Album info
Album-Release:
2014
HRA-Release:
28.03.2018
Album including Album cover Booklet (PDF)
- Peter Philips (1560 - 1628):
- 1Ecce vicit Leo02:24
- Robert White (1538 - 1574):
- 2Christe qui lux es dies03:38
- Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585):
- 3Suscipe quaeso10:09
- 4O nata lux de lumine01:46
- William Byrd (1538 - 1623):
- 5Liber secundus sacrarum cantionum: Laudibus in sanctis04:06
- 6Ne irascaris, Domine: Civitas sancti tui05:27
- 7Turn Our Captivity, O Lord04:19
- 8The Great Service: Nunc dimittis08:43
- 9Vigilate04:08
- Thomas Morley (1557 - 1602):
- 10Nolo mortem peccatoris02:52
- Robert White (1538 - 1574):
- 11Lamentations (For 6 Voices)19:28
- William Byrd (1538 - 1623):
- 12Justorum animae03:18
- Thomas Tomkins (1572 - 1656):
- 13Almighty God, the Fountain of All Wisdom07:12
Info for Vigilate!
This album brings together six English composers whose combined careers span more than a century – Byrd, Tallis, Morley, Philips, White and Tomkins.
The title Vigilate! (Be watchful!) epitomises the clandestine character of recusant music-making in Elizabethan England, by undercover Catholic composers of the time.
The pieces on this recording display the richly imaginative, devout and diverse responses of musical craftsmen who worked with unfailing creativity in difficult times.
The album comes in our usual casebook packaging and contains a 36 pages booklet with notes by Kerry McCarthy and texts in German, English and French.
In March 2014, the Monteverdi Choir will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary
"The 16th and 17th centuries were turbulent times in England...The works on this disc expose those liturgical struggles very clearly...The fairly large forces tend to produce an unusually robust sound for this repertory, though musicality is never lost." (BBC Music Magazine)
"It is rare nowadays for the Monteverdi Choir to venture as early as the English Renaissance; and it equally rare to hear a motet recital of this period sung by an ensemble that is so audibly a mixed choir with a forceful personality at the helm...Refreshing on one level, this very directed approach seems a throwback to another age." (Gramophone Magazine)
"this set of performances offers a different perspective on this music compared to what one would experience from hearing a smaller consort sing it. I welcome both approaches and I find Gardiner and his superb choir are very persuasive and stimulating guides to this repertoire." (MusicWeb International)
Monteverdi Choir
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
The Monteverdi Choir
World-class instrumentalists and singers of many different nationalities come together to share in the distinctive vision of our Founder and Artistic Director, John Eliot Gardiner, in ground-breaking projects that span eight centuries of musical masterpieces.
From the monumental to the intimate, from sacred music to opera, from early music to the 20th century, often in unexpected combinations, in each of our projects we strive for excellence. Possessed of an instantly recognisable core sound, the three ensembles are in constant renewal and evolution.
Alongside our performance and project work, The Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras (MCO) is committed to providing opportunities for professional development and education. We believe passionately in nurturing future generations of players and singers and developing emerging talent. Our Monteverdi Apprentice Programme enables outstanding young musicians to spend an entire year training and performing with our three world-class ensembles, under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner.
In addition, we run an Arts Management Training Programme to support those wishing to pursue a career in arts administration. Previous trainees have gone on to secure positions with major arts organisations including the Royal Opera House, Sage Gateshead and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
As part of our education and outreach work, we have worked with Bristol Plays Music on a project that tied in with our Monteverdi 450 celebrations, and gave local school children and university students an insight of what we do, through vocal workshops, talks with members of our ensembles and attendance at dress rehearsals. This collaboration has been recently nominated for the ‘Best Music Education Initiative’ in the latest Rhinegold Music Teacher Awards.
It is our long-term ambition to continue education projects of this nature as we seek to inspire future generations of music-makers by sharing our knowledge and expertise.
Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique
Founded in 1989 by John Eliot Gardiner, the ORR aims to bring the stylistic fidelity and intensity of expression of the renowned English Baroque Soloists to the music of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
From its inception the ORR has won plaudits internationally, notably for its interpretation of the works of Beethoven, which it performed extensively and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in the 1990s. The orchestra has recently returned to this repertoire with successful tours of Beethoven symphonies and Missa Solemnis in Europe and the USA, including a live recording of Missa Solemnis by the company’s own record label, Soli Deo Gloria.
