スペインのクリスマス

スティレ・アンティコの澄みきった歌声で聴く
スペイン黄金期のクリスマス音楽

スペインの「黄金時代」には、素晴らしい音楽もたくさん生まれました。ア・カペラ合唱団として世界で活躍するスティレ・アンティコが、スペインの16世紀のクリスマスの音楽を収録しました。手の込んだポリフォニー、そして民衆に伝わる舞踊のリズムも取り入れられたこれらの作品が、縦の響きと横の流れがこの上なく美しいスティレ・アンティコの声楽アンサンブルによって、まばゆいばかりの音楽の宝石のように響きわたります。
キングインターナショナル

A glance at the program of this Christmas release by the small (10-voice) choir Stile Antico might not seem to promise much: several of the pieces, notably the opening O magnum mysterium of Victoria, are probably familiar to anyone who has sung in a collegiate choir or glee club. Look, and listen, more closely, and youll find a program thats intelligently varied, and quite well put together. One noticeable aspect is the inclusion of semi-popular Spanish material (in Spanish), which was ignored when the canon of Spanish Renaissance music was formed but is increasingly coming into view in the works of composers like Mateo Flecha, represented twice here. One of his works is worth the price of the album by itself: the fascinating El Jubilate (sample this) is a sort of potpourri of the sacred and popular styles. Never forgotten was the villancico Riu Riu Chiu, which persists to this day as a Christmas carol in Spanish lands (the Monkees even recorded it once). Much of the rest of the program is devoted to a Christmas mass by Alonso Lobo, the Missa Beata Dei genitrix Maria, which is dispersed through the program and surrounded by relevant motets, Renaissance-fashion. Everything is sung with both festivity and precision by Stile Antico, which here adds to its reputation for albums that are at once rigorous, innovative, and accessible to anyone. Appropriate and clear sound from Londons All Hallows Church adds to the attractiveness of the whole.