# Adrian Willaert ? best works? best label? best cd?



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

I heard this recording called adrian Willaert in italy it sounded awesome, i promess myself to get some of his works.But i dont know if the naxos worth it or if brilliant has something of Willaert, what about harmonia mundi.

He seem like an interresting composer, almost forgotten or neglected i dont know why?
Are there any fan of Willaert here, please??

What is his best works, his uttermost smartest move.


:tiphat:


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I am not a great fan of the motets I've heard. Part of the problem is that very little of his music is recorded twice, and so where something doesn't sound so special it's hard for me to know where the problem lies - with me, with the performance or with Willaert. Here on this album of motets by Henry's Eight we have, finally, a performance of something by Willaert where I think I can see what the fuss is about: it sounds fabulous.

It's called O Crux Splendidor. The text goes through a whole bunch of different positive emotions, some public (honour, splendour) some less so (love, sweetness), all tempered by a reflection at the heart of the poem of Christ's pain. I don't know how well Willaert paints these emotions with the music, because it's not easy for me to follow what exactly is being sung when (I don't have a score.) But I can hear that, by means of his harmonies Willaert is being very expressive indeed.

Henry's eight sing with unbelievable passion and life. It's hot: their ardour sets them apart. That's what IMO Willaert needs to get it off the page, and that's what he doesn't always get.

I don't know if this motet is in the same style as the ones which Cinquacento and Singer Pur sing. I do know that Henry's Eight make Willaert sound like a composer who composed at least one very great motet.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

If you look at the cover to this recording you'd say it contains vespers by Andrian Willaert, but that is only a part of the story, and not necessarily the main part. The sung music, by Willaert, Gombert and Jachet, is interleaved by organ pieces, some of them reasonably substantial, by Andrea Gabrieli and Girolamo Cavaazzoni, there are half a dozen of them. Does anyone know who's playing and what instrument he's playing.

It's a very good thing, this recording. Both the vocal and organ music is full of life.


----------