The Orchestra has been internationally recognised for its interpretations of all the major early Romantic composers, starting with Hector Berlioz. They performed and recorded his Symphonie Fantastique in the hall of the old Paris Conservatoire, where the very first performance took place in 1830. In 1993, together with the Monteverdi Choir, the orchestra gave the first modern performances of the newly-rediscovered Messe Solennelle. They later joined forces to perform L’Enfance du Christ at the Proms as well as the first complete staged performances in France of Berlioz’s masterpiece Les Troyens, given at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
Other critically-acclaimed initiatives have included a project entitled ‘Schumann Revealed’ given at the Barbican, including recordings of the complete Schumann symphonies and Das Paradies und die Peri. In 2007/8 ‘Brahms: Roots and Memory’ given at the Salle Pleyel and the Royal Festival Hall, setting Brahms’ four symphonies in the context of his most significant choral works and music of the 16th to 19th centuries that Brahms himself transcribed and conducted.
Operas by Weber (Oberon and Le Freyschütz), Bizet (Carmen), Chabrier (L’Etoile), Verdi (Falstaff) and Debussy (Pelléas et Mélisande) have also been performed in new productions in France, Italy and London.
Most recently the ORR has been focusing again on Berlioz, performing Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 at the BBC Proms 2015, followed by performances at the Edinburgh International Festival and Festival Berlioz of Berlioz’s Lélio and Symphony Fantastique. In 2016 they returned to the Proms with Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette as part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations. More recently the Orchestra toured a programme of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms with renowned concert pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout.
In 2017, the Orchestra once again returned to the music of Berlioz via performances of his monumental La Damnation de Faust at the BBC Proms and Festival Berlioz.
The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique is under the patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner
stands as an international leader in today's musical life, respected as one of the world's most innovative and dynamic musicians, constantly at the forefront of enlightened interpretation. His work as Artistic Director of his Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique has marked him out as a central figure in the early music revival and a pioneer of historically informed performance. As a regular guest of the world's leading symphony orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Gardiner conducts repertoire from the 17th to the 20th century.
The extent of Gardiner's repertoire is illustrated in the extensive catalogue of award-winning recordings with his own ensembles and leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic on major labels (including Decca, Philips, Erato and 30 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon), as wide-ranging as Mozart, Schumann, Berlioz, Elgar and Kurt Weill, in addition to works by Renaissance and Baroque composers. Since 2005 the Monteverdi ensembles have recorded on their independent label, Soli Deo Gloria, established to release the live recordings made during Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, for which he received Gramophone’s 2011 Special Achievement Award and a Diapason d’or de l’année 2012. His many recording accolades include two GRAMMY awards and he has received more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist.
Gardiner's long relationship with the LSO has led to complete symphony cycles and numerous recordings on LSO Live, most recently of Mendelssohn concluding in 2017, and beginning this season of Schumann, which they take on a ten-concert tour of Europe. Other guest conducting highlights this season include Schumann with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Verdi Requiem with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Monteverdi Choir. He returned in 2016 to the Berliner Philharmoniker for semi-staged performances of Stravinsky Oedipus Rex.
Alongside performances at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, Concertgebouw, Barbican Hall and Bachfest Leipzig, Gardiner and the Monteverdi ensembles this autumn conclude their celebration of the 450th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi with staged performances of his three surviving operas at the Berlin Festival, Paris Philharmonie, Harris Theater Chicago and Lincoln Center. Gardiner has conducted opera at the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Opéra national de Paris and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he has appeared regularly since his debut in 1973. From 1983 to 1988 he was artistic director of Opéra de Lyon, where he founded its new orchestra.
Gardiner’s book, Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, was published in October 2013 by Allen Lane, leading to the Prix des Muses award (Singer-Polignac). In 2014 Gardiner became the first ever President of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. Among numerous awards in recognition of his work, Sir John Eliot Gardiner holds honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, the universities of Lyon, Cremona, St Andrews and King’s College, Cambridge where he himself studied and is now an Honorary Fellow; he is also an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, London and the British Academy, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, who awarded him their prestigious Bach Prize in 2008; he became the inaugural Christoph Wolff Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Harvard University in 2014/15 and was awarded the Concertgebouw Prize in January 2016. Gardiner was made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2011 and was given the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2005. In the UK, he was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1990 and awarded a knighthood for his services to music in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.