LATEST ALBUM
MIRABILIA MUSICA
Label: Ramée/Outhere (RAM 2008), 2022
Track 1: Breve regnum erigitur (anonymous)
The city of Cracow, until 1596 the political, commercial and cultural capital of Poland, rose to prominence in Central Europe in the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries under the rule of the Jagiellon dynasty. Although repertoire both performed and composed in Cracow exists from before to that period, it is the manuscripts from the first half of the fifteenth century that capture an impression of the city’s soundscape in a period when it was reportedly “gripped by the greatest enthusiasm” for music. On the one hand, they reveal an intense involvement with Italian and French art music, and on the other, rare glimpses of local musical production ranging from simple, often archaic-sounding polyphony to more complex works of Mikołaj Radomski, a mysterious Polish composer whose music is not known from other sources. The recorded programme is a musical panorama of a vibrant early fifteenth-century city in the East of Latin Europe which, six centuries later, still enchants with its medieval-renaissance aura.
LA MORRA: Doron Schleifer, Ivo Haun de Oliveira, Daniel Mentes, Matthieu Romanens (voices), Corina Marti (clavicimbalum, recorders), Michal Gondko (plectrum lute), Corinne Raymond-Jarczyk (fiddle)
ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Corina Marti & Michal Gondko
With an introductory essay by Michal Gondko
REVIEWS
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(MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL) (…) This disc offers a most fascinating survey of what was written and performed in late medieval Cracow (…) I can’t imagine better performances than we get here from La Morra. (…) A special recommendation [full review]
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(SCHERZO) (…) un programa muy surtido, fresco y necesario para el que quiera huir de ‘lo de siempre’.
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(GRAMOPHONE) (…) marvellously idiomatic and vital performances (…) [full review]
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(CRESCENDO MAGAZINE) (…) un superbe tribut aux musiques qui résonnaient alors dans cet important foyer théologique au pied du Wawel. [full review]
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(RUCH MUZYCZNY): (…) La Morra łączy piękno z prostotą, oferując to, co najlepsze, czyli cudowną muzykę. [full review]
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(EARLY MUSIC REVIEW): (…) It can scarcely come as a surprise that an important kingdom such as Poland would at this time have boasted a thriving musical culture, but it is exciting to have this confirmed in these excellent performances of superb music from the period, which was either composed in Cracow or certainly performed in it. [full review]
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(DIAPASON): ***** (…) Fidèle à lui-même, l’ensemble bâlois bâtit un programme original et d’une minutie historique magistrale. (…)
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(TOCCATA): Ein begeisternder Einblick in das Musikleben des spätmittelalterlichen Krakau jenseits aller Mittelalter-Klischees! [full review]
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(STRETTO): Niet te missen! [full review]
