FRANCISCO GUERRERO Missa Super flumina Babylonis
Ensemble Plus Ultra His Majestys Sackbutts and Cornetts Schola Antiqua Michael Noone
GCD 922005
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Performing artists
Ensemble Plus Ultra Michael Noone, director
Grace Davidson, soprano Julia Doyle, soprano Kate Hawnt, soprano Mark Chambers, alto Sally Dunkley, alto David Martin, alto Clare Wilkinson, alto Julian Stocker, tenor Warren Trevelyan-Jones, tenor Giles Underwood, bass Stuart Young, bass
His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts Jeremy West, director
Jeremy West, Jamie Savan, Abigail Newman, Adam Woolf, Stephen Saunders, Nicholas Perry
Schola Antiqua Juan Carlos Asensio, director
Miguel Ángel Asensio, Javier Blasco, Alfredo Contreras, Miguel Ángel Fernández, Enrique de la Fuente, Javier de la Fuente, Miguel García, Román García-Miguel, Jorge L. Gómez, Benjamín González, Antonio de Gregorio, Luis Fernando Loro, Benigno A. Rodríguez, Jesús María Román, Federico Rubio, Javier Rubio, Emilio Rubio
Production details
Playing time: 78’58 Recorded at Iglesia de San Miguel, Cuenca (Spain), in June 2006 Engineered and produced by Adrian Hunter Executive producer: Carlos Céster Editorial assistant: María Díaz Artwork: oficina tresminutos 00:03:00 Booklet essay: Michael Noone and Graeme Skinner Booklet in English-Français-Deutsch-Español
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FRANCISCO GUERRERO (1528/29-1599)
1 Ave virgo sanctissima (5 vv) 2 Regina caeli (8 vv) 3 Si el mirar (instr.) 4-5 Missa Super flumina Babylonis (5 vv): Kyrie & Gloria 6 Aleluya: In exitu Israel 7 Missa Super flumina Babylonis (5 vv): Credo 8 Ofrenda: Super flumina Babylonis 9-12 Missa Super flumina Babylonis (5 vv): Sanctus & Benedictus 13 Missa Super flumina Babylonis (5 vv): Agnus Dei 14 Celsi confessoris 15 Ut queant laxis 16 In exitu Israel (4 vv) 17 Adiós mi amor (instr.)18 Conditor alme siderum
About this CD
After the brilliant debut by Michael Noone’s Ensemble Plus Ultra on Glossa a couple of years ago of with Morales en Toledo, the long-awaited second release from one of the current highly-rated British groups is now here. In the same manner as with his earlier effort, Noone dusts off manuscripts in the Toledo archives to unearth for us pieces which a young Francisco Guerrero composed during the course of his brief stay by the banks of the River Tagus, at the time when he was a pupil of Cristóbal de Morales. That, however, is far from the end of the matter: from the period of Guerrero’s maturity Ensemble Plus Ultra has chosen the never-before recorded Missa Super flumina Babylonis, which it presents to us in a dazzling version assisted by the talents of the instrumentalists of His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts – and in this way, Michael Noone is returning to a way of performing for which he was known during his years of working with the Orchestra of the Renaissance, when together they made memorable recordings of Guerrero, Morales and Vivanco (all issued on Glossa). And just in case that wasn’t enough, this disc is also graced with the invaluable presence of Juan Carlos Asensio and his Schola Antiqua, the leading specialists in Gregorian chant from Spain: courtesy of Asensio, for the first time it has been possible to identify the plainchant fragment which serves as the basis for the mass, here offered here as a world première. Highly informed and entertainingly readable notes from Noone himself and fellow researcher Graeme Skinner complete an indispensable disc for all lovers of great Renaissance polyphony.
Following the revelatory release a couple of years ago of Morales en Toledo it is a great pleasure to welcome back Michael Noone and Ensemble Plus Ultra to Glossa for a further demonstration — in the music of Morales’ younger contemporary Francisco Guerrero — of Noone’s remarkable knack of uniting unknown music from recognized masters in superb performances underpinned by exemplary scholarship. Through his ongoing research in the Cathedral Archives in Toledo, Noone has discovered a group of six hymns by Guerrero (written when he was apprenticed to Morales), recording these in the church of San Miguel in Cuenca along with the previously-unrecorded Missa Super flumina Babylonis in the company of plainchant specialist Juan Carlos Asensio’s Schola Antiqua and the instrumentalists from His Majesties Sagbutts and Cornetts. [read more...]