Juan ESQUIVEL (c.1560-before 1630)
Missa Hortus conclusus
and other works
Details after review
De Profundis/Eamonn Dougan
rec. St George’s Church, Chesterton, Cambridge, 7-9 May 2019. DDD.
Texts and translations included
Reviewed as 24/96 download with pdf booklet from
hyperion-records.co.uk.
HYPERION CDA68326
[69:29]
To the best of my knowledge, Juan Esquivel has hitherto enjoyed only a
walk-on part on anthologies; this is the first complete album devoted to
his music. His setting of O vos omnes from the Good Friday liturgy
features on an earlier (1996) Hyperion recording of Holy Week at the Chapel of the Dukes of Braganza, performed by
A Capella Portuguesa,
directed by Owen Rees
(CDA66867, Archive Service or download with pdf booklet from
hyperion-records.co.uk). Typically, Hyperion included music by several little-known composers on
that earlier recording, and the new Esquivel continues that tradition by
including the motet by Ceballos on which the Mass is based. Most
recently their willingness to offer us worthwhile music by neglected
composers bore fruit in their fine recording of music by Hellinck and Lupi
(CDA68304 –
review). And, though the music is from a different era, I enjoyed Hyperion’s
release of Litolff’s two little-peformed piano trios and his violin sonata (CDA68305
–
review).
My only reservation about the Hellinck and Lupi recording was some lack of
clarity in the diction, which shouldn’t hold back prospective buyers.
Similarly, though the Holy Week recording may seem a trifle lacking in the
passion with which that momentous time was celebrated in Spain, Portugal
and Italy, it remains a very worthwhile album, and it’s a shame to see it
relegated to the Archive. Fear not, however; it remains available as a
download, complete with booklet. (See above).
Two other recordings by De Profundis are advertised in the new booklet: I
thought highly of their recording of Vivanco, directed by Robert Hollingworth (CDA68257 –
review), as also Ribera’s Magnificats and motets directed by David Skinner
(CDA68141 –
review). Now, with a third director, they turn their attention to another Iberian
composer of the renaissance period who has languished under the shadow of
the better-known Golden Age masters. Much as I love the music of Morales,
Guerrero and Victoria, especially the latter, whose work I sometimes think
preferable even to Palestrina, it’s very good also to hear the unfamiliar.
Part of the neglect in Esquivel’s case has been due to the fact that it was
not until comparatively recently that the great bulk of his music was
discovered. A massive collection, dated 1613, had been hidden at the time
of the Spanish civil war.
The opening Regina cæli is a setting of one of the four antiphons to
the Virgin Mary, which vary according to the season. The rest of the music
on the new recording is dominated by Esquivel’s Mass based on Rodrigo de
Ceballos’ setting of a text from the Song of Songs – A garden enclosed is
my sister, my bride. The concept of the enclosed or walled garden had been
central to medieval iconography in both secular and sacred contexts, from
the Garden of the Rose in the courtly love poem Le Roman de la Rose
to poems in praise of the Virgin Mary. The two are often difficult to
differentiate.
It’s always helpful, though not strictly necessary, to have the underlying
tune before the Mass based on it, as is done on this recording. The Mass
itself is punctuated by other settings, though these are not intended to
represent a liturgical reconstruction. Thus, between the Gloria and Credo we have
the Advent Vespers antiphon Veni, Domine. And
instead of the Offertory, the Benedictus antiphon for Corpus
Christi, Ego sum panis vitis – at least, with its reference to
Christ’s body as living bread, that’s not inappropriate in this eucharistic
context.
Rather unusually, Esquivel sets the closing dismissal, Ite missa est, normally chanted, to which De Profundis add the congregational response Deo gracias.
The rest of the programme contains music for the evening services of
Vespers and Compline. All in all, it makes for a very satisfying sampler of
a composer from whom I hope to hear much more. All the performances are
well up to the standard that we have come to expect from De Profundis, ably
directed by Eamonn Dougan, a distinguished baritone and assistant director
of The Sixteen, whom he has directed to excellent effect on some of their
recordings, as, for example, on Pękiel’s Missa Concertata, which I
thought ‘well worth your acquaintance’ (Coro COR16110 –
DL News 2013/8).
Neither Pękiel nor Esquivel is ever likely to displace the likes of
Victoria, Palestrina, Tallis or Byrd in the general estimation, but both
are well worth getting to know under Dougan’s direction, even if the music
or the performance – or both – fails slightly to reach the heights and plumb
the depths that one associates with Iberian music of this period. In the
quieter, more reflective music such as the Alma Redemptoris Mater
(track 11) I have no reservations at all.
I seem to be becoming more critical of recordings where the diction
is not totally clear. It may be a new obsession of mine, but that was my one
reservation about the Hellinck and Lupi recording from the Brabant
Ensemble, mentioned above. It didn’t mar my enjoyment of that recording,
and it hasn’t marred my appreciation of the Esquivel. In some places, such
as those alternating parts of the Magnificat (tr.12) where smaller
forces are involved, the diction is perfectly clear.
Now let’s have more of Esquivel’s music and more from De Profundis and Eamonn
Dougan, together or separately.
Brian Wilson
Contents
Juan ESQUIVEL (c.1560-before 1630)
Regina cæli
[2:15]
Rodrigo de CEBALLOS (c.1530-1581)
Hortus conclusus
[4:36]
Juan ESQUIVEL
Missa Hortus conclusus; Kyrie and Gloria [2:06 + 5:06]
Veni Domine
[1:52]
Missa Hortus conclusus; Credo [8:22]
Ego sum panis vitis
[2:34]
Missa Hortus conclusus; Sanctus and Agnus Dei [3:13 + 2:53]
Ite missa est
– Deo gracias [1:05]
Alma redemptoris mater
[4:39]
Magnificat quinti toni
[8:38]
Ave Regina cælorum
[3:16]
Nunc dimittis
[3:35]
Sancta Maria
[3:44]
Te lucis ante terminum
[3:15]
Salve Regina
[8:10]
