From Amazon.com
In his booklet notes for this record, Paul Van Nevel writes, "Although much is known about the quality of Agricola's oeuvre, until lately little was known about his life." If only. Agricola's name certainly appears in textbooks and scholarly articles, but even musicologists and die-hard early-music fans have rarely gotten to hear his music performed. Luckily, reviving the music of well-regarded but rarely performed composers (e.g., Manchicourt) is one of Van Nevel's specialties. And Agricola's music is definitely worth reviving: with melodic ideas put into sequences (i.e., repeated by the same voice beginning on successive notes of the scale) or imitated by different voices, the music seems to wind and unwind around itself like the paths of a labyrinth. It's rather like crossing the long, sinuous phrases of Ockeghem or Gombert with the varied scoring (many duo and trio sections) and short melodic cells of Josquin. The Huelgas Ensemble's performance is razor sharp and energetic--it doesn't have the breathtaking spirituality you'll find on, say,
Heavenly Spheres, but it does have breathtaking precision, clarity, and momentum.
--Matthew Westphal
