Gramophone Awards
2020
Finalist - Early Music

New York Polyphony

Penalosa: Lamentationes Jeremiae Feria V
Escobar, P: Stabat mater
Penalosa: Lamentationes Jeremiae Feria VI
Penalosa: Missa L'homme armé
Penalosa: Sancta Maria succure miseris
Penalosa: Unica est columba mea
Penalosa: Missa L'homme armé
Guerrero, Francisco: Quae est ista
Guerrero, Francisco: Antes que comáis a Dios
Penalosa: Missa L'homme armé

Renaissance music from Spain has come to mean the works of composers such as Tomás Luís de Victoria or Francisco Guerrero rather than their predecessors. But composers such as Francisco de Peñalosa – who died in 1528, the same year that Guerrero was born – were musicians of genuine imagination and skill, whose work often shows a formidable individuality. The most recent edition of Peñalosa’s oeuvre lists 22 works as genuine: masses, lamentations, hymns and motets. From these, New York Polyphony have selected two highly expressive Lamentations, intended for services held during Holy Week and setting biblical texts bemoaning the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Besides two brief motets, Peñalosa is also represented by sections from his Missa L’homme armé, one of the many examples from the 15th to the 17th century of cyclic masses based on secular melodies. These pieces by Peñalosa are brought into relief by shorter works by his near-contemporary Pedro de Escobar – a deeply haunting setting of the beginning of the hymn Stabat Mater – and the aforementioned Francisco Guerrero. Guerrero is represented by Quae est ista, a setting of words from the Song of Songs which have inspired the composer to ecstatic cascades of notes. In contrast his Antes que comáis a Dios, with a text in Spanish, is simple but effective, in a propulsive triple time.

"It’s wonderful to hear more music from Francisco de Peñalosa, and particularly pleasing that it comes on this stylish release from New York Polyphony complete with superb booklet notes by Ivan Moody...Two standout pieces are the Stabat mater by Pedro de Escobar (fl1507-14), a short but arresting setting of the first two verses. Rich and vibrant in texture, it again draws on this ensemble’s deep palette of vocal colours." - Gramophone Magazine, November 2019.