Praetorius, H: Magnificat quarti toni

Hyperion is delighted to present a new disc from The Cardinall’s Musick under their inspirational director, Andrew Carwood.

The music of Hieronymus Praetorius is as assured, expressive and original as the Dürer image which adorns the CD cover. Yet this fine composer is much less well-known than his namesake (but not relation) Michael Praetorius.

Hieronymus Praetorius was organist of the Jacobikirche in Hamburg from 1586 until the end of his life. This somewhat sheltered background belies the sophisticated range of his works which are written in a variety of forms including the jubilant Venetian polychoral style. The composer’s highly individual voice, direct and yearning yet with a madrigalian lightness, pervades throughout.

Praetorius’s works were published in a number of editions during his lifetime. A collected edition of the sacred music of Hieronymus Praetorius was issued between the years of 1616 and 1625; this collection included hitherto unpublished music as well as reissues of already available works. The 1622 volume presents the most daring versions of many of the pieces recorded here and contains Praetorius’s second (and previously unpublished) Magnificat quinti toni (‘in the fifth tone’) to which are attached polyphonic arrangements of the popular medieval tunes Joseph, lieber Joseph mein and In dulci iubilo. This later setting of the fifth-tone Magnificat is Praetorius’s masterpiece.

The Cardinall’s Musick gives an impeccable yet delightfully extroverted performance of these fascinating works.

Here is a beautiful new recording exploring the music and themes of Advent, including some well-known carols and antiphons alongside some newer, less frequently heard pieces. An ideal present!

The Choir of Queens’ College, Cambridge is well known in the UK, singing three times a week at services in Queens’ College Chapel. They also travel abroad outside the academic term, with recent tours to Hong Kong, USA, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

Silas Wollston, their director, has been principal continuo player and assistant conductor to Sir John Eliot Gardiner since 1999 and has a versatile and varied career as researcher, performer and composer.

Hieronymus Praetorius could be regarded as the most important German pioneer in polychoral music, a genre that flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when musical culture was at its height of excellence. His works would have been unimaginable without Italian influences and these motets clearly exemplify that, combining a fascinating mixture of old and new styles.