Jean Richafort Huelgas Ensemble Paul van Nevel - Richafort Requiem in memoriam Josquin Desprez Motets Huelgas Ensemble P van Nevel (13 tracks) +Album Reviews

A marvelous recording of an unjustly neglected composer

islandtoad | Albuquerque, New Mexico United States | 07/15/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For a composer whose works served as models for some of the greatest composers of his day--Morales, Gombert, and Palestrina, to name a few--Jean Richafort is surprisingly little known today. This recording attempts to change this, offering a selection of motets and chansons along with the stunning Requiem mass Richafort wrote to commemorate Josquin Desprez's death in 1521. The Huelgas Ensemble's characteristically warm, rich tone serves the works (especially the Requiem and the Salve) well, lending them a contemplative, spiritual air that puts one in mind of the vast cathedrals and monestaries in which they would have been sung. The chansons, on the other hand, have a bounce and vivacity in keeping with their worldly nature. (The drinking song "Tru, Tru, Trut Avant," probably my favorite track on the album, has so much energy and is so catchy that it will make you want to dance, and will likely make you thirsty as well.) This isn't the only Richafort CD available (the Chapelle du Roi have also released one), but it is certainly the best. (The Chapelle's counter-tenor is very noticeable, and their blend is less seamless than that of the Huelgas Ensemble, although their Latin is a little easier to understand.) The only other thing I can say against the Huelgas recording is that it lacks the "Quem Dicunt Homines" Paul Van Nevel makes so much of in the liner notes, which would have been nice to hear; nonetheless, all of the pieces on the recording are well worth hearing, so this is not much of a complaint. All told, the ensemble's impeccable blend, tone, and musicality do a marvelous job of bringing one of the most talented composers of the Renaissance out of obscurity, and make this CD a must have for lovers of Early Music and choral music alike."

Neglected masterpiece

ldk1609 | 01/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jean Richafort's stunning requiem a 6 was written in memorial for his contemporary; Josquin. They are similar stylistically but from the first few seconds of the introitus the awareness dawns that one is in the presence of a fully fledged master in his own right. Imagine Josquin but transformed into smoother, more mannered lines, more intricate and subtle counterpoint and a manipulation of voicing and sonority quite unlike anything else you've heard. The architecture is still there but one becomes so bewitched by the sonic filigree unfolding that one scarcely notices. The whole requiem is very quiet and serene, beautifully paced and with a pliant expressiveness that makes you wonder where this manuscript has been hiding all this time. (Well done Paul van Nevel!)
Probably the most interesting feature of the requiem in my opinion is that each of it's movements wind down softly to end on plagal cadences (chord IV-1) compared to the ubiquitous perfect (chord V-1). I don't know of anywhere else in classical music where this device is employed so consistently and beautifully. The effect as the last notes dissolve into nothingness is unforgettable and will leave you with the realisation that perfect cadences are way to harsh on the ear in comparison!!
This sole recording of the requiem has amazing clarity, presence and depth to complement the ensemble's superb purity, balance and general culture. It will leave you panting for their next project..."

Eyewatering :*(

another reader | 04/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Requiems seem to me to be intense, dark or depressing; however this one is more sad than dark. It's obvious that Richafort was heartbroken when his hero Josquin died, especially when hearing the first 10-12 minutes of his requiem. It's also obvious that Richafort, as someone else said, was truly a master in his own right to be able to write music like this. I don't think it sounds like Josquin though. The long, effortless lines (in the beginning anyway) make me think of Palestrina instead. Midway through the graduale the requiem becomes slightly faster and more intense. Among the other tracks, as others have mentioned the Salve Regina & Tru Tru Tru Avant also stand out. Tru Tru Tru Avant is fun to listen to, and somewhat surprising to me since the rest of the album is fairly serious. The Salve Regina is also a masterpiece, but the Requiem is still the centrepiece of this album for sure. I only wish the Huelgas Ensemble included the motet Quem Dicunt Homines on the disc. It is allegedly another masterpiece which is mentioned in the liner notes a few times, but not recorded."

Wow

B. Duinker | Halifax, NS, Canada | 03/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Impeccable blend and tone is possesd by the Huelgas Ensemble in this recording of the otherwise unknown Jean Richafort. His requiem was unlike any choral work i've heard previously, Renaissance or otherwise. A phenomenal piece, guaranteed to please. The other tracks are great as well."

Josquin's Peers Wouldn't Be At All Surprised...

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 11/25/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"... to discover how revered his music has become in 'our' times. Josquin was indeed one of the greatest composers of any kind of music in any epoch. But music-lovers of the late 15th - early 16th Centuries would be flabbergasted, I think, at the concomitant neglect of other masters - Mouton, Festa, for instance, and particularly Jean Richafort (1480-1547). Let's get it straight! Richafort is a composer of the same rank, and not a mere follower, as Josquin Deprez, for whom he wrote the Requiem mass recorded here, just as Josquin had written a serene requiem motet for his own greatest predecessor Johannes Ockeghem.

Richafort's stature in his own era is demonstrated by the distribution of his music; more than two hundred widely scattered manuscripts of the century include pieces of his, and at least seventy published anthologies during the following century include him. Also, his motets are found in several of the most sumptuous illuminated manuscripts prepared as gifts for royalty. Nearly every theorist of the 16th Century paid some tribute to his mastery of polyphony. Richafort was a Big Dog, good buddies, and his music is really fine! [But do a search here in the amazoo, and see how many recordings you find! Helas!]

The Requiem is composed for six voices and includes four sections beyond the usual Kyrie/Sanctus/Agnus Dei: an Introit, a Graduale, an Offerotorium, and a Communio. As sung on this CD, it's a somber, pensive, tranquil exploration of polyphony based on double cantus-firmus lines, deceptively simple and unruffled by virtuosic passagework on the page but sublimely subtle and expressive when its flowing harmonies and interweaving phrases are heard. In that way, it can certainly be best understood as "doing Josquin even more Josquinishly than Josquin himself." But Richafort was never a composer who needed flurries and tricks; his mastery of polyphony was as calm and smooth as the brushwork of his contemporary painter Raphael. Richafort turns almost every cadence of his polyphony into an exploration of harmonic suspense and resolution. The three motets recorded here with the Requiem are equally magical, and the three shorter French-language chansons reveal Richafort's skill at lighter-hearted social music. Director Paul Van Nevel truly grasps every contour of Richafort's musical complexity; his tempi are boldly restrained in order to display the harmonic lushness of the polyphony, and he conducts the rhythms as should be, without any hint of bar-lines and baton-waving.

Why only four stars then? Uff! Because I can't enjoy this recording as much as the performance probably deserved, and certainly not as much as the music merits. The Huelgas Ensemble is a strangely perverse and often distressing bunch, to be blunt. There are only thirteen singers in the ensemble here, but the reverberant acoustic makes it sound like thirty most of the time. All of the singers have rich emotive voices, as far as I can hear them separately, and their tuning and ensemble is excellent. But they overpower the recording technology! There is so much distortion and rumble encoded digitally on this CD that I have to customize all my EQ settings to listen to it, and still it clogs my speakers and my ears. And as far as I can discover, this was not a live performance. Franco-Flemish polyphony requires clarity above all, Master Van Nevel! When will you learn that?

Still, I suggest that you ignore my quibbles and get this CD ASAP. The music is wonderful enough to transcend mere acoustics."

Search - Jean Richafort, Huelgas Ensemble, Paul van Nevel :: Richafort: Requiem in memoriam Josquin Desprez; Motets /Huelgas Ensemble * P van Nevel

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