum’. And… of course Collegium Vocale Gent – with its cristal clear sound – is the perfect instrument to perform such music. Looking forward to the first renaissance project of Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent for the label Phi! “a CD of such beauty that it needs to be heard by every lover of Renaissance choral music. The music itself is stunning...Herreweghe’s 13 singers do it justice with performances that strike a perfect balance between lusciousness and clarity, expression and nobility.” The Times, 18th August 2012 ***** “The [Requiem]'s dramatic potential is not overtly exploited but rather suggested, such is the concentrated, cut-glass quality of the singing at its best...Fine as this account of the Requiem undoubtedly is, the series of accompanying motets contains some of the disc's finest singing.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012 “The 13 voices are as finely balanced and harmonious as you could wish, and throughout the recording there is immaculate tuning and exceptional attention to detail. The sense of architecture in the motet Versa est in luctum, for example, is wonderfully judged” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 **** “Herreweghe explores evey inflection of Victoria's score, includingt its restrained drama and grief transfigured by faith. The plainchant passages are sung with exceptional fluency and grace...The singers' diction is strikingly clear without seeming exaggerated...[Herreweghe] and his choir obviously understand each other and Victoria's music at the deepest level. A masterly recording in every way.” International Record Review, December 2012 | | PHI - LPH005 (CD) Normally: $17.50 Special: $13.47 |
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‘With baroque music as "flavour of the age", it seems only natural that we should rediscover – indeed reappraise – all that is neat, winsome and uncluttered in Mendelssohn's music, its slender forms and high level of invention. (…) Herreweghe's lively offering is best recommended to those whose main priority is a sense of period orchestral texture' Gramophone ‘…one of the lightest performances of the work that I have ever heard.' Fanfare This title was released for the first time in 1994. “Herreweghe draws some imaginative colours from Mendelssohn's brilliant score with an outstanding contribution from soprano Sandrine Piau.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 **** “This unusually full version of Mendelssohn’s Shakespeare score — only music inseparable from the spoken word is omitted — is a delight. Herreweghe’s period-instrument band make the most of the riches offered.” Sunday Times, 24th June 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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"If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. Philippe Herreweghe’s longlasting interest in the works of the Cantor of Leipzig has turned him into a man whose views evolve as he delves deeper into his subject matter. The joy that he feels – combined with a very legitimate sense of pride – in having forged musical tools that have today reached maturity, has led him to come back on a Missa that has never ceased to intrigue him: the catholic Missa of the protestant composer Bach. Last spring, theJesus-Christus Kirche in Berlin came alive with the splendid sounds of Bach’s score as preceding recordings of the Missa no longer met the radiant vision that the Flemish maestro had of it. Together with a handful of excellent soloists – included in the choir – and a Collegium vocally and instrumentally at its best, Philippe Herreweghe delivers a work that must be savoured like a sweet or a last supper where rigor and hedonism, inner depth and outer seduction tenderly offer themselves to the listener. “Herreweghe's account proves outstanding. The Collegium Vocale Gent, from which the soloists are drawn, is numerous enough [to] create warm lines, contrasting with the crisper tone of the instruments - I've never heard Bach's counterpoint more transparent. The balance between blend and individuality is superb, their empathy palpable...Its very moderation makes this a wonderful recording - highly recommended.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 ***** “This is Philippe Herreweghe's third commercial recordings of the Mass in B minor in 23 years and, unlike many conductors who serially return to cornerstone pieces, his finest to date...Herreweghe is a master of when to fill the sails and when to trim them...Atmosphere is ultimately what places Herreweghe's new reading in the higher echelons...This account is one of the most consistent in recent years.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2012 “given that this is a B minor Mass which exudes buoyancy, freshness and vitality, what are the drawback? The simple answer is: very few. Perhaps at times both the orchestral support and the vocal weight is a shade too light for some of the more weighty moments...As for the highlights, these are too numerous to list...This certainly stands as Herreweghe's most arresting reading of the work so far.” International Record Review, September 2012 “the clarity of the singing is really delightful; one is reminded, not for the only time in this performance, how much Bach’s music is founded in the dance...Whatever your standpoint, unless you are allergic to period-style performance of Bach then I would urge you to hear this marvellous new recording.” MusicWeb International, August 2012 | | PHI - LPH004 (CD - 2 discs) Normally: $26.50 Special: $20.40 |
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Gramophone Magazine
Gramophone Awards 2012