Isaac - The Time of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Maximilian I

The Guardian 80

La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Hesperion XXI/Savall
(Alia Vox)

This splendidly planned chronological survey takes us from 1450 to 1519 in the company of one of the finest Renaissance composers, Heinrich Isaac. Praised by Webern, Aldous Huxley and many others, Isaac is still not fully recognised, except perhaps for the elegiac song Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen, wistfully done here. There’s a vast range of expression, from laments and motets to carnival songs and ceremonial music. Jordi Savall and his musicians excel in this repertoire and seem more at home with this harmonious idiom than they do in later work. As the music reaches 1517, it also marks the 500th anniversary of Luther’s Reformation. History brought to life.