Fiocco: Missa Solemnis: Ave Maria; Homo Quidam

Joseph-Hector Fiocco (Composer), Patrick Peire (Conductor), Collegium Instrumentale Brugense (Performer), Greta de Reyghere (Performer), Hilde Coppe (Performer), Jan Van Elsacker (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Collegium Instrumentale Brugense, Greta de Reyghere, Hilde Coppe, Jan Van Elsacker
• Conductor: Patrick Peire
• Composer: Joseph-Hector Fiocco
• Audio CD (April 15, 2003)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B00008IHW2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #520,169 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Like Vivaldi and Handel...., January 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Fiocco: Missa Solemnis: Ave Maria; Homo Quidam (Audio CD)

As Patrick Peire's rather brief notes to this CD indicate, Fiocco's work shows the influence of many masters of his day. But if this composer, who died relatively young, failed to cultivate a unique voice, his music is nonetheless enticing. Fiocco was a true eclectic: he synthesizes the best choral-music influences of his day, with the exception of Bach, who few outside of Germany would have known anyway when Fiocco was writing.

Fiocco was the son of a Venetian who settled in Brussels. Joseph-Hector served at the court chapel in Brussels and at Antwerp Cathedral as choral director, and these opportunities obviously gave him the opportunity to write for a fine chorus, capable of coloratura singing, and an orchestra with first-rate trumpeters, as shown by the virtuoso writing for the trumpets in Fiocco's Mass.

While I can't speak to Peire's assertion that Fiocco incorporates Flemish musical strains in this work, the Italian influences are immediately recognizable, and if you enjoy, say, Vivaldi's celebrated Gloria, you will almost certainly admire Fiocco's works. But whereas Vivaldi can be somewhat foursquare, Fiocco's music dances. Peire credits the influence of Couperin and Lully for this dance-like quality. However, I think more along Italian lines again--that eminent "Italian" master George Frideric Handel, whose choral music so often dances as well. Handel apprenticed in Italy and never abandoned his Italian musical roots but instead filtered Italianate style through the native English strains of Purcell (or vice versa). Maybe that's what's happening in the case of Fiocco, who gives the Italianate a possibly Flemish spin. Whatever the case, you will hear music in Fiocco that reminds you of Handel, such as the lovely Qui tollis, an excellent piece of contrapuntal writing that is very reminiscent of "Lift Up, Ye Gates" from the Messiah, just as Fiocco's Cujus regni recalls "Arise, Shine; for Thy Light Is Come." These should probably be called pre-echoes, since the Messiah was composed around the time of Fiocco's death. But it is clear that both masters are going to the same well for their inspiration.

If Fiocco's music finally lacks the majesty and melodic memorability of Handel, certainly the Mass is more accomplished than much of Vivaldi, whose choral-vocal music, as critics point out, often sounds like transcribed instrumental music. In fact, Fiocco's Mass is clearly the work of a thoroughgoing church-music master. So thanks to Patrick Peire and Naxos for the opportunity to hear this interesting and attractive work.

All of Peire's forces are as committed to the project as he. His soloists and chorus sing with suavity and grace, and the orchestra is equally fine, especially those all-important trumpeters. The choice of recording this work in a studio rather than a church results in an intimate, well-balanced recording so important to reproducing the clarity of Fiocco's contrapuntal lines. Warmly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a voice teacher and early music fan, April 2, 2011

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George Peabody "Ariel" (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Fiocco: Missa Solemnis: Ave Maria; Homo Quidam (Audio CD)

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!

What a shocking introductory statement about a Solemn Mass! But without any thought my first hearing of this exciting and entertaining work by Joseph-Hector Fiocco (1703-1741) thrust the phrase into my head and I realized that this music does promote an exuberancy and indeed a 'hallelujah' reaction that will not be suppressed. Is it the bright virtuoso playing of the blazing trumpets? Is it the grandeur of the chorus as their voices soar to the heavens in perfect harmony? Or finally the resonant and lovely sounds of the individual soloists, so skilled and intense in their individual contributions? Well, we the listeners know that it is all of those things that ultimately contribute to our extreme pleasure when we hear music like this. In church??? Well, anywhere, but why not in church. Surely in the house of God it is appropriate for us to feel exulted and joyous!

Joseph-Hector Fiocco can certainly be considered the most important Flemish composer of the first half of the 18th century, writing music that offers a synthesis of the French, from Lully and Couperin, to the Italian of Vivaldi, particularly in his motets, and the Italianate style embodied by Handel in England. Fiocco's work consists mainly of vocal-instrumental sacred music, masses, motets and lecons de tenebres, as required by the various prominent chapel posts he held throughout his lifetime. His style combines soaring melodic lines with complex fugal writing and innovative and daring harmonies, and the works on this disc are thoroughly representative of that unique style.

THE OBSERVER (LONDON) Sept. 2003-Anthony Holden: "Naxos have made a major discovery in his Missa Solemnis in D, recorded in the editions of its conductor, Patrick Peire, whose fine Flemish Orchestra, choir and soloists bring out the haunting subtleties of Fiocco's contrapuntal melodic lines, often clashing with the harmony to produce beguiling dissonances."

MICHAEL CARTER- FANFARE: "Patrick Peire and his musicians succeed in capturing the style and spirit of the period instrument movement but without resorting to them. The orchestra performs on modern strings and winds but employs techniques generally followed only by the authenticists. Kudos are certainly due for the trumpet players, whose bright and silvery sound floats above the proceedings in a almost heavenly manner. Peire's soloists, while not best known on this side of the Atlantic, are certainly respected and acknowledged specialists on their own turf."