Il cor tristo The Hilliard Ensemble

• 1 Or vedi, Amor 02:20
• 2 Nova angeletta 02:09
• 3 Chiare, fresche, e dolci acque 02:48
• 4 Il cor tristo, Pt. I 05:57
• 5 Solo e pensoso 03:20
• 6 L'aer gravato 01:42
• 7 Tutt'il dì piango 03:40
• 8 Il cor tristo, Pt. II 06:01
• 9 Si è debile il filo 03:24
• 10 Ne la stagion 04:51
• 11 Che debb'io far? 04:10
• 12 Il cor tristo, Pt. III 12:44
• Total Runtime 53:06

Info for Il cor tristo

One of the world’s finest vocal chamber groups, the Hilliard Ensemble has a formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music. The programme featured here exemplifies its distinctive style and highly developed musicianship in both repertoires. At its heart is a work commissioned by the ensemble from British contemporary composer Roger Marsh: Il Cor Tristo, a setting of cantos 32 and 33 from Dante’s Inferno, which deftly blends Renaissance techniques with a modern idiom. Marsh’s composition frames settings of Petrarch by 16th century composers Bernardo Pisano (1490-1548) and Jacques Arcadelt (c 1507-1568). As so often with the Hilliard singers, the transitions between “old” and “new” are seamless, and the album unfolds like a larger composition. Here one must also credit composer Marsh, who notes that his “primary concern has been to keep Dante’s words clear at all times, and thus you will find in this contemporary music many devices more usually encountered in music of much earlier times.”

Marsh’s Il Cor Tristo was premiered by the Hilliard Ensemble in Perugia, Italy in September 2008. The version here was recorded, along with the Pisano and Arcadelt pieces, in November 2012, at the St Gerold monastery in Austria, location for outstanding Hilliard recordings including the collaborations with Jan Garbarek (Officium, Mnemosyne, Officium Novum) the Bach project with Christoph Poppen (Morimur), Arvo Pärt’s Da Pacem Domine, as well as motets of Guillaume de Machaut, 16th century English music (Audivi Vocem) and more.

Il Cor Tristo is released as the Hilliards both celebrate their 40th anniversary and embark on their final year together: at the end of 2014 the group will disband. The Hilliards’ last year will be a creative summing-up. David Jones explains: “As well as all the music that we have discovered and enjoyed performing over the years, we want to embrace the important relationships and people that have contributed to some of the remarkable landmarks and turning points in our career”.

The Hilliard Ensemble gave its first concert in London, on December 11 1973. Exactly 40 years later, on December 11, 2013, the group kicks off its final year with a concert at the London Spitalfields Festival which will include repertoire performed at the very first show – music by Byrd and by Britten – as well as Pérotin, Victoria, Josquin des Prés, and a new composition written for the group by Roger Marsh, Poor Yorrick. The Marsh piece is for eight voices, and the Hilliard Ensemble will be augmented by former members John Potter, John Leigh Nixon, Paul Elliott, and Errol Girdlestone. This eight-piece edition of the Hilliards gives two further concerts, in Paris on December 12 and in Munich on December 13.

All through 2014, the Hilliard Ensemble is touring very widely. In January alone, they perform in Australia, on the East and West Coasts of the US, and in Canada. Events in March include a revival of Heiner Goebbels’ music theatre piece for the Hilliards, I went to the house but did not enter, at the Lyon Opera House. Saxophonist Jan Garbarek will join the group for a last round of Officium concerts in Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Many other events are planned. Visit the ensemble’s website www.hilliardensemble.demon.co.uk for more details.

David James, countertenor
Rogers Covey-Crump, tenor
Steven Harrold, tenor
Gordon Jones, baritone

Recorded November 2012 Probstei St. Gerold
Tonmeister: Peter Laenger
Produced by Manfred Eicher

The Hilliard Ensemble Unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music, The Hilliard Ensemble is one of the world's finest vocal chamber groups. Its distinctive style and highly developed musicianship engage the listener as much in medieval and renaissance repertoire as in works specially written by living composers.

The group’s standing as an early music ensemble dates from the 1980s with its series of successful recordings for EMI (many of which have been re-released on Virgin) and its own mail-order record label hilliard LIVE, now available on the Coro label; but from the start it has paid equal attention to new music. The 1988 recording of Arvo Pärt’s Passio began a fruitful relationship with both Pärt and the Munich-based record company ECM, and was followed by their recording of Pärt’s Litany. The group has recently commissioned other composers from the Baltic States, including Veljo Tormis and Erkki-Sven Tüür, adding to a rich repertoire of new music from Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger, John Casken, James MacMillan, Elena Firsova and many others.

In addition to many a cappella discs, collaborations for ECM include most notably Officium and Mnemosyne with the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, a partnershipwhich continues to develop and renew itself, and Morimur with the German Baroque violinist Christoph Poppen and soprano Monika Mauch. Based on the research of Prof. Helga Thoene, this is a unique interweaving of Bach’s Partita in D minor for solo violin with a selection of Chorale verses crowned by the epic Ciaconna, in which instrumentalist and vocalists are united.

The group continues in its quest to forge relationships with living composers, often in an orchestral context. In 1999, they premiered Miroirs des Temps by Unsuk Chin with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kent Nagano. In the same year, James MacMillan’s Quickening, commissioned jointly by the BBC and the Philadelphia Orchestra, was premiered at the BBC Proms. With Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, they performed the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s 3rd Symphony which was subsequently premiered in Europe by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and Christoph Poppen. They have also collaborated with the Munich Chamber Orchestra with a new work by Erkki-Sven Tüür. In 2007 they joined forces with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra to premiere Nunc Dimittis by the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov, also recording this for ECM. In 2009 worked with the Arditti Quartet performing a substantial new work, Et Lux by Wolfgang Rihm.

A new development for the group began in August 2008 with the premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival of a music theatre project written by Heiner Goebbels in a production by the Théâtre Vidy, Lausanne: I went to the house but did not enter. This has subsequently been presented throughout Europe and the US.

With the release of their third collaboration with Jan Garbarek on the ECM label, Officium Novum, the group continues to tour extensively in Europe. The composer Alexander Raskatov features highly in their planning as does a new work by Nico Muhly which they will tour with the viol group Fretwork.

Booklet for Il cor tristo