Missa Maria Magdalena
01 - Kyrie
02 - Gloria
03 - Credo
04 - Sanctus
05 - Agnus Dei
Motetes
06 - Responsorium pro defuctis libera me
07 - Vivo ego, dicit Dominus
08 - Credo quod redemptor meus vivit
09 - Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui
10 - O quam suavis est, Domine
11 - Ave Regina Coelorum

Taller Ziryab: 
Anne Perret (mezzo-soprano), 
Antonio del Pino (baritone), 
Catherine Pierron (organo positivo), 
Catherine Ramona (violas da gamba), 
Francisco Misas (corneto), 
José Jiménez (alto), 
José Enrique Ruiz (bass), 
José Manuel Acebes (flautas de pico, chirimias), 
José Manuel López (tenor), 
Lindsay Wagstaff (soprano), 
Lucas Pérez (bass), 
María del Mar Amat (soprano), 
María Isabel Osuna (viola da gamba), 
Paul Badley (tenor), 
Ramón Peñaranda (sacabuche), 
Robert Hollingworth (baritone), 
Rosemary Hay (soprano), 
William Purefoy (alto).

The Spanish school of Renaissance composers, eventually to become one of the most splendid in Europe, was something of a late developer. Although there were significant figures working in Spain in the first half of the sixteenth century, it was really only with the ebbing of the tide of Franco-Flemish musicians at court that the astonishing depth of talent being trained in the local choir schools came to the fore. Amongst the most impressive of these men were Francisco Guerrero (1528–1599) and Alonso Lobo (1555–1617), almost certainly master and pupil.

Lobo’s connection with Guerrero was entirely sustained at Seville Cathedral, where originally Lobo was a choirboy and Guerrero maestro de capilla. Presumably Guerrero taught him. It would have been natural for Lobo to go to school in Seville, since he was born (as recent evidence has shown) on 25 February 1555 in the nearby town of Osuna.

Lobo’s musical language is detectably of a later generation than that of Victoria, even though he was only seven years younger. The difference between them was probably the training Victoria received in Rome, where he studied Palestrina’s compositional method, learning how to control long spans of music without relying on constant changes of texture and harmonic speed. Lobo’s style was never purely madrigalian, but a halfway point between it and the calm order of strictly imitative counterpoint.

Lobo repeatedly paid musical homage to Guerrero: of his six published Mass-settings (1602), no fewer than five use motets by the older master as their models – Maria Magdalene, Beata Dei genitrix, Prudentes virgines, Petre ego pro te rogavi and Simile est regnum caelorum. The sixth Mass, O Rex gloriae, is based on a motet by Palestrina. Guerrero’s style, as shown in the motet which opens this disc, is more stately, more sonorous than Lobo’s. His textures seem constantly to glow from the expert spacing of the chords, while his control over the section which runs to the words ‘Iesum quem quaeritis Nazarenum, crucifixum: surrexit’ is as masterly as anything in the mid-century European repertory, sustained yet intensely dramatic, unexpected counterpoints and harmonies all making their contribution.

The motets published in 1602 (in manuscript there are many more) were seen through the press by Lobo himself. This print was uncommonly successful – copies of it are still to be found in such important centres as the Sistine Chapel in Rome and Coimbra in Portugal. Furthermore there are five extant copies in Mexico, suggesting that Lobo was a seminal figure in the development of compositional style in the New World.

The motets were published after the Masses and appear under the general title of Moteta ex devotione inter missarum solemnia decantanda, in other words they are devotional works which may be sung during solemn Masses extra-liturgically. ---Peter Phillips, hyperion-records.co.uk

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01 - [Francisco GUERRERO] - Simile est regnum caelorum

Missa SIMILE EST REGNUM CAELORUM
02 - Kyrie
03 - Gloria
04 - Credo
05 - Sanctus
06 - Agnus Dei

07 - [Francisco GUERRERO] - Petre ego prote rogavi

Missa PETRE EGO PRO TE ROGAVI
08 - Kyrie
09 - Gloria
10 - Credo
11 - Sanctus
12 - Agnus Dei

13 - Vigo ego, dicit Dominus

Musica Ficta (Ensemble):
Eva Juárez - soprano
Pilar Moral - soprano (#6, 11, 12)
Marta Infante - contralto
Miguel Bernal - tenor
Luis Vicente - bajo
Héctor Guerrero - bajo (#6)
María Crisol - bajón
Raúl Mallavibarrena - direction

Alonso Lobo (1555–1617) spent his life in service to church music, beginning as a choirboy in the Seville cathedral, where he studied under Francisco Guerrero as early as the age of 11. He soon became a canon and choir director at the collegiate church of his native Osuna. He returned to Seville as master of the choirboys in 1591, became maestro at the Toledo cathedral two years later, and then succeeded Guerrero in Seville in 1604.

We have had three of his masses on CD. The former of these two was already available from David Trendell (26:5), but the other mass on this disc is new, so we now have four of the six settings that he published in 1602. Both of these are parody masses based on motets of Francisco Guerrero (1528–1599), his teacher. (While Guerrero wrote three motets and a mass set to “Simile est regnum caelorum,” he is said to have based his own mass on the motet of his teacher Morales.) The three motets recorded here, including an extra motet by Lobo, all use sayings of Our Lord as set down in the gospels. “Simile” is the parable of the landowner who hires men to work in his vineyard. “Petre” is Our Lord’s prayer for Peter’s faith and strength after the Resurrection. “Vivo” is Our Lord’s desire for the conversion of sinners.

Mallavibarrena uses one voice to a part, supported by a bajón (dulcian) that is almost inaudible. As a collection of Lobo’s music, this compares most favorably with Peter Phillips and Trendell. As a figure in the generation after Victoria and Guerrero, his music preserves the richness of Renaissance polyphony while extending the harmonic language and dramatic expressiveness of the vocal lines. His music was performed long after his death, as far away as the Spanish New World. Yet O quam suavis est in “El Siglo de Oro” (2:3) was only his second appearance on disc, the same motet having been recorded in Spain on Pax a decade earlier. This new disc adds a great deal to our knowledge of late-Renaissance Spain. ---FANFARE: J. F. Weber

This CD confirms the high calibre of Lobo's sacred polyphony: the excellent mixed choir present two masses (O rex gloriae and Simile estregnum caelorum, based on motets by Palestrina and Guerrero respectively, and printed in Madrid in 1602), together with a magnificent setting of the Lamentations and the motet Ego floscampi.

The masses have carefully honed vocal lines and that sense of vertical spaciousness that characterises the sacred polyphony of 16th-century Iberian composers. The choir sing with absolute conviction and total security, as if they really know the music rather than as if it were a very competent read-through. Trendell paces it all well, the tempo never seeming forced or plodding. The motet is deservedly popular, but the recently discovered six-voice setting of the Lamentations is an absolute winner, with meltingly beautiful suspensions, often in the upper voices, in the Hebrew letter sections; the choir again captures just the right degree of intensity without slipping into over-indulgence. The fresh sound of this student choir combines energy and clarity in a most appealing way. This fine recording will enrich anyone's collection of Renaissance polyphony. ---prestoclassical.co.uk

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