Gramophone Magazine
August 2021
Editor's Choice

Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull

Mouton, J: Tua est potentia a 5
Mouton, J: Missa Tua est potentia

The Second Volume devoted by Cappella Pratensis to the Bosch Choirbooks focuses on Jean Mouton's Missa Tua est Potentia (composed in the first years of 16th Century) intertwined with Plainchant. The vocal ensemble Cappella Pratensis is a leader in the performance of polyphonic masterpieces from the 15th and 16th centuries, with a particular focus on the Low Countries.

At the dawn of the Renaissance the southern Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch, with its abundance of churches and monasteries, was also referred to as "Little Rome". Central to this religious scene was the Brotherhood of Our Illustrious Lady (Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap), founded in 1318. This devotional organization, which counted among its members the famous painter Hieronymus Bosch, invested considerably in recruiting and employing the best singers and organists for its chapel, which performed a wide variety of polyphonic music. No fewer than nine choirbooks with this repertoire are still preserved by the confraternity. After centuries of silence, this magnificent collection is finally sounding once again. With the five-year project The Den Bosch Choirbooks (2020-24), Cappella Pratensis, itself based in 's-Hertogenbosch, is giving these manuscripts the attention they deserve. The project includes numerous concerts, workshops, publications, lectures and a series of five CDs. This recording thus invites listeners to imagine themselves among the confraternity members gathered in their chapel in the church of St John the Evangelist in 's-Hertogenbosch on a sunny spring day. It is May 6, the great feast of St John Before the Latin Gate that commemorates the attempted martyrdom of the Evangelist in 92 AD.

"This recording might change how you hear and think about Renaissance polyphony...Cappella Pratensis’s homogeneity of timbre is impressive." - Gramophone Magazine, August 2021.