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Smaller stringed instruments began to be developed during the first half of the 16th century, maturing little by little into the vyollon, a term first employed at the court of Savoy in 1523.

It was at this time that violins first began to appear in paintings, one of which is the fresco by Gaudenzio Ferrari that appears on the cover of this CD.

The works recorded here put this period into a clear musical context and provide a fine array of contrasting works for these first violins: on one hand, there are not only works from the Franco-Flemish school that had been flourishing in Italy since the middle of the 15th century, but also works from the pure Italian style that was in the process of being reborn. Motets, ricercars, counterpoints, madrigals and dances are all discovered anew and extend our knowledge of period instruments even further.

This, after all, is one of Ricercar’s principal aims. This recording introduces the Miroir de Musique, an ensemble of young players, the majority of whom studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. We are proud to present an exciting programme of works performed by musicians who are able to ally musicology with emotion.

After the conquest of the Americas, Spanish and Portuguese clergymen and musicians brought their entire polyphonic tradition to these new lands. Some of these musicians settled in Latin America, with Juan de Araujo in Peru and Tomas de Torrejon y Velasco in Argentina. Others were born in the New World: Gaspar Fernandez was born in Mexico and remained there during his entire career. The extensive libraries of music of the great churches of Latin America also preserved a large number of manuscripts that often contained pieces that had completely disappeared from European collections.

Although the above musicians introduced their polyphonic skills to the New World, they were also seduced by local popular traditions, going so far as to adapt texts used in Roman Catholic liturgy to the local native languages. Hanacpachap, recorded here, was the first sacred work in a native language to be published in Latin America. This developmental shift in the Iberian polyphonic tradition is demonstrated by the works on this CD, one of them being Cererols’ Missa de batalla: this was composed for three choirs and is one of the most important Spanish Masses from the beginning of the 17th century. This recording, an exploration of sacred and secular music in the New World during the first years of the Baroque period, was made at the conclusion of a successful concert tour that formed part of the Festival de Wallonie 2012.

Much anticipated new release from the Gramophone Record of the Year winning Vox Luminis!

We know now that Purcell’s three Funeral Sentences were not written for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695. Following the tradition of the English court, it was pieces by Thomas Morley, originally written for the funeral of Elizabeth I, that were sung there. Purcell’s only contribution to the ceremony was the composition of two pieces for slide trumpets (March and Canzona), and the anthem in the archaic style Thou knowest, Lord. During the funeral procession to Westminster Abbey, a band of oboes played two marches written by John Paisible and Thomas Tollet.

This recording assembles the music composed for the funeral of Queen Mary and that used at the funeral of Elizabeth I in 1603. The programme is completed by Purcell’s sublime a cappella anthems and a moving anthem by Weelkes on the death of Thomas Morley.

After the success of the recording of Schütz’s Musicalische Exequien (RIC311), voted Record of the Year by Gramophone magazine, this disc will be one of the major events of spring 2013.

Every violinist from the Romantic period onwards has played Tomaso Antonio Vitali’s famous Chaconne, although the score that they used was always based on the very much modified version of the piece that violin virtuoso Ferdinand David had made of it around 1860. Various unusual aspects of the piece together with some unexpected modulations have always led experts on the Baroque to regard the piece as inauthentic. Stéphanie de Failly, however, has gone back to the original manuscript and in so doing has not only shed new light on the work but also revealed its connections to other works by Tomaso Antonio Vitali and his father Giovanni Battista Vitali. The musical invention in Giovanni Battista’s pieces and dances with variations leads the listener directly to the extravagances of the Chaconne.

Stéphanie de Failly plays a violin by Giovanni Paolo Maggini dated 1620 that previously belonged to the renowned Belgian violinist Edith Volckaert.

After the success of its CD devoted to the Sonatas of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Florence Malgoire’s ensemble Les Dominos now explores the first French sonatas.

All of these works date from the 1680s, the time when the French had just discovered the Italian sonata style and had begun to use it, albeit in some secrecy.

This recording contains the complete sonatas of François Couperin, four of which are the original versions of sonatas that Couperin would later make use of in Les Nations.

This is the first recording to present the sonatas in their entirety, in particular because the sonata La Convalescente is here recorded for the very first time; this sonata was discovered only recently in a manuscript copy in Germany.

