Isaac: Missa Misericordias Domini & Motets Cantica Symphonia & Guiseppe Maletto

• Heinrich Isaac (c.1450-1517): Ave regina caelorum
• 1Ave regina caelorum04:17
• Ave ancilla Trinitatis
• 2Ave ancilla Trinitatis04:49
• Missa Misericordias Domini
• 3Kyrie03:35
• 4Gloria05:30
• 5Credo07:10
• 6Sanctus04:27
• 7Agnus Dei04:28
• Inviolata
• 8Inviolata11:06
• Sub tuum Praesidium
• 9Sub tuum Praesidium03:15
• La mi la sol, la sol la mi
• 10La mi la sol, la sol la mi05:02
• Quae est ista
• 11Quae est ista06:48
• O decus Ecclesiae
• 12O decus Ecclesiae09:30
• Total Runtime01:09:57

Info for Isaac: Missa Misericordias Domini & Motets

With Heinrich Isaac, Giuseppe Maletto and Cantica Symphonia turn their attention to one of the most influential Franco-Flemish composers of the Renaissance, presenting a hitherto unrecorded mass setting, his Missa Misericordias Domini, and a selection of outstanding and substantial motets. Isaac was one of the leading composers who, born and trained in Flanders, took up employ in Italy: in his case he worked at the sumptuous court of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century (on the latter’s death Isaac was then taken on by the Emperor Maximilian I).

This new recording from Glossa offers a rare chance today of appreciating the music of this extraordinarily prolific composer, often unfairly (as he was in his own time) obscured by the shadow cast by his near-contemporary Josquin Desprez, in interpretations which the sextet of long-experienced singers of Cantica Symphonia handle with their typical skill. If the Missa Misericordias Domini ultimately owes its thematic material to an Italian secular song, a frottola (and Guido Magnano, in his booklet essay, maps out Isaac’s biography in Florence to explain this choice), the motets here – including O decus Ecclesiae, Quae est ista and Inviolata – are resolutely Marian devotional works; some recorded also for the first time.

The established special colouring of Cantica Symphonia’s work is maintained here by the well considered presence in some of the motets of instruments of the time, notably, fiddles, sackbuts and slide trumpets.

Cantica Symphonia:
Laura Fabris, soprano
Francesca Cassinari, soprano
Giuseppe Maletto, tenor
Gianluca Ferrarini, tenor
Fabio Furnari, tenor
Marco Scavazza, baritone

Guido Magnano, organ
Svetlana Fomina, fiddle
Efix Puleo, fiddle
Daniela Godio, fiddle
Ermes Giussani, sackbut & slide trumpet
Mauro Morini, sackbut
David Yacus, sackbut & slide trumpet
Giuseppe Maletto, direction

Cantica Symphonia
For over a decade Cantica Symphonia has dedicated itself to the recovery and performance of medieval and renaissance polyphony.

Founded in 1995 by Giuseppe Maletto and Svetlana Fomina, the group is now one of the most highly regarded interpreters in its field. Cantica Symphonia’s unique style, fruit of intensive analysis of original sources, is characterized by an ability to bring out the structural and expressive richness of its repertoire. The group’s approach is one of particular care and attention to the interaction between voices and instruments, consolidating the collective experience of its members who individually collaborate with the most highly affirmed groups of today’s international Early Music scene.

The fulcrum of the group’s activity has always been the music of Guillaume Dufay, the first great musician of the “modern” era whose works enlightened his times and guided western music through the travailed passage from medieval to renaissance.

Since 2005 Cantica Symphonia records exclusively for the Spanish record label Glossa, with which it has in progress a series of CDs dedicated to the music of Dufay. The first volume, Quadrivium, was realized in collaboration with the University of Turin and is dedicated to the motets of the Franco-Flemish master. It has been met with critical acclaim, winning the prestigious Diapason d’or de l’année and the Choc from Le Monde de la Musique.

Prior to its collaboration with Glossa, Cantica Symphonia realized a series of highly acclaimed discs with guest director Kees Boeke for the label Stradivarius, and a CD featuring music of the French Ars Nova from the Ivrea Codex for the record label Opus 111.

The ensemble’s concert performances have been met with the same warm consensus as its recording projects. Cantica Symphonia has concertized throughout Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Estonia, and Slovenia and appears regularly in prestigious festivals: Rencontres de Musique Médiévale du Thoronet, the Festival van Vlaanderen in Brugge and Antwerp, the Tage alter Musik in Regensburg, Concerts de St. Germain in Geneva, Settembre Musica and Unione Musicale in Torino.

Composers Filippo Del Corno, Carlo Galante e Yacov Gubanov wrote music expressly for Cantica Symphonia.

Booklet for Isaac: Missa Misericordias Domini & Motets