Huelgas Ensemble & Paul Van Neve - L'Héritage de Petrus Alamire (2015)

A treasure-house of the grand master of sixteenth-century musical calligraphy, the choirbooks of Petrus Alamire contain some stupendous and hitherto unpublished polyphonic works. Through the hand of the fantastical humanist that was Alamire – famous as a “guardian of the books” and as a spy within the most influential courts of the Renaissance, including those of Marguerite of Austria in Malines, Henry VIII of England and Charles V – the Huelgas Ensemble and Paul Van Nevel trace a portrait of this brilliant humanist in a programme 75-minutes long that will take you to the very heart of the secrets of Renaissance polyphony. From among these gems that are the prestigious choirbooks, one of which he presented to Henry VIII, the voices of Paul Van Nevel portray The Legacy of Petrus Alamire through the Sanctus and Agnus Dei of such exceptional composers as Sticheler in an echo of the divine Josquin.