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Mare Balticum Vol. IV. Pomerania. Music from northern Germany and Poland (14th – 15th century)
Ensemble Peregrina, Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett
- TACET Real Surround Sound
- Total playing time (mmm:ss): 78:14
- 5.1 standard channel order: front left – front right – center – subwoofer (not used) – surround left – surround right
- 96 kHz, 24 bit. Format: Flac (lossless)
- Download as zip file. Booklet (English, German, French) and cover images included
- Size: 2,91 GB
- Barcode: 4009850027324
More productions of this series: Mare Balticum Vol. III, Mare Balticum Vol. II
Description
The fourth and final recording of Agnieszka Budzinska-Bennett’s “Mare Balticum” project with and about music from the Baltic region, the first of which has already received the coveted ICMA, is perhaps the most beautiful. One-part melodies sung by four women in their own rhythm and yet in complete unison transport us to the bygone world of the Middle Ages. Solo songs bring us even closer to that time. For instance, when – this is just one example – Lorenza Donadini as Mary laments the death of Jesus, we hear the grief of a living mother over the death of her own child.
What a pity that this excursion into the past lasts only 79 minutes!
“(…) All in all, a grandiose result has been achieved in this production, with subtly realized and well differentiated interpretations, the effect of which one cannot escape and which allows the mystical longing of baroque piety to blossom in an intimate setting.” pizzicato
Audiosample (mp3, stereo)
Booklet
7 reviews for 273 Mare Balticum Vol. IV. Pomerania (14th – 15th century)
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Klassik heute –
Literally for centuries, France, Italy, Spain and England dominated the picture when it came to music of the 14th and 15th centuries. In the German-speaking world, they may not have exactly been sitting on trees; after all, the Buxheim Organ Book and three important song collections hand down a thoroughly presentable repertoire. But these masters did not reach the radiance of a Dufay, Ciconia or Dunstaple.
Early music of the highest quality
All of a sudden, the Basel-based ensemble Peregrina comes along and opens up music from Rostock, Stralsund and Lübeck, from Gdansk, Szczecin and Schwerin, which until now only musicologists had on their radar. Music of high, partly highest quality, mind you. Their composers are called Wizlav of Rügen, Master Rumelant of Saxony or Hermann Damen, a large part of the sources have been handed down anonymously, as is typical for the whole of Europe in the period between the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.
So the repertoire value alone of this fourth album “Pomeriana” of the “Mare Balticum” series with instrumental, but mainly vocal pieces, would be astronomical in itself, even if the Ensemble Peregrina under the direction of Agnieszka Budzinska-Bennett would first approach these unknown motets, chants and songs carefully groping. But the four musicians and the expert for fiddles and other stringed instruments Baptiste Romain unfold these little works of art with such a calm matter-of-factness and instantaneously communicating familiarity as if they had been there in person six, seven centuries ago – singing and playing from facsimiles of the originals, mind you!
Aura of immersion
The performance of the beautiful voices gets along without all mannerisms, as they are often used in very old music to emphasize its strangeness; the rhythms flow naturally, but also give lively impulses; finally and finally, through the highest concentration of the music-making – not, so to speak, through authentic rapture – also that spiritual aura of absorption sets in, without which, for example, the enchanting Bordesholm Marian Lament, but also the wonderful Ave maris stella movements can hardly be understood.
Tacet’s sound engineering, as always superior, does its part for the listening pleasure. The reviewer does not even have an SACD surround system. But both via conventional speakers and headphones, the pleasantly reverberant acoustics, not to mention the sensitive sonic illumination of the room, communicate. A valuable gift for listeners who otherwise already have everything.
Dr. Michael B. Weiß
–> original review
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Pizzicato –
The fourth and last recording of the project Mare Balticum with music from the Baltic region, contains mostly monophonic melodies that not only simply transport us to the world of the Middle Ages, but create a directly mystical atmosphere with a music that is both transfiguring and reconciling. All in all, a grandiose result has been achieved in this production, with subtly realized and well differentiated interpretations, the effect of which one cannot escape and which allows the mystical longing of baroque piety to blossom in an intimate setting.
Insgesamt wurde in dieser Produktion ein grandioses Resultat erzielt, mit subtil und differenziert realisierten Interpretationen, deren Wirkung man sich nicht entziehen kann und welche die mystische Sehnsucht barocker Frömmigkeit in geradezu intimem Rahmen erblühen lässt.
Remy Franck
–> original review
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hören & fühlen –
See the original review (in German) here
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klassik.com –
(…) Sensitive, high-class music-making of vocal and instrumental voices of fine expression – an epoch shines into the present.
–> original review
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EMA – Early Music America –
(…) their musicality is absolutely top-notch, from the clarity of the text to the beautiful shape of the melodic lines, the quality and sensitivity of the instrumental accompaniments and solo works, the suppleness, control, blend, and tuning throughout—they are utterly convincing. Each individual album is an entire education unto itself, the series a revelation.
Karen Cook
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Toccata – Alte Musik aktuell –
(…) The exquisite singers around ensemble leader Agnieszka Budzinska beguile with perfect intonation and enchanting simplicity of performance, always finding their very own natural rhythm. In addition to purely vocal performances, the mostly monophonic works are colorfully accompanied in many pieces by fiddle, flute and medieval lute. Here Bapstiste Romain, Mara Winter and Marc Lewon blend harmoniously into the balanced overall sound, which is captured in exemplary fashion by TACET owner and recording supervisor Andreas Spreer. Those who have the ability to play multichannel recordings on their stereo system can immerse themselves in the simultaneously distant and close world of music with expanded enjoyment.
Wolfgang Reihing
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CD Hotlist, New Releases for Libraries –
This is the fourth and—unfortunately—final volume in Tacet’s Mare Balticum series, which celebrates lesser-known early music from the Baltic Sea region. As with the three previous volumes, which showcased music from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and northern Germany, Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett leads the ensemble Peregrina on an exploration of forgotten and previously lost works discovered in various archives around the region once known as Pomerania (the German-Polish borderlands). Some of these pieces survive only in fragmentary form, prompting Budzińska-Bennett to fill in certain musical gaps herself; many have never been recorded or heard in centuries.
The music consists entirely of single sung melodic lines, but these are not “songs” in the conventional sense—they are discursive, sometimes simple, sometimes artful, and occasionally almost ecstatic, in a style that those familiar with the music of Hildegard von Bingen will likely recognize. Like the previous volumes in this series, this one should be a must-have for any library collecting pre-Baroque music.
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