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Track(s) taken from CDA67603

Missa Festiva, Op 62

composer
1947
author of text
Ordinary of the Mass

St John's College Choir Cambridge, David Hill (conductor), Paul Provost (organ)
Recording details: July 2006
St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: April 2007
Total duration: 27 minutes 8 seconds

Cover artwork: La Gaine by Emile Fabry (1865-1966)
Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries, London / www.leicestergalleries.com
 

Reviews

‘Effective and forceful performances … I particularly enjoyed the more intimate textures at the end of the Peeters' Agnus Dei. The few extra solo items, featuring Tom Gould on the violin, are charming too’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘David Hill is to be congratulated for exploring this unfamiliar repertoire and then presenting it in such confident performances’ (International Record Review)

‘The choir is in fine fettle here: the sound is focused and well integrated top to bottom and it can bring forth huge climaxes and truly soft passagework equally well. With such forces at his disposal, Hill can bring out the considerable nuances in the piece … I cannot imagine it being better done than here’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘This is a wonderful disc bringing a collection of rarely heard, let alone recorded, devotional works to light … [Messe en l'honneur du Saint-Sacrement] is an engaging work … subtle both in the strains of variety within and the expressive power the music adds to the text … Jongen's motet on 1895, Pie Jesu, shows treble Alexander Robarts on angelic form set against the organ … the Choir of St John's College Cambridge under David Hill are on terrific form. London City Brass know how to bring off a good flourish when they see one, while organist Paul Provost works tirelessly throughout to provide the backbone of musical thought on a disc much worth your while’ (The Organ)

«L'idée était également excellente de la part du label anglais Hyperion d'intercaler entre les deux Messes, en une sorte d'intermède, trois beaux Motets de jeunesse de Jongen, qui complètent de manière adéquate et séduisante le portrait du compositeur liégeois le plus important» (anaclase.com)
Peeters, organist of St Rombout’s Cathedral, Malines, taught at the Lemmens Institute in Malines, and in 1952 became Director of the Antwerp Conservatoire. The Missa Festiva, the best known of Peeters’ nine Masses, shows the clear influence of Jongen in its approach to melodic development but is independent of Jongen in other ways, notably its more direct use of modality. The cyclical nature of Peeters’ melodic material demonstrates the link: the Gregorian motif, as if a psalm-tone, heard at the opening of the Kyrie recurs at the ‘Qui propter nos homines’ (Credo) and at the start of the Agnus Dei, for instance, and the rhythm initially established for this psalm-tone motif appears frequently, often modified, but notably at the beginning of the Credo. In the latter, the newly formed theme becomes another cyclical cell, appearing not only at the recapitulation (‘Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum’) but also at the ‘Qui tollis’ (Gloria) and in the accompaniment to the Agnus Dei.

from notes by John Scott Whiteley © 2007

Organiste de la cathédrale Saint-Rombout, à Malines, Peeters enseigna dans cette même ville, à l’Institut Lemmens, avant de devenir, en 1952, directeur du Conservatoire d’Anvers. La Missa Festiva, la plus célèbre de ses neuf messes, révèle, dans son approche du développement mélodique, une influence patente de Jongen, dont elle se désolidarise, notamment par un usage plus direct de la modalité. La nature cyclique du matériau mélodique confirme ce lien: tel un ton psalmodique, le motif grégorien entendu au début du Kyrie revient au «Qui propter nos homines» (Credo) et au début de l’Agnus Dei, par exemple, tandis que le rythme initialement instauré pour ce motif en ton psalmodique apparaît maintes fois, souvent modifié, surtout au début du Credo. Là, le thème nouvellement formé devient une autre cellule cyclique, qui survient à la réexposition («Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum»), mais aussi au «Qui tollis» (Gloria) et dans l’accompagnement de l’Agnus Dei.

extrait des notes rédigées par John Scott Whiteley © 2007
Français: Hypérion

Peeters war Organist an der Kathedrale des Heiligen Romuald und unterrichtete am Lemmens-Institut in Mecheln und wurde 1952 Direktor des Konservatoriums von Antwerpen. Die Missa Festiva, die am besten bekannte seiner neun Messen, weist in ihrem Ansatz zu melodischer Verarbeitung deutlich den Einfluss Jongens auf, unterscheidet sich von ihm aber in anderen Bereichen, besonders dem direkteren Gebrauch modaler Tonalität. Die zyklische Natur von Peeters’ melodischem Material demonstriert diese Verbindung: das gregorianische Motiv, das am Anfang des Kyrie zu hören ist, kehrt quasi als Psalmton, zum Beispiel bei „Qui propter nos homines“ (Credo) und zu Beginn des Agnus Dei, wieder, und der Rhythmus, der ursprünglich für dieses Psalmtonmotiv etabliert wurde, erscheint häufig, oft modifiziert, besonders prominent am Anfang des Credo. In diesem Satz wird das neu geformte Thema zu einer zyklischen Keimzelle, die nicht nur bei der Reprise („Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum“) sondern auch im „Qui tollis“ (Gloria) und in der Begleitung des Agnus Dei auftaucht.

aus dem Begleittext von John Scott Whiteley © 2007
Deutsch: Renate Wendel

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