Infelix ego (Willaert) - from CDA68379 - Hyperion Records

Reviews

‘The decision to take the Ockeghem at an uncharacteristically high pitch is bold, and with a very bright countertenor on the top line the effect is luminous and transparent (dare I say magical?), very different to the chewy, ruminative approach that the piece’s text usually elicits. For this alone I’d recommend the disc unreservedly, but this starts as the ensemble means to go. Theirs is a very English sound, eschewing overtly dramatic interpretative touches, but the sensitivity to contrapuntal details is none the less striking … as a single-disc introduction to the motet of Josquin’s time, this is hard to beat’ (Gramophone)

‘From the outset, performing with one voice to a part, the male-voice ensemble The Gesualdo Six brings the intimacy and detail of consort music to these accounts. Josquin’s Marian works ‘O virgo prudentissima’ and ‘Illibata Dei virgo nutrix’ sound aptly radiant, while there’s a sense of hushed reverence in ‘Tu solus qui facis mirabilia’, the singers floating quotations from Ockeghem’s chanson ‘D’ung aultre amer’ as if they were wistful memories … throughout the programme, the singing is beautifully controlled … and the ensemble is finely balanced. Hyperion’s close-recorded perspective gives the words a particular immediacy while the warm acoustic wraps the listener in a velvet shroud’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More

‘The Gesualdo Six are well placed to record this music. They’re very good at looking around the repertoire and working out what will fit with everything else … I love anthologies, and I love this particular one … that counter-tenor sound, it’s out of this world. I should say that my favourite recording of this [Intemerata Dei mater] for many, many years has been the 1976 David Munrow recording and I think this actually outdoes it. I shouldn’t say that because Munrow is absolutely my hero, but I think this is even nicer’ (BBC Record Review)

‘Every item in this thoughtful programme soothes or excites with its complex beauties of form or texture. The meatiest pieces are the four by Josquin des Prez (this year is the 500th anniversary of his death), although the music of his colleagues and rivals never disappoints, especially Willaert's Infelix ego, setting words by the fiery preacher Savonarola … soaring magic from The Gesualdo Six’ (The Times)

Introduction
English

The Este family and Duke Ercole I in particular were supporters of the Ferrara-born radical preacher and sometime ruler of Florence, Girolamo Savonarola. The Duke wrote several letters to Savonarola in 1495, as well as enacting some religious reforms in Ferrara which echoed those in Savonarola’s Florence. However, Savonarola’s power rapidly waned and in May 1498 he was tortured, hanged and burned by a mob in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria. A gifted orator, he penned two texts from prison as he awaited his fate. The first, Infelix ego, is a meditation on Psalm 50 and was published in Ferrara later that year, inspiring Josquin’s famous Miserere mei, Deus.

Savonarolan texts were very important to the Este court and they continued to be set by a series of composers with links to Ferrara and the Este family. The first to set Infelix ego was Adrian Willaert, another Oltremontani composer, famous for his long career as maestro di cappella at St Mark’s, Venice. Between 1515 and his appointment at San Marco in 1527, Willaert was in the employ of various members of the Este family. Looking back to Josquin’s Miserere, Willaert’s Infelix ego uses a descending and ascending cantus firmus of Miserere mei, Deus high in the texture, with the words of Psalm 50 echoing in and out of focus and culminating as the other five voices join the final statement.

Recording details: November 2020
All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: November 2021
Total duration: 8 minutes 11 seconds

Infelix ego

The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park (director)

Reviews

Introduction