The Kris Collective: Cor Collaborandi, A Transnational Celebration of the Early Modern
Acis

With the release of Cor Collaborandi, trombonist, early music specialist, and University of North Carolina professor Michael Kris has brought a seven-year project to fruition. True to the spirit of collaboration intimated by its title, the fifty-minute recording features Kris joined by fellow UNC professors and students as well as musicians from Europe and the UK. Period instruments such as sackbut (alto, tenor, and bass), lute, viol, and theorbo appear on the twelve pieces, as do organ, brass, and a twelve-member choir of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses. Twenty-four individuals compose The Kris Collective as presented here, including Choral conductor Philip Cave on selected tracks. Consistent with Kris's specialization in music of the late Renaissance and the early Baroque, the music is by composers from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, among them Giovanni Gabrieli, Orlando Lassus, Francisco Guerrero, and Pietro Lappi.

The album's subtitle references the fact that musicians from two continents convened to record the material, as well as the fact that it features composers from Italy and Spain. Interestingly, the recording itself was created with Session Producer Adam Woolf working in Spain in real time on a high-resolution audio link while the musical collective recorded at the Duke University Chapel in Durham, North Carolina. Liner notes by Kris provide an enlightening introduction and detailed notes on the composers and the works performed; helpful too are the personnel clarifications that accompany each of the twelve pieces. Enhancing the music's impact is the variety that accrues when some are instrumentals and others combine singers and instruments.

The tone is splendidly set by Italian organist Giovanni Battista Grillo's quietly majestic “Sonata seconda á 7” for its graceful, chorale-like coupling of trombones, cornet, violin, and viol. Organ and theorbo also appear, as they do in many of the pieces. The connection the musicians have to the material is palpable, despite its having been written centuries ago. Late Renaissance composer Orlandus Lassus, who wrote over 2000 works, is represented here by “Magnificat secundi toni,” a superb illustration of the composer's polyphonic style. Voices both appear alone and with instruments—sopranos with violin, altos and tenors with trombones, and so on—to further enrich the material and bolster the music's impact.

For “Ultimi miei sospiri” by Antonio de Cabezón, who became a prominent organist and composer during the late Renaissance despite being born blind, Kris converted Cabezón's transcription of Philippe Verdelot's same-titled madrigal from a keyboard arrangement into a setting for six individual parts. The result is a lovely tapestry that sees four trombones intertwining with viol and cornet. The collective gives “Sonata decimasettima á 8” by Cesario Gussago, a composer, organist, and priest in northern Italy, a triumphant reading ablaze in polyphonic horns and strings. “Psalm 147, Lauda Jerusalem” by Spanish composer and priest Francisco Guerrero alternates between softly chanted parts and polyphonic brass sections regal in tone and eloquent in effect. Giovanni Battista Buonamente, who was active as a violinist and composer in the first half of the seventeenth century, is soundly represented by the Baroque-styled instrumental “Sonate á 6.” In the penultimate spot is Giovanni Domenico Rognoni Taeggio's “La Porta,” a canzone that couples two cornets with trombones, violin, viol, organ, and theorbo.

December 2024