Maximilian I - Geistliche Musik Für Den Kaiser

Blunden, David; Procter, Michael; Hofkapelle Ensemble

500 years ago, on 19 January 1519, Maximilian I (archduke of Austria, German king, and Holy Roman emperor) passed away. With his policies of wars and marriages, Maximilian I had laid the foundations upon which the Habsburgs built their immense power. In addition to extending this power, he promoted science and arts and defined himself as the ‘last knight’. He founded a court chapel around the composer Heinrich Isaac, and gathered the most famous musicians of Europe. The programme on the first album includes motets by Isaac, Senfl and Josquin which were written for different sacred occasions at the Maximilian court. The second album features two Marian Masses composed for Maximilian by Isaac. The first one was set for four voices; the emperor must have liked it very much because he asked Isaac to revise it and build a six-voice version. The Ensemble Hofkapelle present the two masses in alternation with Gregorian chant (first mass) and organ improvisations in the style of Paul Hofhaimer, Maximilian’s famous court organist (second mass).

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