Ave Maria: Marian Hymns

Ave Maria: Marian Hymns
Artist Various
Format 10 CD
Cat. number 96137
EAN code 5028421961378
Release October 2020

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About this release

A millennium of Marian motets and antiphons: the most comprehensive collection available of musical prayers to the Virgin.

Mary the Blessed Virgin, mother of Christ, has been an object of devotion in music as well as buildings, words and images since the early stirrings of the Christian church in the first and second centuries AD. The music in this box begins with the chants written down by monks during the papacy of Pope Gregory II, and for centuries these supple, joyful chants were passed on from generation to generation of Christians in worship and adoration.

With the development of polyphony in the 11th century, these Marian devotions took on further richness. Settings of the Ave Maria and other Marian prayers gradually flower and grow further from the original tree of Gregorian chant. This process is outlined in the box like a piece of slow- motion photography, moving from Guillaume de Machaut through to the Dutch polyphonists of the 15th and 16th centuries such as Ockeghem, Obrecht and Nicolas Gombert, but the vernacular traditions of Marian devotion in Italy and Spain are also represented with excerpts from the Laudario di Cortona and Llibre vermell de Montserrat. The edicts of the Council of Trent in 1566 commanded that sacred music communicate the text clearly above all considerations of aesthetic refinement, and composers across Europe accordingly wrote with greater transparency, less counterpoint and more declamation. Nevertheless, the new style inspired masterpieces such as the Ave Maris Stella of Monteverdi and Gesualdo’s Ave, dulcissima Maria.

With instruments increasingly joining voices in sacred music, Marian hymns adopted a concertato style, and the boundaries between the altar and the stage of the new opera houses became increasingly blurred. Settings of prayers such as the Salve Regina settings by Vivaldi and Pergolesi became multi-movement pieces, like a vocal concerto or dance suite, demanding vocal virtuosity from singers practised in soloistic repertoire. Writing in praise of Mary became less of a commission and increasingly driven by personal faith: Haydn wrote his sublime G minor setting of the Salve Regina having promised to dedicate a work to the Virgin after recovering from a serious illness.

Many Romantic-era settings of Marian poetry are accordingly infused with a quality of sublimated eroticism, like the Renaissance madrigalists, such as the notable examples by Schubert, Gounod and Brahms. Only in the middle of the 20th century did religiously inclined composers including Durufle and Poulenc return to the chanted origins of prayers such as Tota pulchra es. The collection comes to a radiant, meditative close with the seven Magnificat antiphons by Arvo Pärt, representing the modern revival of religious music in the hands of composers who rebelled against the Modernist revolution.

All the performances in the box are modern, digitally recorded versions by acclaimed ensembles such as the Oxford Camerata, the Corydon Singers, Le Concert Spirituel and the Choir of King’s College Cambridge. The booklet includes an essay by Peter Quantrill on the history of Marian devotion in music.

Throughout the centuries Christians have invoked the help, mercy and comfort of Maria, Holy Mother of God. In the Catholic liturgy Maria is honoured with several hymns or antiphons: Ave Maria, Salve Regina, Ave Maris Stella. Countless composers have set these texts to music, and this new Brilliant Classics set brings together an astonishing array of Maria Hymns, ranging from medieval Gregorian Chant, the earliest compositions by Machaut, the Flemish polyphonists Josquin, Ockeghem, Obrecht, Willaert, into the high Renaissance of Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Cavalli, Gesualdo, Caccini, through the Baroque with Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Haydn, Pergolesi, to Mozart, the 19th century Schubert, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms right into the 20th century ending with Poulenc, Duruflé and Arvo Pärt.
Excellent performances featuring specialized choirs such as the King’s College Choir, St. John’s College Choir, Clare College Choir and many others.
The booklet contains and essay on the composers.
Another valuable and inspirational set in the Sacred Music series by Brilliant Classics, previous issues include collections of the Requiem, Stabat Mater and Magnificat.

Listening

Track list

Disk 1

  1. Anonymous: Ave Maria
  2. Anonymous: Ave aris stella
  3. Anonymous: Salve regina
  4. Guillaume de Machaut: Communio: I. Regina mundi
  5. Anonymous: Laudario di cortona: I. Ave, donna Santissima
  6. Anonymous: Laudario di cortona: II. Madonna santa Maria
  7. Anonymous: Laudario di cortona: III. Ave Maria, gratïa plena
  8. Anonymous: Laudario di cortona: IV. Ave, regina glorïosa
  9. Anonymous: Laudario di cortona: V. O Maria, d’omelia
  10. Anonymous: Laudario di cortona: VI. Regina sovrana de gram pïetade
  11. Anonymous: Laudario di cortona: VII. O Maria, dei cella
  12. Anonymous: Llibre vermell de Montserrat
  13. Anonymous: Llibre vermell de Montserrat: II. Maria matrem virginem
  14. Anonymous: Llibre vermell de Montserrat: III. Laudemus virginem – Splendens ceptigera
  15. Anonymous: Llibre vermell de Montserrat: IV. O Virgo splendens
  16. Traditional: Ave maris stella

