Blue Heron - Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs, vol. 2 (2024) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Prenez sur moi
02. Tant fuz gentement resjouy
03. Ung aultre l'a
04. Baisiés moy dont fort
05. Pour prison ne pour maladie
06. La despourveue et la bannye
07. L'aultre d'antan
08. Ma bouche rit
09. Presque transi ung peu moins qu'estre mort
10. Les desleaux ont la saison
11. Je n'ai deuil que je ne suis morte
12. Je n'ai deuil que je ne suis morte (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by Anonymous)
13. Il ne m'en chault plus de nul ame
14. Qu'es mi vida preguntays (1)
15. Qu'es mi vida preguntays (2)

Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1420-1497) was one of the most celebrated musicians of the fifteenth century and one of the greatest composers of all time. He was every bit the equal of J.S. Bach in contrapuntal technique and profound expressivity, and like Bach able to combine the most rigorous intellectual structure with a beguiling sensuality. His two dozen songs set French lyric poetry in the courtly forms of his era—rondeau, virelai, and ballade—to exquisitely crafted polyphony in which all voices are granted equally beautiful and compelling melodies. This CD is the companion to Blue Heron’s 2019 release, Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs, Volume 1, which was named to the Bestenliste of the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and acclaimed in Gramophone as “performances of absolute clarity, beautifully in tune, beautifully balanced and beautifully recorded”; Early Music enthused that “the Boston-based ensemble is at its finest—a summit quite sublime.… The group’s extraordinary rapport with the music is evident everywhere in the recording; each melodic line is not only clear and precise but also imbued with obvious affection.” Besides twelve of Ockeghem’s songs, the disc includes two related works (Gilles Binchois’s Pour prison, quoted by Ockeghem in his song La despourveue, and Johannes Cornago’s Qu’es mi vida, arranged by Ockeghem) and an anonymous instrumental arrangement of Ockeghem’s Je n’ay dueil. The CD booklet contains complete texts and translations, and notes by music historian Sean Gallagher and Blue Heron’s artistic director, Scott Metcalfe.

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