Regnart: Missa Super Oeniades Nymphae [Import]

Jacob Regnart (Composer), Cinquecento (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Cinquecento
• Composer: Jacob Regnart
• Audio CD (September 11, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B000SKO7PQ
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155,240 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Quod Mitis Sapiens Nulli Virtute Secundus

2. Kyrie

3. Gloria

4. Credo

5. Sanctus And Benedictus

6. Agnus Dei

7. Exsultent Iusti

8. Quare Tristis Es, Anima Mea?

9. Stetit Jesus

10. Inviolata

11. Lamentabatur Jacob

12. Stella, Wuam Viderant Magi

13. Ut Vigilum Densa Silvam Singente Corona

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome Surprise, January 31, 2008

By 

J. M. Middleton (Auckland, NZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Regnart: Missa Super Oeniades Nymphae (Audio CD)

Don't let the unfamiliar names of the composer and vocal group put you off - this is a wonderful CD. From beginning to end the sumptuous sounds overwhelm and captivate the listener. Within the group, Cinquecento, there are five different nationalities and thus discussion must have taken place regarding Latin pronunciation, but the resulting music-making is truly unified and refreshing.

Apparently there were five musical Regnart brothers, but Jacob was presumably the best in composition. Here's hoping that more of his beautiful music comes to light.

I can't imagine anyone with an interest in the sacred music of the Renaissance being disappointed with this disc in any way.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Wonders for the Price of One..., December 14, 2009

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Regnart: Missa Super Oeniades Nymphae (Audio CD)

"Cinquecento" is Wonder #1 -- an all-male vocal ensemble, founded in 2004, singing "lesser known sixteenth century choral repertoire" and making a go of it. That they sing it very well perhaps wouldn't be enough to guarantee an audience, so one has to presume that they have 'charisma' on stage. I can't say; I haven't heard them live. On this CD, singing strictly one-on-a-part, they have all the power and grandeur one hopes to hear (and rarely does) from a larger choir, two or three voices on a part. Yet they also have the unity of attacks and diction, the transparency of tuning, and the rhythmic independence of 'lines' that characterize the best vocal ensembles like The Orlando Consort or the Hilliards. Some part of their robust sonority must come from the acoustics of Kloster Pernegg in Austria, where this recording was made, and I strongly suspect that another part comes from skilled engineering and mixing. In any case, the sound quality is superb; there's absolutely no 'white-noise' burr or distortion, even when all six voices are cadencing richly. If you like your vocal music to be "resonant", Cinquecento is the group for you.

The 2nd Wonder is the music itself. Jacob Regnart is scarcely a household name, even among choir directors. I've known of his simple but charming German dances and Lieder for decades; you know, the sort of pieces that are slipped into concert programs or onto CDs as fillers. I had no idea what a masterful composer of larger forms he was, of the polyphonic masses and motets that were the chief glory of 16th C music in Europe. There are only two CDs available of such compositions by Regnart, and the other is out of circulation.

Regnart was a contemporary of Orlando di Lasso. The two composers knew each other and each other's work. Their lives were parallel in several ways; both studied in Italy, both were boy singers, both held secure and important musical positions in the Hapsburg courts for much of their lives, and both managed to get large amounts of their music published and thus preserved. Stylistically, however, they are not so similar. Regnart was a surprisingly intellectual polyphonist - a conservative, you might say, just as Bach would be - whose musical density reminds me more of Gombert or Victoria than of Lasso. But Regnart was bolder than the others in his use of modal polyphony, particularly of the highly 'affective' Phrygian mode. His cross-relations and dissonances are positively startling, closer to the lush madrigals of Gesualdo than what one expects to hear in Latin spiritual motets. The eight motets on this CD are all massively polyphonic, in four, five, or six voices with few 'thin' patches of duet or trio. Regnart clearly intended an imposing, imperial performance, a kind of 'rolling thunder' of resonance, made fascinating by its contrapuntal complexity. That's the sound 'Cinquecento' produces.

And here's a bonus: there's a lot of Regnart's music still waiting to be recorded. Get to work, guys!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very fine disc, July 10, 2011

By 

Sid Nuncius (London England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Regnart: Missa Super Oeniades Nymphae (Audio CD)

Cinquecento are now well-established as a very good vocal ensemble. This was the disc which introduced me to them, and made me an instant fan. One of Cinquecento's aims is to bring more obscure Renaissance repertoire to wider attention and they succeed brilliantly with this disc. The music here is exclusively by Jacob Regnart - a composer I'd never heard of before but whose music turns out to be beautiful and very rewarding. There is a very fine mass setting and some really excellent motets here and the whole disc was a delightful revelation to me.

The group sing superbly. They are technically excellent and sing at a low pitch in the tradition of the Low Countries, with countertenors taking the top lines. This gives a very a full, resonant sound, emphasised by the resonant acoustic, while Hyperion's usual excellent recording standard means that every line is clear while blending to give a fabulous overall sound and the effect is truly lovely.

This has been a favourite disc of mine ever since I got it and I recommend it very warmly to anyone who likes Renaissance polyphony or if you just want a really rewarding, beautiful musical experience