10th digital album of Dutch songwriter JoosTVD (The Vanished Dutchman).

Johannes Ockeghem was an absolute master of counterpoint who, for more than 40 years at the end of the 15th century, ruled over Franco-Flemish polyphony under three French kings, Charles VII, Louis XI and Charles VIII. His works – which are still all too rarely performed – continue to fascinate to this day. The Missa prolationum, together with the Missa cuiusvis toni, is a tour de force of writing, reaching levels of complexity that can impress even the most experienced performers. Although its Latin title would seem to suggest a sacred theme, this work does not strictly speaking belong to the liturgical domain and is not based on a pre-existing melodic motif, taken from motet or Gregorian chant.

Ensemble Providencia - Crossing The Channel: Music From Medieval France & England 10th-13th century
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 267 MB | Full Artwork: 120 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Tacet # TACET 201 | Country/Year: Germany 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Early Music, Medieval, Vocal

"…The singing, as has been observed, is extremely good. The recording is also excellent, with plenty of echo but without excess resonance to cloud the crystal clarity of the individual voices. The booklet note draws attention to distant bird noises from outside the church, despite the recordings being made late in the evening and at night. One would like to think they were attracted by the music. In any event their vocal contributions are hardly detectable and need no excuse. The booklet provides full texts in the original languages – not only Latin, but mediaeval French and English as well – with excellent translations into modern English, modern French and German. The sleeve-notes were originally written in French, but the English translation is both idiomatic and informative, and give a very full and detailed list of all the sources employed. A model of how such material should be presented." ~musicweb-international

Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie (Judith triumphant over the barbarians of Holofernes), RV 644, is an oratorio by Antonio Vivaldi, the only survivor of the four that he is known to have composed. The libretto was written by Iacopo Cassetti based upon the Book of Judith. Though the balance has been ably redressed in recent years, the appearance of this new recording of Juditha Triumphans is welcome.

The collaboration between soulful singer Beth Hart and popular blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa has been both critically-acclaimed and commercially successful. While their 2011 album Don't Explain laid a foundation and flitted on and off the blues chart for a couple years, their 2013 album Seesaw earned the pair a Grammy nomination and still sits in the Top Ten.