Lachrymarium_EN

Ensemble Alerĭon

Tears can be a marvelous expression of human pain. In this recording they have inspired the Alerĭon ensemble to undertake an intensive look at the elegiac aspect of madrigal composition during the Elizabethan period. This art form has an incredible inward beauty and emerges here as a musical lachrymarium.

Release: 8th January 2021

Soprano
INGEBORG AADLAND
LUCINDA COX
TANJA VOGRIN

Alto
STEFAN STEINEMANN

Tenor
RICHARD RESCH

Bass
CHASPER-CURÒ MANI
CSONGOR SZÁNTÓ
GUGLIELMO BUONSANTI

Album Details

CD-Content

01  THOMAS TOMKINS (1572 – 1656): Woe is me
02  JOHN WILBYE (1574 – 1638): O wretched man
03  ROBERT RAMSEY (ca. 1600 – 1650): Sleep, fleshly birth
04  THOMAS MORLEY (1557/58 – 1602): O grief ev’n on the bud
05  ROBERT RAMSEY: How are the mighty fallen
06  JOHN WILBYE: Draw on sweet night
07  JOHN WARD (1590 – 1638): Come, sable night
08  THOMAS TOMKINS: When David heard
09  JOHN WARD: If heaven’s just wrath
10 ORLANDO GIBBONS (1583 – 1625): Faire is the rose
11  JOHN WARD: Weep forth your tears
12  THOMAS WEELKES (1576 – 1623): Noel, adieu thou court’s delight
13  JOHN WARD: No object dearer
14  GILES FARNABY (ca. 1560 – 1640): Witness ye heavens

Total time:           56:52

Ensemble Alerĭon

The alerion, also known as the avalerion, was mentioned already by Plinius. In medieval bestiaries, it was described as mythological bird, larger than an eagle, of which only one couple at a time existed. According to legend, the female laid two eggs every sixty years, and when the chicks hatched, their parents drowned themselves.
In Dit de l’Alerion or Dit des quatres oiseaux, his allegorical work about love, the great minnesinger, poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut paid tribute to this legendary creature.
In heraldry, the eagle-like alerion has survived to this day, appearing for example in the coat of arms of Lorraine.  In fact, it was selected by many rulers, among them René de Anjou (Le Bon Roi René) or Henri-François de Montmorency-Luxembourg, whose victory at Steenkerque was commemorated in Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s famous Te Deum. Eventually, also this vocal ensemble also has chosen the mythical eagle to be its patron.
The young singers comprising the mixed ensemble Alerion hail from all over Europe. They first came together as a group in Basel while studying at the Schola Cantorum  Basiliensis. They follow in the tradition of Evely Tubb, Anthony Rooley, and the Consort of Musicke, and dedicate themselves to music from the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and early Baroque. Elegies from the English Renaissance are considered a hidden gem by music lovers, and it is thus the ensemble’s mission to make them known to a wider European audience.

Deutscher Text (20 Seiten)
Texts in english (20 pages)

P+C 2020 Spektral, LC 15543
Best.-Nr. SRL4-19178
EAN: 4260130381783