「神の劇場」～ジャケス・デ・ヴェルト: モテット

うっとりとする1枚。
人気グループ「スティレ・アンティコ」が歌う美しいモテット集

ルネサンス音楽の中心地フランドルに生まれ、バロック音楽が産声を上げるイタリアで人生の大半を過ごしたジャケス・デ・ヴェルト(1535-1596)。彼はマドリガーレにおいて、ルネサンスの完成されたポリフォニー書法とモンテヴェルディが創り上げた新世代の書法、その間を見事に繋ぐ音楽を残しました。また個性的かつ劇的なモテットを残したことでも知られ、ここに収録されている楽曲も高度で巧妙なポリフォニー書法と心に訴えかける素直な美しさが同居した名品ばかり。「いにしえのスタイル」の名を持つイギリスの声楽アンサンブル、スティレ・アンティコによる晴れやかで透明なア・カペラ合唱も素晴らしく、聴いてうっとりとする1枚です。
キングインターナショナル

Giaches de Wert lived from 1535 to 1596, from the high point of Renaissance polyphony to the beginning of the great changes to come, and his life was devoted to music: he was sent to Italy as a singer when he was young, and as a composer he circulated among the noble families whose patronage stimulated new developments in Italian music. His life was an eventful one -- not as eventful as that of Carlo Gesualdo, but in the same league -- and was arguably reflected in his highly expressive madrigals, which are his best-known works. The a cappella sacred motets recorded here are staples of university Renaissance courses, but have not received attention, until now, from top-notch performers. They are not dark and penitent like Gesualdo's sacred works, but are skillful fusions of High Renaissance polyphony with expressive, madrigalesque devices of various kinds, present in varying degrees. For a taste of confidently handled chromaticism, sample Vox in Rama audita est, and for sheer pictorialism of a kind that few composers of the 16th century could match, try Ascendente Jesu in naviculam (Jesus climbed into the boat, a setting of Matthew 8:23-26, describing Jesus and his disciples in a storm at sea). This motet is characteristic of Wert's work in that it sets New Testament texts directly, a phenomenon explored in the useful booklet notes by Matthew O'Donovan. The music in its own time would have been sung by boys, but it's hard to complain about the performances from the small, mixed-gender, adult English choir Stile Antico, which seem to penetrate to the expressive heart of the music. This group has shown a knack for choosing unusual Renaissance programs that illuminate the deeper concerns of the music. Add in gloriously clear and perfectly idiomatic sound from London's All Hallows Church, and the end result is a superior album of Renaissance sacred music, featuring pieces new to most listeners; in its first months of release it has been rightly rewarded with commercial success.