[rockadanny]

Picked this up recently on Harmonia Mundi. Terrific recording, terrific singing, wonderful music. :





A stunning Elizabethan tribute to Nick Drake. Joel Frederiksen is joined by the Ensemble Phoenix Munich to pay more than fitting tribute to the late British troubadour Nick Drake. The initial buzz of Drake's work was good but nothing overwhelming. Some thirty nine years later we have a release receiving world wide acclaim and justifiably so. Hearing these baroque pieces, with Gregorian texts next to Road or Which Will is a testament to the brilliance of Frederiksen, few true artists would have dared to take such an incredible roll of the musical dice and wind up with results that border on stunning. --Critical Jazz

I seriously doubt that I will hear another recording this year which will come close to matching the power and grace Requiem for a Pink Moon. If there is such a thing as a flawless album, this Requiem is certainly it. --Seattle Post Intellilgencer

Captivating and sincere, Frederiksen never strays near to pastiche or kitsch: this is an exhilarating re-imagination in a period adaptation of uncanny aptness. Not to be missed. --La Scena Musicale

Allmusic Review by James Manheim:
Ever since critics began to place "She's Leaving Home" and some of the other more elaborate Beatles songs within the classical tradition of British music, performers have sought ways of exploring connections between contemporary and classical song. The idea seems plausible, yet the execution is devilishly difficult, for simple juxtaposition of rock and Renaissance songs emphasizes their differences, not their similarities. One way around the problem is the insertion of some third element, such as the spy plotline Sting added to his recording of songs by John Dowland. This recording by American-German bass Joel Frederiksen (he actually has a slight German accent here, but not a distracting one) takes a related tack: recording songs by British folk-rocker Nick Drake and putting them together with works by Dowland, Michael Cavendish, and Thomas Campion, he adds arrangements of Requiem chants that, although there are just a few, knit the program together in general mood. The arrangements also help: instead of simply turning Drake into a Renaissance lute song composer, Frederiksen crafts arrangements for viola da gamba, lute, and drum that preserve their original rhythms (although Drake himself often dispensed with the drums). Drake's songs work better for this kind of enterprise than most others of his time (he died a probable suicide in 1974): their prevailing melancholia is of a piece with Dowland's, and the harmonic-modal system of Drake's music, little touched by blues, is close enough to the Renaissance lute song that you can, when you add in Frederiksen's lovely singing and artful arrangements for Ensemble Phoenix Munich, just about forget which composer you're listening to. The engineering from Harmonia Mundi is more than just clear; it helps smooth over the lines that Frederiksen is trying to erase. This offbeat album is one of the most successful experiments of its type.

[dwk]

Thanks for posting this - looks really interesting. I may have to add it to my list

[geowak]

Picked this up recently on Harmonia Mundi. Terrific recording, terrific singing, wonderful music. :





A stunning Elizabethan tribute to Nick Drake. Joel Frederiksen is joined by the Ensemble Phoenix Munich to pay more than fitting tribute to the late British troubadour Nick Drake. The initial buzz of Drake's work was good but nothing overwhelming. Some thirty nine years later we have a release receiving world wide acclaim and justifiably so. Hearing these baroque pieces, with Gregorian texts next to Road or Which Will is a testament to the brilliance of Frederiksen, few true artists would have dared to take such an incredible roll of the musical dice and wind up with results that border on stunning. --Critical Jazz

I seriously doubt that I will hear another recording this year which will come close to matching the power and grace Requiem for a Pink Moon. If there is such a thing as a flawless album, this Requiem is certainly it. --Seattle Post Intellilgencer

Captivating and sincere, Frederiksen never strays near to pastiche or kitsch: this is an exhilarating re-imagination in a period adaptation of uncanny aptness. Not to be missed. --La Scena Musicale

Allmusic Review by James Manheim:
Ever since critics began to place "She's Leaving Home" and some of the other more elaborate Beatles songs within the classical tradition of British music, performers have sought ways of exploring connections between contemporary and classical song. The idea seems plausible, yet the execution is devilishly difficult, for simple juxtaposition of rock and Renaissance songs emphasizes their differences, not their similarities. One way around the problem is the insertion of some third element, such as the spy plotline Sting added to his recording of songs by John Dowland. This recording by American-German bass Joel Frederiksen (he actually has a slight German accent here, but not a distracting one) takes a related tack: recording songs by British folk-rocker Nick Drake and putting them together with works by Dowland, Michael Cavendish, and Thomas Campion, he adds arrangements of Requiem chants that, although there are just a few, knit the program together in general mood. The arrangements also help: instead of simply turning Drake into a Renaissance lute song composer, Frederiksen crafts arrangements for viola da gamba, lute, and drum that preserve their original rhythms (although Drake himself often dispensed with the drums). Drake's songs work better for this kind of enterprise than most others of his time (he died a probable suicide in 1974): their prevailing melancholia is of a piece with Dowland's, and the harmonic-modal system of Drake's music, little touched by blues, is close enough to the Renaissance lute song that you can, when you add in Frederiksen's lovely singing and artful arrangements for Ensemble Phoenix Munich, just about forget which composer you're listening to. The engineering from Harmonia Mundi is more than just clear; it helps smooth over the lines that Frederiksen is trying to erase. This offbeat album is one of the most successful experiments of its type.

I could not agree more. This performance is tremendous and the recording is top notch. I had posted this album/recording back in Jan 2013 in the Jazz circle, knowing that the music and the tribute tends to defy a category. I would also put both the Peter Gabriel albums "New Blood" and "Live Blood" as outstanding performances and recordings.

[Kenneth Patchen]

Thanks very much, Rockadanny. Ordering this today. Big Nick Drake fan.

I know of Joel Frederiksen's Ensemble Phoenix Munich and the Rose of Sharon recording also on Harmonia Mundi and also recommended.

Thanks again.

[stlrman]

Thanks! On Spotify??

[geowak]

Thanks! On Spotify??

Yes!

[stlrman]

Great I'm in! Will pass along to the wife too.