Scherzi Musicali and Nicolas Achten – Jean-Noel Hamal: Motets (2021) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

Jean-Noël Hamal’s musical language is a perfect reflection of this transitional period in which the Baroque galant style merges into the classical style. One senses in Hamal’s music a communicative vitality, a charmingly poetic note, a keen sense of elegant melody and a theatricality in dynamic contrasts which in some ways evokes the Mannheim school. As soon as he was able, he exploited the ample space available by writing works for two choirs and two orchestras. He seems also to have had a very pronounced preference for major tonalities (he even went so far as to write an astonishingly cheerful Dies irae in C major) and for very readable harmonies, although these sometimes risk being too predictable or conventional. But he was also capable of being a visionary: by their tripartite structure and the autonomous form his symphonies make him a precursor of the classical symphony. He is equally capable of entirely unexpected surprises and attractive details, as is apparent in his motets delivered respecting the practices then in force in Liège by Nicolas Achten and Scherzi Musicali ensemble, mixing subtlety and theatricality.

Tracklist:
1. Scherzi Musicali – I. Astra cœli
2. Scherzi Musicali – II. Cessate cœli turbines
3. Scherzi Musicali – III. Contenta ridendo
4. Scherzi Musicali – IV. Confusa in mesta horrore
5. Scherzi Musicali – V. Ah! si languet cor
6. Scherzi Musicali – VI. Ad bellum, fide gentes
7. Scherzi Musicali – VII. Miles fortis
8. Scherzi Musicali – I. Ite O pompæ fallaces
9. Scherzi Musicali – II. O cor meum
10. Scherzi Musicali – III. Revertar ad amatorem
11. Scherzi Musicali – IV. Erravi a torrente dulcedinis
12. Scherzi Musicali – V. O Jesu amantissime
13. Scherzi Musicali – VI. Ergo mundanæ vanitates
14. Scherzi Musicali – I. Obstupescite gentes
15. Scherzi Musicali – II. Recedant vetera (aria)
16. Scherzi Musicali – III. Sistat aër, sistat tellus
17. Scherzi Musicali – IV. Dum in sacramento
18. Scherzi Musicali – V. Recedant vetera (coro)
19. Scherzi Musicali – I. Ecce panis angelorum
20. Scherzi Musicali – II. Bone pastor
21. Scherzi Musicali – III. Tu nos pasce
22. Scherzi Musicali – IV. Homo quidam
23. Scherzi Musicali – V. Quia parata sunt omnia