Wednesday 23 March, 2022 | Jheronimus Bosch Art Center, ‘s-Hertogenbosch (NL) | € 25,00 | ORDER TICKETS
Thursday 24 March 2022 | Waalse Kerk, Amsterdam (NL) | € 25,00 | ORDER TICKETS
Friday, 25 March 2022 | Grote Kerk, Breda (NL) | € 25,00 | ORDER TICKETS
Mary Magdalene on the clouds, Lucas van Leyden, 1518
With the dawn of 2022 we have arrived in the third year of the five-year project on the Den Bosch Choirbooks, the musical treasure the Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap built up centuries ago in Den Bosch and still cherishes to this day. At the same time, we are also launching the third CD in a five-part series, with presentation concerts in Den Bosch, Amsterdam and Breda.
The new album Apostola apostolorum is entirely dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, one of the most important saints of the confraternity in the 15th and 16th centuries. At the center is Nicolas Champion’s five-part Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena, a true Renaissance masterpiece. Additional texts in the tenor part of this mass follow the spiritual journey of Mary Magdalene, who is called “Apostle of the Apostles” because of her key role in the gospel’s redemption story.
The mass is supplemented with anonymous polyphonic settings of Vesper antiphons and the Magnificat that are found nowhere else than in the Bossche Choirbooks. They were probably the work of local musicians who were clearly not inferior to the most talented composers of the time.
The programme is completed with Gregorian chant repertoire that also bears the signs of a local tradition or ‘dialect’: according to the custom of the time, the singers of Cappella Pratensis add improvised voices to these chants. All in all, the ensemble provides an overview of how the Brotherhood celebrated Mary Magdalene’s name day (July 22) at the time, with elements from the different services of the day, and once again shows the richness of the musical tradition in the High Renaissance.
The concert will be introduced by the American musicologist Prof. M. Jennifer Bloxam.
PROGRAMME
Introduction by prof. M. Jennifer Bloxam, part 1
Plainchant | Introitus: Gaudeamus omnes | vers Eructavit
Nicolas Champion (c. 1480 – 1533) | Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena | Kyrie
Prefatio
Nicolas Champion | Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena | Sanctus
Pierre de la Rue (c. 1452 – 1518) | O salutaris hostia
Plainchant | Pater noster
Nicolas Champion | Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena | Agnus Dei
Introduction by prof. M. Jennifer Bloxam, part 2
Deus in adjutorium
Plainchant | 2nd Vesper psalm | Quando Martha | Laudate pueri
Plainchant | Magnificat (Tone 1) + Antiphon: Fidelis sermo
Tim Braithwaite, Stratton Bull, Andrew Hallock | superius
Lior Leibovici, Korneel Van Neste | contratenor
Pieter De Moor, Adriaan de Koster | tenor
Donald Bentvelsen, Marc Busnel, Grantley McDonald, Bram Trouwborst | bassus
Stratton Bull | artistic director
