Brabant Ensemble | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Gramophone Magazine
January 2025
Editor's Choice

The Brabant Ensemble / Stephen Rice

Lassus: Sponsa Dei
Bernhard Klingenstein: De vita religiosa
Erbach: Deus in adiutorium
Carolus Andreae: Magnificat super Si ignoras te
Rore: Agimus tibi gratias
Giovanni Gastoldi: Wer wollt den Wein nit lieben?
Ammon: Sacrificate sacrificium iustitiae
Lassus: Missa super Veni in hortum meum
Regnart: Os iusti
Lassus: Missa super Veni in hortum meum
Jacob Reiner: Veni Creator Spiritus
Nucius: Vana salus hominis
Clemens: In te Domine speravi
Lassus: Quis rutilat Triadis?
Sebastian Ertel: Aeterno laudanda choro

As the monasteries of the German-speaking countries emerged from the ravages of the Reformation, they found themselves in quite a different religious landscape.

Gone were the days of absentee abbots who preferred hunting to chanting, or illiterate monks who feasted rather than fasted. In the wake of the Council of Trent, monks and nuns, friars and sisters, were expected to contribute to the religious regeneration of the Catholic Church, and to fnd a new sense of purpose for their cloistered existence. Music played an important part in this project, both as a tool of monastic discipline and as a source of spiritual joy. In a healthy religious institution the daily round of prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours, was sung diligently and devoutly with the correct melodies. Monks brushed up their skills in writing chant books, nuns introduced the Roman breviary, and novice masters and mistresses spent hours teaching the boys and girls Latin and singing. Towards the end of the sixteenth century many religious orders, especially the Benedictines and Augustinians, embraced polyphonic music for the celebration of solemn feasts, with singing, organ playing and even instruments. Masses, motets and Magnifcats by renowned contemporary composersand a good number of talented monks as wellnot only adorned the sacred spaces for the greater glory of God, but also reached out to the people beyond the cloister. Music was intertwined with the monastic existence, and this album, entitled A monk's life, charts the life cycle of a monk through the music he might have heard, sung or composed.

"This is a superb programme mining a rich vein of post-Reformation music from German-speaking countries, all sung with the characteristic silvery tone of The Brabant Ensemble." - Gramophone Magazine, January 2025