Ockeghem / De La Rue: Requiem

Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull (music director)

de la Rue: Missa pro fidelibus defunctis Ockeghem: Missa Pro Defunctis

For its third CD on the Challenge label, Cappella Pratensis turns the page back to two of the earliest known settings of the Requiem mass with works by two of the most important musical figures of the 15th and early 16th centuries, Johannes Ockeghem, and Pierre de la Rue. The Requiem Masses of Johannes Ockeghem and Pierre de la Rue form an ideal pairing as they are the first polyphonic versions of the Mass for the Dead from the Franco-Flemish school. La Rue clearly drew inspiration from his older colleague echoing Ockeghem's sober yet sonorous style. Founded in 1987 the Dutch-based vocal ensemble Cappella Pratensis, literally ‘Cappella des prés’, champions the music of Josquin Desprez and the polyphonists of the 15th and 16th centuries. The group combines historically informed performance practice with inventive programmes and original interpretations based on scholarly research and artistic insight. As in Josquin’s time, the members of Cappella Pratensis perform from a central music stand, singing from the original mensural notation scored in a large choir book. Cappella Pratensis is now under the artistic direction of singer and conductor Stratton Bull, who succeeds other previous leaders Bart Demuyt and Peter Van Heyghen.

Price: $23.98