Ensemble Hofkapelle
+ Ensemble Hofkapelle +
CD catalogue
Hofkapelle has released four CDs of Germanic court music to date. Two are devoted to the rich repertoire of the Imperial Court Chapel around Heinrich Isaac, one to the sacred music of Balduin Hoyoul, a Flemish musician who was Kapellmeister at the Wuerttembergischen Court in Stuttgart, and one to late works of Orlandus Lassus, whose greatest work was done at the Bavarian ducal court in Munich.
This pioneering recording presents the two versions of a Marian mass by Isaac: the original 4-voice version, with the alternate sections sung to chant of the time; and the later grand 6-voice version in which the chant sections are improvised at the organ in the style of Paul Hofhaimer. The ensemble searched for a long time to find an organist capable of recording these 'versets' and was fortunate in being able to ask David Blunden, a brilliant young Australian organist now working in Switzerland. David was prepared to undertake the recording on one condition - that the instrument be one which already existed in Isaac's time. Another long search led to the village of Rysum in Ostfriesland, where an organ built in 1457 is still mainly in original condition.