Disk 2

  1. Josquin Des Prez: Ave Maria in A Minor
  2. Adriaan Willaert: Ave Maria
  3. Nicolas Gombert: Ave Maria a5
  4. Nicolas Gombert: Salve regina
  5. Johannes Ockeghem: Alma redemptoris mater
  6. Jacob Obrecht: Salve regina a4
  7. Jacob Obrecht: Salve Regina a6
  8. Hans Leo Hassler: Ave maris stella
  9. Johann Melchior Gletle: Ave Maria I in A Minor

Disk 3

  1. Pierre De La Rue: Salve regina V: I. Salve regina, mater misericordiae
  2. Pierre De La Rue: Salve regina V: II. Ad te clamamus, exsules filii hevae
  3. Pierre De La Rue: Salve regina V: III. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra
  4. Pierre De La Rue: Salve regina V: IV. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis virgo Maria
  5. Jacobus Vaet: Salve regina: I. Salve regina – Vita, dulcedo (a5)
  6. Jacobus Vaet: Salve regina: II. Ad te clamamus – Ad te suspiramus (a4)
  7. Jacobus Vaet: Salve regina: III Eia ergo – Et Jesum (a5)
  8. Jacobus Vaet: Salve regina: IV. O clemens – O pia – O dulcis virgo Maria (a5)
  9. Robert Parsons: Ave Maria
  10. Peter Philips: Salve regina
  11. Peter Philips: Hodie beata virgo Maria
  12. Peter Philips: Guade Maria virgo
  13. Peter Philips: Alma redemptoris mater
  14. Peter Philips: O Maria mater

Disk 4

  1. Alfonso X of Castille: Santa Maria loei, e loo e loarei, CSM200
  2. Alfonso X of Castille: Virgen madre groriosa, CSM340
  3. Alonso Lobo: Ave regina caelorum a5
  4. Alonso Lobo: Ave Maria a8
  5. Alonso Lobo: Regina caeli Laetare
  6. Juan Anchieta: Ave sanctissima Maria
  7. Tomás Luis De Victoria: Ave Maria
  8. Tomás Luis De Victoria: Ave regina coelorum a8
  9. Tomás Luis De Victoria: Ave regina coelorum a5
  10. Marcos Pérez: Antiphon: Salve Regina
  11. Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Salve regina à trois choeurs, H.24
  12. Joseph Hector Fiocco: Ave Maria

Disk 5

  1. Giovanni Battista Fasolo: Salve regina, Op. 8 No. 31
  2. Claudio Merulo: Ave Maria
  3. Claudio Merulo: Hodie beata virgo Maria
  4. Girolamo Frescobaldi: Offertorium: Ave Maria
  5. Francesco Cavalli: Antiphon: Salve regina
  6. Claudio Monteverdi: Hymnus: Ave maris stella a8
  7. Claudio Monteverdi: Antiphona finalis: Salve regina
  8. Claudio Monteverdi: Salve regina a due tenori e basso
  9. Claudio Monteverdi: Salve regina a tenore solo
  10. Claudio Monteverdi: Salve regina a due tenori
  11. Claudio Monteverdi: Salve regina a tenore solo
  12. Maurizio Cazzati: Ave virgo Maria
  13. Maurizio Cazzati: Ave maris stella
  14. Maurizio Cazzati: Ave regina coelorum
  15. Maurizio Cazzati: Salve regina

Disk 6

  1. Giacomo Carissimi: Arion romanus: XV. O beata virgo de beata virgine
  2. Giacomo Carissimi: Arion romanus: XX. Salve virgo de beata virgine
  3. Carlo Gesualdo Da Venosa: Ave dulcissima Maria
  4. Giovanni Paolo Colonna: Ad novum caeli iubar, GPC23: I. Ad novum caeli iubar
  5. Giovanni Paolo Colonna: Ad novum caeli iubar, GPC23: II. Haec est Maria
  6. Giovanni Paolo Colonna: Ad novum caeli iubar, GPC23: III. Ista mundi per errores
  7. Giovanni Paolo Colonna: Ad novum caeli iubar, GPC23: IV. O, quam pulchra es Maria!
  8. Giovanni Paolo Colonna: Ad novum caeli iubar, GPC23: V. Tu mater, tu sponsa
  9. Giovanni Paolo Colonna: Ad novum caeli iubar, GPC23: VI. Tu fax es amoris
  10. Giovanni Paolo Colonna: Ad novum caeli iubar, GPC23: VII. Alleluia
  11. Alessandro Melani: Concerti spirituali, Op. 3: VI. Salve superum regina
  12. Alessandro Melani: Concerti spirituali, Op. 3: IX. Alma redemptoris
  13. Alessandro Melani: Concerti spirituali, Op. 3: I. Salve mater et regina
  14. Francesco Cavalli: Ave regina caelorum
  15. Francesco Cavalli: Alma redemptoris mater
  16. Francesca Caccini: Maria, dolce Maria
  17. Francesca Caccini: Regina caeli

