1.    Ante Missam: In minen sin    2:15
2.    Ante Missam: Si j'aime mon amy    0:59
3.    Ante Missam: Bien soiez venu – Alleluia    1:13
4.    Ante Missam: In mynen zin    1:47
5.    Ad Missam: Gloria, extrait de Missa In myne Zyn    9:12
6.    Ad Missam: Comme femme desconfortée II    2:23
7.    Ad Missam: Credo, extrait de Missa In myne Zyn    10:17
8.    Ad Missam: D'ung aultre amer III    1:51
9.    Ad Missam: Sanctus, extrait de Missa In myne Zyn    9:18
10.    Ad Missam: Tout a par moy II    2:54
11.    Ad Missam: Agnus Dei, extrait de Missa In myne Zyn    7:36
12.    Ad Vesperam: Pater meus agricola est    6:49
13.    Ad Vesperam: Regina coeli    3:07

Capilla Flamenca:
Marnix De Cat, kontratenor
Rob Cuppens, kontratenor
Dirk Snellings, bas
Lieven Termont, baryton
Tore Denys, tenor
Liam Fennelly, viola da gamba
Piet Stryckers, viola da gamba
Thomas Baeté, viola da gamba

The dazzling inventiveness of Agricola is justly praised by Fabrice Fitch in his booklet-notes to this outstanding recording. This late Mass, built on the composer’s own version of a popular song, is something of an apotheosis of Agricola’s technical fluency and the “fantasia” style to which Fitch alludes, melodic fragments from all three voices of the song weaving in and out of the texture, like glass beads being tossed up in the air and landing again on earth in unexpectedly fantastical patterns. Agricola’s rhythmical virtuosity is an essential ingredient, either disguised or employed, especially in duet sections, in such a fashion that it seems clear that the composer actually wants the listener to hear the effort that has gone into the music’s construction. Certainly, there is no Josquinian classicism here but, pace Fitch, moments like these do recall both Ockeghem and Obrecht, both of whom seem to me at least as strangely imaginative as Agricola.

The Mass is enormous, even lacking a Kyrie, but the superb Capilla Flamenca, no strangers to this repertoire or to this composer, separate the sections with a series of motets and songs in exuberant, driven performances, employing violas da gamba. The only music that could possibly follow the utterly amazing pyrotechnics of the final Agnus Dei is the insanely difficult Pater meus agricola est. And to follow that? A palate-cleansing lemon sorbet in the form of a Regina caeli, sung a cappella. I’d love to hear Capilla Flamenca in more Agricola and, even more, in Obrecht. ---Ivan Moody, gramophone.co.uk

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	In The "Chant Sur Le Livre" Style
1 	"Gaudeamus Omnes In Domino" A 2 	2:38
2 	"Du Tous Biens Playne" A 3 	2:12
3 	"Dung Aultre Amer" A 3 	1:10
4 	"Virgo Sub Ethereis" A3 	2:15
	Missa Guazzabuglio
5 	Kyrie From Missa Je Ne Demande A 4 	4:13
6 	Gloria From Missa Secundi Toni A 4 	8:21
7 	Credo From Missa Le Serviteur A 4 	8:36
8 	Sanctus From Missa Re-fa-mi-fa A 4 	3:45
9 	Agnus Dei From Missa In Myne Zyn A 4 	8:26
	3 Chansons
10 	"Je Nay Dueil" A 4 (Bergerette) 	7:20
11 	"Se Mieulx Ne Vient D'amours" A 3 (Rondeau) 	2:27
12 	"Fortuna Desperata" A 6 (Canzona) 	5:37
	-
13 	"Salve Regina" A 4 	9:13

Huelgas Ensemble:
Soprano [Discantus] – Katelijne Van Laethem, Marie-Claude Vallin 
Countertenor – Pascal Bertin, Rannveig Sigurdardóttir
Tenor – Eitan Sorek, Eric Mentzel, Harry Van Berne, Matthew Vine 
Baritone – Lieven Termont, Marius Van Altena
Bass – Harry van der Kamp, Peter Dijkstra, Stephan Macleod 

Conductor – Paul Van Nevel 

Alexander Agricola was viewed in his time as one of the major musical artists of his day; in old sources, he is referred to as "the divine Alexander" -- a source dating to 1503 states that Agricola could "make music shine clearer than the finest silver." That his reputation, even among many experts in Renaissance music, has not survived since Agricola's death of the plague in Valladolid in 1506 seems a quirk of history. There are many attributes of Agricola that are appealing to modern listeners attuned to Renaissance polyphony, particularly his highly unconventional approach to harmony; brilliant, flowing textures; and intense emotionalism. Paul van Nevel and Huelgas Ensemble's Agricola: A Secret Labyrinth, while not perfect, is a huge step in the right direction to reclaim Alexander Agricola for twenty-first century listeners.