RICERCAR could not miss Willaert’s anniversary… This recording of Willaert’s secular repertoire gives us a very different vision of his work, compared to his religious music well illustrated by the Vespro della Beata Vergine recording (RIC325).

Here, we can appreciate a musician singing love with sweetness, describing pleasures of the life with a little smile, even sometimes with a bit of salacity. Recorded by Romanesque in 1994, this CD can be listened to with a lot of pleasure. No competition in the market for this recording!

Dauvergne’s final operatic work follows neither of the established genres of the period, neither tragédie lyrique nor opéra-ballet. With La Vénitienne, the composer turned towards comedy.

Taking a libretto written during the reign of Louis XIV in 1705, he drew on the very best of his talent and skill and created a synthesis of everything that was modern at that time: it is as if Rameau, Pergolesi, Grétry and Mondonville had joined forces to compose this work that is by turn tragic, tender and richly comic, in which the virtuosity of the arias and the splendour of a large orchestra is blended with the piquant spirit of the Age of Enlightenment.

Alongside the Three Pieces, the Six Pieces and the Three Chorales that constitute the body of Franck’s organ works, there is also an entire series of organ works dating from Franck’s youth. These pieces, the majority of which exist only in manuscript, were published after Franck’s death by his son.

These works, often small in scale and clearly intended for organists to use during services, form an impressive collection. Even though the influences of his teachers and models are clearly to be heard, a fair proportion of these works already bear the stamp of the mature composer and pater seraphicus.

Let us once more immerse ourselves in the musical life of Eisenach as it was at the end of the 1670s. One Sunday afternoon, after having played for the services in their respective churches, the cousins Johann Ambrosius Bach and Johann Christoph Bach were sitting in a Bierstube, each with a mug of beer and a meerschaum pipe. A moment of relaxation, with word games, laughter and a discussion about Johann Christoph’s coming marriage. There would naturally be music for the wedding, with a cantata for the church service at the very least. That particular Sunday morning’s cantata had been based on texts from the Song of Solomon — not Böhm’s, of course, because Böhm had only been born in 1661. The sensual and at times erotic flavour of the words amuses them and, after several beers and pipefuls of tobacco, they have an idea for a secular cantata for the festivities that will follow the wedding ceremony. Christoph will compose the music, whilst Ambrosius will put together the text and instructions for its performance. Even though we do not know how this cantata was performed, its score has survived complete with all of its the puzzles and riddles.

The sublime chaconne in which the beloved proclaims her love and in which the violin line (as demanded by Ambrosius) symbolises her dreams and desires is both sensual and strong, the image of love itself and its blend of tenderness and strength: it is indeed a love scene. The two other sections are more theatrical in character: an introduction in dialogue form that describes the clandestine meetings of the lovers and a finale that is an open invitation to the festivities and to the food and drink that will be served. But how can we convey something of the atmosphere of such festivities? It is difficult to imagine a performance that is based on the text alone. The musicians of the Clematis seize the opportunity to get into the spirit of the occasion: halfway through the wedding breakfast they get out their instruments, push the tables together and share the scores that have been placed wherever there is room — on the edge of a table, on a chair — and the party begins with Esset und trinket. The wine, however, has been flowing for some time and the tempi get slower... All of the above is of course accompanied by unceasing thanks to God for his gift of life! Johann Sebastian Bach must have heard talk of such festivities and their celebratory cantatas (the scores of which he knew) from his early childhood. It must have been very much in the same spirit that he was inspired to compose, heaven only knows for what occasion, the incredible Quodlibet that seems to be so out of place amongst all his other works. If, however we carefully examine how Bach composed his secular (and even a few sacred) cantatas, we can see that he had a great instinct for theatre and for amusement. Certain passages in his biography even reveal that he was not a man who would turn down a good glass of wine!

This year we celebrate the 450th anniversary of the death of the Flemish composer Adriaen Willaert, who had been maestro di cappella of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice long before Monteverdi occupied the post; Willaert was also the inventor of the Venetian polychoral technique, with choral groups placed in the various galleries of the church.

CAPILLA FLAMENCA has chosen the various Psalms and the Magnificat that form his Marian Vespers from his extensive body of sacred music. The organ also plays between the various choral interventions, in keeping with musical practice of the time; Joris Verdin recorded these pieces on the Lorenzo da Prato organ (ca. 1475) in the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna.