Regnart: Missa Super Oeniades Nymphae, Motets, Sacred Choral Music

I must say that I bought almost all the CDs of Cinquecento that have been launched in the Hyperion label, and I am very glad that they deliver a repertoire of the 1500 that is quite unknown. Guyot, Richafort, Willaert not so much, Vaet and now Regnart, a composer and tenor singer who spent most of his life in Austria. However I think that if authors like this are little known, history may not be so unfair. I have listened closely about three times, and to be a composer who died in 1599, his music is more retrograde than Obrecht, Ockeghem or Josquin or even his Contémporary de Lassus, and is that in this excellent recording, where Cinquecento boasts its perfection Vocal, I really think that today is the best group in this repertoire, with only one voice per part, there is no place for mistakes, and they are perfect.I must say that Regnart does not seem to me, at least for what is shown here, and indeed very well shown, that is a very imaginative composer, his Mass on the nymphs Oeniades, in a minor mode, as well as several of his motets, use the imitation as the main method of composition , I lack bicinias, Tricinias tuttis, silences, all that makes the music expressive. The motet with 4 voices Quare Tristis, as well as other two more, are notable for the major and minor relations within the same sentence, which makes the tension harmonica to be maintained. Maybe he has more works like this, I don't know. The five stars for the brilliant interpretation.

I had never heard of this composer who worked for the Hapsburgs in the late 16th-century, I am delighted to have made his acquaintance. The comparisons to Lassus in the program notes are not hyperbole. And Cinquecento again provides ravishing performances.

Fellow reviewers JMM, GB and SN have already written in glowing terms about this lovely Jacob Regnart programme, and I agree entirely with their praise of both music and performers. So I'll just add a few comments of my own on this fine addition to Cinquecento's superb series of music by lesser-known renaissance masters.In addition to the Mass and several very fine sacred motets on this CD, among which I found "Inviolata", "Stetit Jesus" and "Exsultent iusti" especially beautiful, the disc begins with an excellent example of the celebratory motets that were sometimes written in praise of some contemporary ruler or potentate. There are a number of examples, from Isaac, Gombert and Lassus among others, in which composers found equally rich inspiration in the texts of these secular tributes as they did in praising the glory of God; and no doubt they didn't do their own careers any harm in the process. Anyway, the opening work on this disc, "Quod mitis sapiens nulli virtute secundus", is a majestic and uplifting piece in praise of Johannes Trautson, a prominent dignitary, politician and military leader; it makes a very impressive start to a programme of lovely music, performed with both beauty and clarity by this superb 6-voice male ensemble.The cover picture also deserves a mention. It's one of several in Cinquecento's series of renaissance CDs showing paintings by the brilliantly original artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo - who, like Regnart, was employed at the imperial court of Rudolf II. He specialised in painting composite faces representing, for example, the seasons or the elements, and consisting of fruits, flowers, vegetables, animals, birds, tree branches and suchlike. The one on this CD cover represents Fire; other examples appear on the group's discs of Vaet and Philippe De Monte, but my favourite is the one on their Schoendorff disc ( Schoendorff: The Complete Works ). Here the artist took the somewhat risky step of painting a portrait of his employer Rudolf II, showing his head and features as a compilation of green groceries. I say risky because, sadly, history is strewn with humourless despots - Nero, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Vlad the Impaler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Thatcher spring to mind - who were unwilling to see the funny side of a joke against themselves. But clearly Emperor Rudolf's sense of humour was remarkably intact, for the evidence indicates that even after completing this portrait Arcimboldo retained all his essential body parts - or, at the very least, those that were needed for the continuance of his artistic career.What has all this to do with the music? Clearly not a lot, but it's still good to find a CD cover which genuinely adds to the pleasure of the contents. Altogether, then, a lovely disc.

"Cinquecento" is Wonder #1 -- an all-male vocal ensemble, founded in 2004, singing "lesser known sixteenth century choral repertoire" and making a go of it. That they sing it very well perhaps wouldn't be enough to guarantee an audience, so one has to presume that they have 'charisma' on stage. I can't say; I haven't heard them live. On this CD, singing strictly one-on-a-part, they have all the power and grandeur one hopes to hear (and rarely does) from a larger choir, two or three voices on a part. Yet they also have the unity of attacks and diction, the transparency of tuning, and the rhythmic independence of 'lines' that characterize the best vocal ensembles like The Orlando Consort or the Hilliards. Some part of their robust sonority must come from the acoustics of Kloster Pernegg in Austria, where this recording was made, and I strongly suspect that another part comes from skilled engineering and mixing. In any case, the sound quality is superb; there's absolutely no 'white-noise' burr or distortion, even when all six voices are cadencing richly. If you like your vocal music to be "resonant", Cinquecento is the group for you.The 2nd Wonder is the music itself. Jacob Regnart is scarcely a household name, even among choir directors. I've known of his simple but charming German dances and Lieder for decades; you know, the sort of pieces that are slipped into concert programs or onto CDs as fillers. I had no idea what a masterful composer of larger forms he was, of the polyphonic masses and motets that were the chief glory of 16th C music in Europe. There are only two CDs available of such compositions by Regnart, and the other is out of circulation.Regnart was a contemporary of Orlando di Lasso. The two composers knew each other and each other's work. Their lives were parallel in several ways; both studied in Italy, both were boy singers, both held secure and important musical positions in the Hapsburg courts for much of their lives, and both managed to get large amounts of their music published and thus preserved. Stylistically, however, they are not so similar. Regnart was a surprisingly intellectual polyphonist - a conservative, you might say, just as Bach would be - whose musical density reminds me more of Gombert or Victoria than of Lasso. But Regnart was bolder than the others in his use of modal polyphony, particularly of the highly 'affective' Phrygian mode. His cross-relations and dissonances are positively startling, closer to the lush madrigals of Gesualdo than what one expects to hear in Latin spiritual motets. The eight motets on this CD are all massively polyphonic, in four, five, or six voices with few 'thin' patches of duet or trio. Regnart clearly intended an imposing, imperial performance, a kind of 'rolling thunder' of resonance, made fascinating by its contrapuntal complexity. That's the sound 'Cinquecento' produces.And here's a bonus: there's a lot of Regnart's music still waiting to be recorded. Get to work, guys!

This is an absolutely stunning CD. Singing one to a part with near perfect technique Cinquecento are without doubt amongst the leading artists in their field. The lower pitch of an all-male group, allied with the clarity of intonation and exceptional recording quality produces a golden timbre. Each voice can be discerned yet the whole is far more than the sum of the parts.The composer Jacob Regnart is another Renaissance master whose music has been unjustely neglected. Flowing polyphonic lines of great beauty are allied to his ability to match music and text. Take for example the lovely motet "Lamentabatur Jacob" where the anguish of the music translates perfectly Jacob's miseryBrilliant !.

Very impressive music in style of Franco-Flemish school.One mass based on the theme of secular song Oeniades Nymphae and 8 motets.The vocal music of Jacob Regnart reminds of the works by Orlando Lassus but music by Rengart is more light. Sometimes you are getting impression that he worked as a voice painter.The performing level of Cinquencento vocal sextet is very high. In general the record creates 3D feeling.Music is relaxing and comfortable even for the newcomer.

What? Yet another superlative Franco-Flemish composer fallen into modern day obscurity, whose music has been rediscovered and recorded by an outstanding and stunningly brilliant vocal ensemble? Well, it's just another bloody day in paradise.This is a superb disc (aren't they all?) by the sextet Cinquecento, showcasing Regnart's compositional skill with a selection of one mass (Missa Super Oeniades Nymphae, a parody mass based on a now unknown source, most likely a secular motet by Regnart himself), six motets and two 'state motets' in praise of Maximilian II and one of his military leaders Johann Trautson. Cinquecento's huge vocal presence combines with exceptional recording quality to deliver an unsurpassable disc. As usual there are excellent notes provided by Stephen Rice, and full Latin sung texts with translations.