Johannes Ockeghem: Requiem - Ensemble Organum / Marcel Pérès

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Ockeghem's Requiem is his most widely performed work, and Pérès has made a recording of it unlike any other. He adds to Ockeghem's setting most of the plainchant required for a complete funeral Mass, as well as two movements by Antonius Divitis. Most notably, he and his ensemble perform Ockeghem's music at a much lower pitch than is customary--and in a direct, almost uninflected manner that seems to deliberately disregard modern assumptions about what constitutes "beautiful" or "musical" singing. Pérès is a serious, thoughtful musician and must have had well-considered reasons for all this, but typically (and maddeningly), the booklet says not one word about them. For those who know the work, this may be interesting; newcomers to Ockeghem should try the Clerks' Group on ASV. --Matthew Westphal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews:

The Ars subtileor rules........2006-11-21

Even though the title is a slight misnomer as more than half of the tracks are post-ars subtileor, this is an absolutely marvellous CD. Starting with Philipoctus de Caserta (ca.1370) and ending with Antoine Busnoys (d.1492), this CD surveys some of the best polyphonic secular and sacred music of the post-Ars nova Middle Ages.
The pieces are superbly performed by some of the very best early musicians of our day including the Orlando Consort, Ensemble organum and the Hilliard Ensemble. I highly recommend this CD for pleasure or instruction.
Dr. Joseph Baldassarre
Professor of Music History
Boise State University

Ockeghem: Requiem /Ensemble Organum * Peres

Average customer rating:

Buy it at any price!
A fine interpretation of this masterpiece.
Unbeatable

Ockeghem: Requiem /Ensemble Organum * Peres
Johannes Ockeghem , Marcel Peres , and Ensemble Organum
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Renaissance (c.1450-1600) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Messe de Notre Dame (Guillaume de Machaut)/ Ensemble Organum (Marcel Peres)

ASIN: B000027ODF
Release Date: 1995-04-16

Amazon.com

Ockeghem's Requiem is his most widely performed work, and Pérès has made a recording of it unlike any other. He adds to Ockeghem's setting most of the plainchant required for a complete funeral Mass, as well as two movements by Antonius Divitis. Most notably, he and his ensemble perform Ockeghem's music at a much lower pitch than is customary--and in a direct, almost uninflected manner that seems to deliberately disregard modern assumptions about what constitutes "beautiful" or "musical" singing. Pérès is a serious, thoughtful musician and must have had well-considered reasons for all this, but typically (and maddeningly), the booklet says not one word about them. For those who know the work, this may be interesting; newcomers to Ockeghem should try the Clerks' Group on ASV. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews:

Buy it at any price!.......2007-04-16

I included this disc in a "blind Ockeghem tasting" with five early music performers of some fame, all of them strongly biased toward the English voice color of the Tallis Scholars, Clerks' Group, Orlando Consort, etc. (those groups were all included in the test). The Ensemble Organum disc was the unanimous selection as the most potent and profound. (I eliminated the plainchant segments, by the way, which would have given the identity of Marcel Peres away.) I'm pleased to see that my amazon friend Stephen Guy, who is nearly always right, has also reviewed this performance. Read his comments, too.

A fine interpretation of this masterpiece........2006-09-02

Ensemble Organum seem to use voice which are not "Classical Music" voices in the normal sense of the word. However, this is a phenomenal interpretation of this work, although it is not quite as "avant-garde' are their recording of the Messe de Notre Dame of Machaut, which is just something else! (I love it, BTW)

The pitch of this work has been transposed down, although it should be said that there is no real absolutes vis-à-vis pitch in music like this. I have the Pro Cantione Antiqua recording of this work and until I heard this recording, no other recording tempted me.

This recording tempted me and won me over.

You should try it, too!

Unbeatable.......2005-10-13

It will be nothing short of a miracle if this work is ever treated with such imagination or invention again. These singers present this work in an extremely low, all-male version (contrasting with some other recordings available), interspersing the polyphony with plainchant (sung in that - some would say wayward - manner typical of this group) and rounding out the mass with a Sanctus and Lux aeterna by Divitis; in the Sanctus they are joined by the treble voices of a boy's choir. That Divitis has been shamefully neglected in recordings is confirmed by these stylish readings.
This recording is characterised by a unbeatable intensity of sound and a remarkable feeling for the gesture of this extremely difficult music, comparable in this repertoire to A Sei Voci in Josquin. This is a performance that communicates imemdiately at the most visceral level; the Clerk's Group recording recommended by Matthew Westphal comes nowhere near this performance.
This remains one of my 'desert island' discs.

Musica Humana -- Anthologie des Rencontres Internationales de Musique MÃ©diÃ©vale du Thoronet

Average customer rating:

Musica Humana -- Anthologie des Rencontres Internationales de Musique MÃ©diÃ©vale du Thoronet

Manufacturer: l'empreinte digitale
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Masses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Renaissance (c.1450-1600) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000005WBX
Release Date: 2006-11-20

Music Review: