Desprez: Missa „Ave maris stella“

Cordes, Manfred;
Weser-Renaissance Bremen

CPO 777 590-2

This month the WESER-RENAISSANCE ensemble of Bremen under its proven conductor Manfred Cordes dedicates itself to the grand master of polyphony – Josquin Desprez. The mass Ave maris stella frames Marian motets in praise of the Blessed Virgin from a time when Marian poetry rich in imagery and tender devotion belonged to the core repertoire of Catholic culture. A close examination of Josquin’s extant Marian repertoire reveals that he set almost the whole of the then Marian thematic spectrum in his music. Some of his Marian motets were even pervaded by additional literary art formulas. Besides these motets, it is above all the great Marian mass Ave maris stella that most fervently expressed Josquin’s veneration of the Virgin in music. His source was a poetically colored ninth-century Marian hymn in six stanzas. A vibrant sound document attesting to a living faith translated into music and transmitted to the senses!

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

CPO

14-01-2012

761203759026