Alexander Agricola: A Secret Labyrinth

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In his booklet notes for this record, Paul Van Nevel writes, "Although much is known about the quality of Agricola's oeuvre, until lately little was known about his life." If only. Agricola's name certainly appears in textbooks and scholarly articles, but even musicologists and die-hard early-music fans have rarely gotten to hear his music performed. Luckily, reviving the music of well-regarded but rarely performed composers (e.g., Manchicourt) is one of Van Nevel's specialties. And Agricola's music is definitely worth reviving: with melodic ideas put into sequences (i.e., repeated by the same voice beginning on successive notes of the scale) or imitated by different voices, the music seems to wind and unwind around itself like the paths of a labyrinth. It's rather like crossing the long, sinuous phrases of Ockeghem or Gombert with the varied scoring (many duo and trio sections) and short melodic cells of Josquin. The Huelgas Ensemble's performance is razor sharp and energetic--it doesn't have the breathtaking spirituality you'll find on, say, Heavenly Spheres, but it does have breathtaking precision, clarity, and momentum. --Matthew Westphal

Alexander Agricola: A Secret Labyrinth, Music, Alexander Agricola, Paul van Nevel, Huelgas Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel, Chamber Music & Recitals, Choral, Choral Music, Classical, Classical Music, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Music

Agricola: A Secret Labyrinth (Chansons; Missa Guazzabuglio) /Huelgas Ensemble * P van Nevel
Average customer rating:

Glorious weirdness

Shouldn't be kept a secret

Agricola: A Secret Labyrinth (Chansons; Missa Guazzabuglio) /Huelgas Ensemble * P van Nevel

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
Opera & Vocal | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00000IMZT
Release Date: 1999-04-20

Tracks:

ln The 'Chant sur le livre' Style: 'Gaudeamus omnes In Domino' a 2
ln The 'Chant sur le livre' Style: 'De tous biens playne' a 3
ln The 'Chant sur le livre' Style: 'Dung aultre amer' a 3
ln The 'Chant sur le livre' Style: 'Virgo sub ethereis' a 3
Missa Guazzabuglio: Kyrie From Missa 'Je ne demande' a 4
Missa Guazzabuglio: Gloria From Missa Secundi Toni a 4
Missa Guazzabuglio: Creda From Missa 'Le serviteur' a 4
Missa Guazzabuglio: Sanctus From Missa 'Re-fa-mi-re-fa' a 4
Missa Guazzabuglio: Agnus Dei From Missa 'ln Myne Zyn' a 4
3 Chansons: 'Je nay dueil' a 4 (Bergerette)
3 Chansons: 'Se mieulx ne vient d'amours' a 3 (Rondeau)
3 Chansons: 'Fortuna desperata' a 6 (Canzona)
3 Chansons: 'Salve Regina' a 4

Amazon.com

In his booklet notes for this record, Paul Van Nevel writes, "Although much is known about the quality of Agricola's oeuvre, until lately little was known about his life." If only. Agricola's name certainly appears in textbooks and scholarly articles, but even musicologists and die-hard early-music fans have rarely gotten to hear his music performed. Luckily, reviving the music of well-regarded but rarely performed composers (e.g., Manchicourt) is one of Van Nevel's specialties. And Agricola's music is definitely worth reviving: with melodic ideas put into sequences (i.e., repeated by the same voice beginning on successive notes of the scale) or imitated by different voices, the music seems to wind and unwind around itself like the paths of a labyrinth. It's rather like crossing the long, sinuous phrases of Ockeghem or Gombert with the varied scoring (many duo and trio sections) and short melodic cells of Josquin. The Huelgas Ensemble's performance is razor sharp and energetic--it doesn't have the breathtaking spirituality you'll find on, say, Heavenly Spheres, but it does have breathtaking precision, clarity, and momentum. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews:

Glorious weirdness.......2001-01-18

Agricola is quite a natural choice for the Huelgas Ensemble, being not only underrecorded like so many other composers whose works they have performed (Pipelare, Manchicourt, etc), but also full of intricate and bizarre contrapuntal techniques which are ideally suited to van Nevel's wilfully iconoclastic interpretations. There are several contentious performance decisions here, but it all sounds so amazing that I don't care. The contrast between the rich, strident sound of these Belgians and your average soprano-heavy English choir is amazing. The Huelgases sing this stuff with an amazing capacity to maintain a gorgeous choral blend AND to bring out the long, often quirky individual lines in the polyphony. There is a bewildering richness of material on offer here: sombre chansons like "Je n'ay deuil" full of yearning dissonances and thick, mellifluous textures; ingenious mathematical canons (Agnus Dei); sparkling quasi-instrumental miniatures (chants sur le livre); and fast moving mass sections full of astonishing harmonic inventiveness (listen to the two osanna sections of the sanctus for some gesualdo-esque harmonic perversity). Yet another wonderful, resonant recording by Wolf Erichson.

Shouldn't be kept a secret.......2000-07-18

This is one of the most amazing vocal albums in my early Renaissance choral collection. The Huelgas Ensemble has always struck me as a gutsy and forthright vocal group, always willing to explore musical obscurities. Here they triumph once again in the music of Agricola - some of his intsrumental pieces are being sung, taxing the singers to their limits - but they don't seem to display any problems. Get this album and get lost in an intriguing labyrinth for over an hour.

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