Pipelare is yet another of that seemingly infinite legion of accomplished and exciting composers born c1450. His songs are first-rate, sung here with all the intelligence and voluptuousness of the Huelgas Ensemble a their best.
Paul Van Nevel has done a great deal for composers whom he judges to have been unjustly neglected. Matthaeus Pipelare is yet another of that seemingly infinite legion of accomplished and exciting composers born c1450 – there are so many of them! – who seem to have been completely ignored by all but the most specialized scholars. His style is typical of what could be described as the Franco-Flemish mainstream. A more specific characterization is tricky; if pushed, I might suggest ‘post-Busnois’, with traces of Josquin in his more scholastic mood. That, at any rate, is the impression one gets from the longest work on the disc, his Missa L’homme arme. This is a welcome addition to the CD repertory of Masses built on the famous tune – although it is probably true that Pipelare’s style is occasionally cramped by the weight of that daunting tradition. Elsewhere, he is noticeably more relaxed. The secular music in particular shares in that plasticity of line and form that seems peculiarly Flemish. Certainly the songs are first-rate, sung here with all the intelligence and voluptuousness of the Huelgas Ensemble at their not infrequent best.
-- Fabrice Fitch, Gramophone [10/1996]
This recording received the 1998 Cannes Classical Music Award for "Best Choral Performance - 14th/16th Centuries".