Van Nevel and Huelgas Ensemble have long proven surprisingly consistent in the excellence of their performance of late Medieval and early Renaissance music -- Agricola: A Secret Labyrinth would fall into the latter category. Therefore, it is equally surprising that the disc gets off to such a weak start in the florid two-part piece Gaudeamus omnes in Domino. The soloist is uncertain with the music, drops out notes, and generally does not get this one off the ground, yet the remainder of the disc is much better. Moreover, it is certainly well worth hearing -- check out the hair-raising sonorities in the "Sanctus" from Missa Re-fa-mi-re-fa or the pre-Mannerist sound of the Canzona Fortuna desperata, the one piece that comes closest for Agricola to being a "hit" by virtue of the infrequent performances it has gained. Perhaps conscious of Agricola's severe shortcomings in terms of recorded literature, van Nevel elects to patch together a mass out of individual movements from five of Agricola's eight mass settings. The pieces do flow together nicely, but listeners should be advised that this so-called "Missa Guazzabuglio" is a pastiche of mass movements and not a genuine work.

In terms of performance, aside from the hesitant opening piece, van Nevel and Huelgas make the best case for Agricola's dark and rather bitter-sounding music. With any luck, Huelgas Ensemble's Agricola: A Secret Labyrinth will help open the door for others to follow, as Agricola's extraordinarily large and varied output, available in print since 1970, remains an uninvestigated labyrinth in its own right in which we are far from finding the exit. ---Uncle Dave Lewis, AllMusic Review

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01. I 2:31
02. II 2:33
03. III 1:49
Agricologies, for viols
04. Agricola I - Comme femme 5:30
05. Se je fais bien 5:48
06. Pater meus agricola est 6:37
07. Tout a part moy I 2:58
08. Si bibero 2:33
09. Si dormiero 4:05
10. Je nay dueil 10:19
De tous biens plaine
11. V 1:35
12. III 2:28
13. II 1:39
14. I 1:27
Agricologies, for viols
15. Agricola III - Obrecht canon I 1:06
16. De tous biens plaine IV 1:36
17. Vostre hault bruit 8:09
Dung aultre amer
18. II 1:36
19. III 1:46
20. I 1:49
21. En actendant 3:59
22. Fortuna desperata 3:05

Michael Chance, countertenor
Fretwork Viol Consort

In his own time, which was that of the High Renaissance style (he died in 1506), Alexander Agricola was renowned across Europe. The popularity of his song Si dedero is attested to by the composition of parodies, two of which are included on this introduction to the composer's secular music. The Agricola song itself, inexplicably, is not included, but in other ways this disc has much to offer the newcomer to Renaissance music as well as the serious enthusiast at which it is principally aimed. What is offered to the newcomer? Take a look at the tracklist and note the repeated titles there. Chansons or French-language songs of this era, like sacred pieces, were often structured as elaborations of a tune, by the work's composer or by someone else, that would be played or sung in a lower register while counterpoint was written around it. The English early music ensemble Fretwork presents multiple Agricola settings of individual songs in sets, so the listener can compare the different kinds of counterpoint he might apply to a given tune. (The music is thought to have been played instrumentally; here a small viol consort is used.) The Renaissance listener paid attention to questions like: how many voices or parts are there? how is the cantus firmus or preexisting melody treated? what are the intervals or kinds of motion used in the added voices? are there hidden plans or other kinds of artifice superimposed on the song's structure? With the help of this disc, the modern listener can get a feel for the original context. A good place to start are the five settings of De tous biens plaine, a chanson by Hayne van Ghizeghem (tracks 10-14 and 16): all are short, and most of them present the tune fairly straightforwardly, but they inhabit different worlds in terms of intervals and texture. In a word, they feel different from one another. Several longer chansons (with text, beautifully sung by countertenor Michael Chance) bring us closer to the smooth, deliberate melody of Josquin and set off what annotator Fabrice Fitch describes as a quirky quality in much of Agricola's music.

So the disc is highly listenable on various levels. On some of those levels, the interpolation of parts of a modern composition by Fitch, called Agricologies, will be distracting. Fitch's music might be described as neo-Renaissance; it begins with the basic materials of Agricola's music but extends its rhythmic and harmonic language. Fitch sets two of the tunes represented in Agricola's "sets" (one is De tous biens plaine; the other is Busnois' Comme femme desconfortee), and the listener ensnared by Agricola's webs of counterpoint may be intrigued to hear modern extensions of them. But others, even those receptive to the idea of modern experimentation with the Renaissance musical language, may feel that Fitch's works would have worked better if segregated rather than wedged into the sequence of Agricola pieces. ---James Manheim, Rovi

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