Search - Josquin Desprez, Edward Wickham :: The Essential Josquin des Prez

Double Wow! This IS good!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 11/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The only previous reviewer says he just stumbled over this recording. I listen to Renaissance and Baroque music every single day, make my living at it, worship it as my personal Golden Calf, and I almost missed it. The title threw me off; I thought, when it was released in 2007, that it was a compendium of selections from other older CDs by the Clerks' Group. But it isn't that. It has a kind of composite mass --the kyrie, gloria, credo, sanctus, and agnus dei from various masses -- but also a set of motets and chansons that can really be called "essential" Josquin, being among his finest works. The chanson Bergerette Savoienne is about three minutes of the Music of the Spheres! Actually the CD title can be taken in another sense, as saying that "Josquin is essential," a premise I totally support. Life without Josquin, even for a single week, would be measurably drearier.





A very short time later: Yes, it is a compendium from other CDs; I checked carefully, and many of the motets and chansons appear as single Josquin items on Obrecht or Ockeghem disks. So.... if you're a new-comer to this music, and wonder what's so wonderful about Josquin, this is the starting place for you!



The Clerks' Group, under Edward Wickham, just gets more and more assured and expressive. Their recordings of the masses of Ockeghem, Obrecht, Brumel, and Josquin are uniformly the most enjoyable and authoritative of any performances of polyphonic vocal music on the market. Other consorts seldom even bother to record music that the Clerks have put their voices to."

Wow. This is good.

J. Merrill | NY City | 04/05/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I listen to a lot of early choral music and just tripped over this. Wow. What a diamond.



I haven't had anything knock me over like this in a while. I had no idea of the rhythmic intracies and the way this music can actually groove. I'm a big Gesualdo fan and am so pleased to find something equally compelling and unusual. Absolutely gorgeous. Not just the compositions but this group is very talented and SO musical. Nuff said. If there's more like this please let me know!!"