Stunning singing – but exactly how do you pronounce the composer’s name?

For many, Vaet will be something of a discovery. They won’t find more ardent or accomplished advocates than Cinquecento, whose performances here burst with colour and a sense of delighted exploration. And beautiful as they are, these renditions make clear that this is no music to switch your brain off to. Cinquecento’s probing delivery makes quite clear just how advanced Vaet’s writing was for its time.

-- Gramophone [5/2009]

VAET Missa Ego flos campi. Antevenis virides. Ecce apparebit Dominus. Magnificat 8 toni. Miserere mei. Filiae Jerusalem. Spiritus Domini. Musica Dei donum. Salve regina & • Cinquecento • HYPERION 67733 (75:21 &)

& CLEMENS NON PAPA Ego flos campi

Jacobus Vaet (c. 1529–1567) was Philippe de Monte’s predecessor at the imperial chapel. He has been neglected on records until recently, when Eckehard Kiem made three full CDs of his music for Ars Musici (30:3). Cinquecento has avoided duplicating much of that project, for only Filiae Jerusalem here and two motets on their earlier collection (30:6) duplicate any of Kiem’s three programs.

For their fourth disc, Cinquecento continues to stay close to the middle of the 16th century, an era that needs the services of such a fine vocal ensemble. Since Kiem recorded only two of the composer’s nine masses, the addition of a third one is a good move, for they have chosen one based on a motet of Clemens non Papa, whom Stephen Rice (the annotator and producer of this series of recordings) sees as the chief stylistic influence on Vaet. The motet certainly dates from Clemens’s brief sojourn in ’s-Hertegonbosch in 1550, since the text includes the motto of the Marian guild there, “Sicut lilium inter spinas.” Vaet uses the motif, which was set most strikingly in the motet, at key points in the Mass. Along with the masses, most of Vaet’s output was sacred music, along with 17 state motets, such as Antevenis virides, and a mere three chansons. Another state motet appears to be the antiphon for martyrs, but where the name of the martyr is to be inserted, Vaet puts Maximilian’s name. Rice thinks that ranking the emperor as a martyr has something to do with his sympathy for Protestantism. Rather, it must be a mere play on words, for just as the antiphon has the saint endowed with the crown of martyrdom, Vaet has Maximilian endowed with the imperial crown. The Magnificat is one of a set of eight in all the modes, a common compositional practice of the time, of which we have seen several examples lately. (Kiem recorded the second-mode setting.) Vaet also set Salve regina eight times (Kiem and Erik van Nevel recorded other settings), but unlike the others, this is polyphonic throughout. Miserere mei is interesting for the way Vaet manages to avoid the shadow of Josquin’s magisterial setting of the psalm.

Cinquecento is firmly dedicated to the period it has chosen for its specialty. They show considerable originality in turning up neglected music of the period. As an indication of their immersion in the era, each of Cinquecento’s booklet covers, except the first, is adorned with a painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who worked at the Hapsburg court from 1562. It’s curious that, apart from an obscure identification of each painting, no attention is drawn to the series of paintings. Unlike many vocal ensembles that assemble just long enough to finish a recording, these men sing a polyphonic Mass in a Viennese parish church every Sunday. No wonder they enjoy such fine ensemble. Floreant!

FANFARE: J. F. Weber