Disk 7

  1. Alessandro Scarlatti: Salve regina
  2. Alessandro Scarlatti: Hymnus: Ave maris stella
  3. Antonio Vivaldi: Salve regina in F Major, RV 617: I. Salve regina
  4. Antonio Vivaldi: Salve regina in F Major, RV 617: II. Ad te clamamus
  5. Antonio Vivaldi: Salve regina in F Major, RV 617: III. Eia ergo
  6. Antonio Vivaldi: Salve regina in F Major, RV 617: IV. Et Jesum benedictum
  7. Francesco Maria Benedetti: Salve Regina
  8. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Salve Regina in C Minor, P.79: I. Salve regina
  9. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Salve Regina in C Minor, P.79: II. Ad te clamamus
  10. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Salve Regina in C Minor, P.79: III. Eia ergo advocate
  11. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Salve Regina in C Minor, P.79: IV. Et Jesum, benedictum
  12. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Salve Regina in C Minor, P.79: V. O clemens, o pia
  13. George Frideric Handel: Salve Regina, HWV 241
  14. Joseph Haydn: Salve Regina in G Minor, Hob.XXIIIb:2
  15. Joseph Haydn: Salve Regina in E-Flat Major, Hob.XXIIIb:4

Disk 8

  1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Litaniae lauretanae in B-Flat Major, K. 109/74e: I. Sancta Maria
  2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Litaniae lauretanae in B-Flat Major, K. 109/74e: II. Regina angelorum
  3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Litaniae lauretanae in D Major, K. 195/186d: I. Sancta Maria
  4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Litaniae lauretanae in D Major, K. 195/186d: II. Regina angelorum
  5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Regina coeli in C Major, K. 108/74d: I. Allegro
  6. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Regina coeli in C Major, K. 108/74d: II. Tempo moderato
  7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Regina coeli in C Major, K. 108/74d: III. Adagio un poco andante
  8. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Regina coeli in C Major, K. 108/74d: IV. Allegro
  9. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Regina coeli in B-Flat Major, K. 127: I. Allegro maestoso
  10. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Regina coeli in B-Flat Major, K. 127: II. Andante
  11. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Regina coeli in B-Flat Major, K. 127: III. Allegro
  12. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sancta Maria, mater dei in F Major, K. 273
  13. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Regina coeli in C Major, K. 276

Disk 9

  1. Franz Schubert: Salve regina in B-Flat Major,D. 106
  2. Franz Schubert: Salve Regina in B-Flat Major, D. 386
  3. Franz Schubert: Ave Maria, D. 839
  4. Simon Mayr: Salve Regina in F Major, I-BGc 307/2
  5. Simon Mayr: Ave regina coelorum in E-Flat Major, I-BGc 307/10
  6. Felix Mendelssohn: Kirchenmusik, Op. 23: II. Ave Maria
  7. Gaetano Donizetti: Ave Maria in F Major
  8. Johannes Brahms: Ave Maria in F Major, Op. 12
  9. Johannes Brahms: 3 Sacred Choruses, Op. 37: III. Regina coeli
  10. Johannes Brahms: Marienlieder, Op. 22: I. Der englische Gruß
  11. Johannes Brahms: Marienlieder, Op. 22: II. Marias Kirchgang
  12. Johannes Brahms: Marienlieder, Op. 22: III. Marias Wallfahrt
  13. Johannes Brahms: Marienlieder, Op. 22: IV. Der Jäger
  14. Johannes Brahms: Marienlieder, Op. 22: V. Ruf zur Maria
  15. Johannes Brahms: Marienlieder, Op. 22: VI. Magdalena
  16. Johannes Brahms: Marienlieder, Op. 22: VII. Marias Lob

Disk 10

  1. Johann Sebastian Bach: Ave Maria
  2. Joseph Guy Ropartz: Ave Maria a4, a cappella
  3. Giuseppe Verdi: 4 Pezzi sacri: I. Ave Maria
  4. Anton Bruckner: Ave Maria in F Major, WAB 6
  5. Franz Liszt: Ave Maria I in B-Flat Major, S. 20i
  6. Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Ave maris stella, EG 150
  7. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vespers, Op. 37: VI. Rejoice, O Virgin
  8. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vespers, Op. 37: XV. Thanksgiving to the Mother of God
  9. Maurice Duruflé: 4 Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens. Op. 10: II. Tota pulchra es, Maria
  10. Francis Poulenc: 4 Petites prières de St François d’Assise, FP 142: I. Salut, dame sainte
  11. Francis Poulenc: Litanies à la vierge noire, FP 82
  12. Francis Poulenc: Salve regina, FP 110
  13. Arvo Pärt: 7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: I. O Weisheit
  14. Arvo Pärt: 7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: II. O Adonai
  15. Arvo Pärt: 7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: III. O Sproß aus Isais Wurzel
  16. Arvo Pärt: 7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: IV. O Schüssel Davids
  17. Arvo Pärt: 7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: V. O Morgenstern
  18. Arvo Pärt: 7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: VI. O König aller Völker
  19. Arvo Pärt: 7 Magnificat-Antiphonen: VII. O Immanuel