Scherzi Musicali Achten - Motets - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Jean-Noël Hamal's musical language is a perfect reflection of this transitional period in which the Baroque galant style merges into the classical style. One senses in Hamal's music a communicative vitality, a charmingly poetic note, a keen sense of elegant melody and a theatricality in dynamic contrasts which in some ways evokes the Mannheim school. As soon as he was able, he exploited the ample space available by writing works for two choirs and two orchestras. He seems also to have had a very pronounced preference for major tonalities (he even went so far as to write an astonishingly cheerful Dies irae in C major) and for very readable harmonies, although these sometimes risk being too predictable or conventional. But he was also capable of being a visionary by their tripartite structure and the autonomous form his symphonies make him a precursor of the classical symphony. He is equally capable of entirely unexpected surprises and attractive details, as is apparent in his motets delivered respecting the practices then in force in Liège by Nicolas Achten and Scherzi Musicali ensemble, mixing subtlety and theatricality. Album Tracks 1. Io Ti Vorria Contar, LV 658 2. Quand Mon Mary, LV 153 3. La Bataille Ad Secundam 4. Iay Un Mary 5. Madonna Mia Pietà, LV 30 6. Passomezo D'italye Ad Quintam 7. Du Corps Absent, LV 171 8. Avecques Vous Mon Amour, LV 38 9. La Nuict Froide Et Sombre, LV 578 10. Balletto 11. Ricercare Del Nono Tuono Per B 12. Contrappunto Sopra Susanna Un Jour Di Orlando Per Suonare a Doi Liutti 13. Balletto Alla Francese 14. Volta Quarta Alla Francese 15. Canzone Prima 16. Ciparissa, Gagliarda 17. Veni in Hortum Meum, LV 114 18. Gagliarda 19. Susanneken 20. Susanne Un Jour, LV 98 21. Robin Is to the Greenwood Gone 22. The Lord Viscount Lisle His Galliard 23. Fantasia