Magnificat

Mission
Magnificat is one of the world’s premier vocal ensembles, internationally acclaimed for its sophisticated, historically-informed performance of Renaissance choral masterpieces. Equally at home in concert hall and recording studio, the ensemble has established a reputation for innovative programming, presenting previously undiscovered works alongside familiar repertoire in a fresh context.

History - Recordings
Recording exclusively for Linn Records, Magnificat has released a series of award-winning recordings focusing on works from Renaissance and Baroque composers.

• Cantiones sacrae, by Heinrich Schütz, is the long-awaited follow up to Magnificat’s critically acclaimed 25th anniversary recording, Scattered Ashes. The collection comprises forty Latin motets for four voices, plus a figured bass for continuo accompaniment (realized on this recording by lute, violone and organ), which was added later by the composer.
• Magnificat's recording of music associated with Savonarola, “Scattered Ashes”, was a finalist in the 2016 Gramophone Magazine Awards.
• Spem in alium was hailed as “quite the best performance of Tallis's 40-part Spem in alium that I have heard” by Gramophone and was “First Choice” in Building a Library on BBC Radio 3’s CD Review.
• The Tudors at Prayer continues Magnificat’s exploration of Latin-texted music from sixteenth-century England, following the success of Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, an album featuring works by William Byrd, Robert Parsons and Robert White.
• Magnificat has also released three recordings celebrating the music of Philippe Rogier. Music from the Missae Sex offers the first complete recordings of both the Missa Inclita stirps Jesse and the Missa Philippus Secundus Rex Hispaniae. The ensemble’s recordings of music by Rogier on Linn also feature the Missa Ego sum qui sum and the Missa Domine Dominus noster. The latter recording, accompanied by His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts, casts new light on the Spanish polychoral tradition, including the premiere recording of Rogier’s rediscovered twelve-part motet Domine, Dominus noster.
• Other recordings of music from the Golden Age include an album of motets by Gesualdo, Guerrero, Josquin, Rebelo and Victoria together with Allegri’s Miserere and Palestrina’s Stabat mater; a highly acclaimed recording of Victoria’s Officium Defunctorum of 1605; and an album of Palestrina’s twenty-nine motets from the Song of Songs.

History - Live Performance
in 2022, Magnifcat completed a week-long residency at Duke University

• In their first program Music of Protest and Rebellion, Magnificat brings ‘revelatory readings’ of dramatic works by Josquin, Palestrina, Lassus, and Byrd. These compositions are united by themes of faith and resistance in the face of religious persecution, and the ensemble is delighted to bring this music to Duke Chapel in this first concert during their week-long residency. Magnificat’s second concert – Motets by the Bach Family – explored the flowering of the polyphonic style in the 18th century. Featuring J. S. Bach’s masterworks Jesu, meine Freude, Komm, Jesu, Komm, and Fürchte, dich nicht, the program also presented lesser-known treasures by J.C. and J.M. Bach, Johann Schelle and Johann Schein. Between these two concerts, Magnificat joined Duke’s Vespers Ensemble and Evensong Singers in a Tudor Vespers service. This joint service celebrated the genre with the radiant music of Byrd’s double-choir Great Service, and music by Orlando Gibbons, Robert Parsons and Thomas Tomkins. Members of the ensemble and led a Masterclass entitled Singing Early Music. Magnificat’s singers joined local performers and teachers to discuss the Art and Technique of Singing Early Music. The Residency concluded with Magnificat joining Duke Chapel Choir at the University Chapel for for a Worship Service, with music by Gibbons and J.S. Bach.
• Prior performances included concerts as part of the Beverley Early Music Festival, Keble Early Music Festival, Music at Oxford, Cambridge Early Music, as well as self-promoted concerts in Oxford and London and tours to Greece and the USA.

Planned Activities
Magnificat is in the midst of a 3-year project to record the complete imitation Magnificat settings of Orlandus Lassus, together with their models. This project will result in 3 albums, to be released between 2024-26, and features premier recordings of many of the works.