Music from Renaissance Coimbra (1994)

Anonymous
01. O crux benedicta
02. Salvator mundi
Aires Fernandez (Portugal, ?-?) & Rodrigo de Ceballos (Spain, c1530-1591)
03. Posuerunt super caput eius
Anonymouss
04. Vexilla regis prodeunt
Dom Pedro de Cristo (Coimbra, c1550-1618)
05. Osanna filio David						play
Anonymous
06. Lamentation for Maundy Thursday, ‘Incipit lamentatio Hieremiae prophetae’
Dom Pedro de Cristo (Coimbra, c1550-1618)
07. Sanctorum meritis
Aires Fernandez (Portugal, ?-?)
08. Circumdederunt me
Antonio Lopez, (?-?)
09. Heu mihi, Domine
Dom Pedro de Cristo (Coimbra, c1550-1618)
10. Ave maris stella
11. Beate martir
Heliodoro de Paiva (Portugal, 1502-1552)
12. Alleluia

Sequence of music for Compline (Sequência de músicas para as Completas)
Anonymous
13. Iube, Domine, benedicere
14. Converte nos, Deus
15. Psalm 133 ‘Ecce nunc benedicite’, with antiphon, ‘Ignatus est super nos lumen vultus tui Domine’
Aires Fernandez (Portugal, ?-?)
16. Te lucis ante terminum
Anonymous
17. Tu autem in nobis
Dom Pedro de Cristo (Coimbra, c1550-1618)
18. In manus tuas
19. Salva nos, Domine
Aires Fernandez (Portugal, ?-?)
20. Nunc dimittis						play
Dom Pedro de Cristo (Coimbra, c1550-1618)
21. Salva nos, Domine
Aires Fernandez (Portugal, ?-?)
22. Benedicamus Domino
Anonymous
23. Regina caeli

A Capella Portuguesa
Director: Owen Rees
Recording :  February 1994
The Church of St John the Evangelist, Oxford, United Kingdom

A BBC reviewer of this disc wrote: "Hyperion has an extraordinary gift for detecting repertoire which leaves us wondering how we ever lived without it." That sums up any legitimate verdict in a single sentence, except that one should emphasize how good this production is even by Hyperion's usual standards. Sound quality - which in the companion volume HOLY WEEK AT THE CHAPEL OF THE DUKES OF BRAGANZA slightly disappoints, because of eccentric balances - is superb here. Voices (this collection, unlike the Braganza one, consists wholly of unaccompanied works) have a beautiful sheen, and are captured with an admirable stereo spread; following these hitherto unknown composers' counterpoint becomes particularly attractive when one hears it through headphones. All competent hi-fi store owners should stock this release as an example of how to show off their equipment with wonderful choral timbres. Mostly sublime performances and fascinating booklet annotations, along with a brilliantly chosen cover picture that now evokes Mel Gibson's best-known film, complete a powerfully effective discovery. Only one of these motets - SANCTORUM MERITIS by a certain Pedro de Cristo, who died in 1618 - has ever been recorded before. If A Capela Portuguesa's plainchant sections did not occasionally sound a little stolid in rhythm, MUSIC FROM RENAISSANCE COIMBRA would be perfection itself. As it stands it can still be recommended with all possible enthusiasm to anyone enamored of the Palestrina school. --- R. J. Stove, amazon

The city of Coimbra in northern Portugal was for several periods in early history of the country both its capital and the seat of its medieval university. The old city is set impressively on the slopes of a hill overlooking the river Mondego, with the buildings of the university dominating the town. During the sixteenth century, thanks largely to the efforts of King Joaõ III, Coimbra became the greatest educational centre – and one of the foremost cultural centres – in Portugal. The second most powerful institution in the cultural life of town was the Augustinian monastery of Santa Cruz, which, since its foundation in 1131, enjoyed the protection of royalty. --- heraldav.co.uk

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