Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe - Byrd: Infelix ego, Mass for 5 Voices & Motets (2014) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Emendemus in melius
02. Infelix ego
03. Ave Maria
04. Peccantem me quotidie, Ch. 52
05. Mass for 5 Voices I. Kyrie
06. Mass for 5 Voices II. Gloria
07. Mass for 5 Voices III. Credo
08. Mass for 5 Voices IV. Sanctus
09. Mass for 5 Voices V. Benedictus
10. Mass for 5 Voices VI. Agnus Dei
11. Christe, qui lux es
12. Miserere mei, Deus


Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent present their third project for Phi focussing on vocal music of the Renaissance. This time, it is the English composer William Byrd (c.1540-1623) who is being honoured. The title of the programme is that of Byrd’s motet Infelix ego, one of the greatest artistic statements of the 16th century. Its text is a meditation on Psalm 50, written by the Dominica Girolamo Savonarola, a remarkable man who waged a campaign against the corrupt Medici family in Florence.

Taking the form of several rhetorical questions and assertions, the text describes all the emotions felt by a tormented soul: guilt, fear, embarrassment, anger but above all the gift of deliverance upon acceptance of Christ’s mercy. Byrd seems to have felt a powerful emotional connection with the words.

The Collegium Vocale Gent also presents the Mass for 5 Voices and a selection of motets by Byrd, along with Alfonso Ferrabosco’s Peccantem me quotidie a5 and Philippus de Monte’s Miserere mei a5.

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