Capella Pratensis | June 13

In 1504 the great polyphonist Jacob Obrecht traveled from his home country Flanders to Ferrara, where he was appointed composer in the musical chapel of Duke Ercole d’Este. On the way, Obrecht stopped in Innsbruck, where he must have got to know the German devotional song for the Virgin Mary, “Maria zart.” The sweet notes of this simple song inspired the composer to produce one of his greatest works: the Missa Maria zart. With a dazzling series of compositional achievements and pure joie de vivre, this mass is a monument of the flamboyant Gothic style, and at more than an hour it is the longest mass in the Renaissance repertoire.

Just a year later, Obrecht died in the outbreak of the plague, so this mass can be seen as his musical testament.

Under the direction of Stratton Bull, Cappella Pratensis (founded in 1987) specializes in the music of Josquin Desprez and other polyphonic composers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As was customary in the renaissance, the singers of Cappella Pratensis usually stand around a central music stand, singing from facsimiles of original choirbooks. This creates a unique perspective on the repertoire. In addition to regular concerts in the Netherlands and Belgium, Cappella Pratensis performs in leading international festivals and venues in France, Portugal, Germany and the United States. The ensemble also has also released several CD recordings which have been greeted with rave press reviews and awards, including the Diapason d’Or and the Prix Choc.