The double CD was released in December 2022 by Tirando and can only be ordered directly from me at a price of 20 Euros.
Ohrwürmer für Kinder
Ensemble all'improvviso
Anne Schneider - Gesang
Martin Erhardt - Blockflöte
Michael Spiecker - Barockvioline
Miyoko Ito - Viola da Gamba
Christoph Sommer - Laute/Barockgitarre
The CD was released in June 2022 by Tirando and can only be ordered directly from us at a price of 15 euros.
Ohrwürmer auf Reisen
Ensemble all'improvviso
Martin Erhardt - recorder
Michael Spiecker - baroque violin
Miyoko Ito - viola da gamba
Christoph Sommer - lute instruments and baroque guitar
The CD appeared in december 2017 on Tirando and can be ordered for 15 Euro only directly with us.
Johannes Ockeghem (um 1420-1497): Missa L'homme armé.
Ensemble Nusmido:
Milo Machover - voice, Renaissance flute
Ivo Berg - voice, recorder, bells
Marijke Meerwijk - voice, bells
Martin Erhardt - voice, portative organ, recorder
as a guest: Miyoko Ito - fiddle
"Not only are we set apart from Johannes Ockeghem by several centuries, but profound and unmeasurable changes in our social, political and philosophical world view separate us from his music. Bearing this in mind, we should not give the illusion that our efforts towards a historically informed performance practice aim at recreating an original sound or at performing the music in an allegedly authentic manner. Rather, a historically informed approach can, by helping us experience the distance and remaining mystery of our own culture, give rise to a performance practice defined by artistic and spiritual humility.
[...] All of this offers the potential for a form of sacred polyphony in which the individual voices are neither independent nor autonomous, but point instead, through sensitive interrelation and interaction, to a common entity, whose intangible and unfathomable character appears to be part of the compositional and artistic/religious intention. At its finest moments, this manner of making music leads away from a subject-oriented approach, one in which the performer considers himself as the creator of the sound: instead it turns his attention to the acoustics of his surroundings, to its reflections and vibrations, which are in fact at the very basis of this music; it turns his physical perception away from the subordination to a fixed metrical hierarchy and towards a free flowing pulsation in complete harmony with the rhythm of his breath. Nothing, however, can be forced in this process: all too often, the hectic pace of our daily lives stands in the way for these moments to appear and develop freely. And so this music exerts for us a constant fascination, as its daunting unfamiliarity, its fragile mystery and inaccessible slowness holds a mirror to our faces."
The CD appeared in february 2015 on Rondeau Productions and can be ordered for 15 Euro directly with us.
"There is nothing run-of-the mill here, the Ensemble Nusmido invest these scores with a wealth of imagination and effortless radiance. What I find compelling from these young musicians is their instinctive phrasing, subtle dynamics and immaculate intonation. The instrumental items provide contrast and help sustain interest. This is a most enjoyably release, that would grace any vocal collection."
Stephen Greenbank"... whereas I had not found this mass cycle to be terribly interesting previously, I now find it quite engaging. So, in that sense, one cannot praise the interpretation enough: There is much linear independence here, focusing on a chant-like reading of the parts, with tuning alignment expanding from the middle parts (rather than in a top-down approach)."
Todd M. McComb
Quinta vox. Madrigale des 16. Jahrhunderts mit selbstgemachten Diminutionen von Miyoko Ito & Martin Erhardt.
Die meisten Stücke auf dieser CD haben wir zu zweit mit Viola da gamba, Blockflöte, Orgel und Cembalo aufgenommen. Für manche Stücke haben wir unser Ensemble mit den Sängern Anne Schneider, Marijke Meerwijk und Bram Verheijen verstärkt. Im Booklet sind Zeichnungen zu den Madrigalen von Miyoko Ito und Übertragungen der Madrigaltexte in deutsche Gedichte von Eva und Martin Erhardt.
Die Aufnahmen konnten wir im Juli und August 2014 in der Johanneskirche in Halle (Saale) realisieren.
Madrigale und Chansons von: Cypriano de Rore, Luca Marenzio, Ihan Gero, Maddalena Casulana, Bartolomeo Tromboncino, G. P. da Palestrina, Perissone Cambio, Adrian Willaert, Jacob Arcadelt, Vincenzo Ruffo, Orlande de Lassus, Thomas Crecquillon und Pierre Sandrin.
Das Besondere dieser CD ist, dass alle Diminutionen (Verzierungen) und instrumentalen Intavolierungen von uns selbst stammen, sich stilistisch aber präzise in die Tradition der überlieferten Diminutionsschulen von Ganassi, Ortiz, Santa Maria, dalla Casa, Virgiliano, Rognoni usw. einreihen.
Die CD erschien November 2014 beim deutschen Label Tirando (TRD 342) und kann zum Preis von 15 Euro direkt bei uns bestellt werden.
In September 2012 the early music ensemble Cantus Modalis made a most special recording in Ostönnen (Westphalia). In addition to a praeambulum by Adam Ileborgh van Stendhal and music for Easter by Guillaume Dufay, Josquin des Prez and Fridolin Sicher, the pièce de résistance was the six-voice Missa Paschalis by Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450-1517). In this so-called 'alternatim' mass, Isaac's polyphonic setting of sections of the Gregorian ordinary chants from the Graduale Pataviense for the Easter season is heard antiphonally with organ intabulations of the adjacent phrases by Hans Buchner (1483-1538).
The organ chosen for this recording is the Gothic organ, originally in the Old St. Thomas Church in Soest (Westphalia). This organ, now in the small Protestant Church of St. Andreas in the village of Ostönnen, is one of the three oldest restored organs in the world, of which more than half of the pipes, the bellows and part of the case date from the first period of the organ's history, 1425-1500.
For this recording, Cantus Modalis, directed by Dr. Rebecca Stewart, was composed of six women 'pueri' and six men 'clerici', with Martin Erhardt as 'organista'. The extensive background information, chiefly researched by Dr. Klaas van der Heide, a specialist in the area of iconographic symbolism in the famous Alamire choirbooks, is almost as exciting as a 'whodunit'. Constructed around the symbolic content of the 'advertisement' woodcut of Hans Weiditz, which was produced for the last Diet of the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) in Augsburg in 1518, this narrative traces the fascinating role which Isaac's six-voice Missa Paschalis played in the survival of the Empire, with as pivotal points the unexpected death of the Emperor's son and heir, Philip the Handsome, in 1506, and the Diet of Constance in 1507. Since the completion of the CD one small but significant realisation has been made: the two 'dogs' at the front of the woodcut are actually a lion (representing the majestic Habsburg realm) and a dog (perhaps the French king, who is attempting to nibble at its edges).
The CD appeared just before Easter 2013 on the German label Ambitus (amb 96 965).