“To celebrate the Chœur de Namur’s 30th anniversary, we focused on a ‘national’ composer. Jacques Arcadelt’s rich, complex and mysterious personality gradually emerged before us with the help of Leonardo García Alarcón, our artistic director, and Jérôme Lejeune, who has long accompanied us in our enlightening exploration of off the beaten paths. As we delved deeper and deeper into the project, we realized that we had come across a real treasure trove.”
Jean-Marie Marchal, directeur du CAV&MA
Released on 17 August 2018 by Ricercar – 60 minutes
The few religious works that Arcadelt composed are similar to Josquin’s. The writing is flexible and refreshing and features a counterpoint that never feels forced or exercise-like, only yielding occasionally to homophony. The first CD is entirely devoted to these works. By contrast, he produced a plethora of secular works, including 126 songs and more than 200 madrigals. It is in these works that Arcadelt’s art emerges. There are many similarities between the French chanson and the first madrigal, “Poesia per musica”. Notably, most of the writing is also in four parts, with only a few exceptions. The two types of works also share many themes and handle them in a similar manner (except for the chansons à répondre and chansons à danser). In truth, they influenced and enriched one another to such an extent that it would be difficult to tell which genre a particular piece belongs to, were in not for the difference in language. Arcadelt left behind five books for four voices and one for three voices. Thirteen of the 23 madrigals that are presented in this album belong to his first book (which contains 53 in total). The album opens with first song from the first book, the homophonic “Il bianco e dolce cigno”. Leonardo García Alarcón is intimately familiar with madrigals and early Baroque music and gives listeners an inspired reading of this anthology, which contains pieces that are closer to frottole than Marenzio’s and Monteverdi’s masterpieces. The music is easy to comprehend, as it is often sung by two voices, with two lutes covering the other parts.
