We’re roaming the Renaissance in a special way today. In this Christmas episode you’ll hear a live-recording of a Christmas concert we visited recently: Capella Pratensis – Sister Bertken’s Christmas vision.
A special Christmas program with music and narration centred around Sister Bertken, an anchorite who lived in Utrecht around the year 1500. Sister Bertken devoted herself to God for 57 years. She let herself be enclosed in a cell at the Buurkerk in Utrecht and wrote pious poems about the spiritual road she walked on.
Sister Bertken
One of the poems is about a vision she had about Christmas night.
Sister Bertken’s poems have inspired the likes of Josquin des Prez, Sister Bertken, Pierre de la Rue, Adriaan Willaert, and others. As shown by Cappella Pratensis, harpist Vincent Kibildis and narrator Herman De Winné.
I: Maria’s innerlijke begeerte
Jean Mouton (ca 1459-1522)
1. Nesciens mater
Arnolt Schlick (ca 1460-1521)
2. Maria zart (harp)
Suster Bertken
3. uit Song IX
Anon.
4. Maria sart
II: Opstijging en geboorte
Pierre de la Rue (ca 1460-1518)
5. Missa cum Jocunditate – Sanctus
Jacob Obrecht (1457/8-1505)
6. Missa Maria zart – Agnus Dei II (harp)
Johannes Ghiselin (ca 1455-1507/11)
7. De tous biens plaine (harp)
Suster Bertken
8. uit Song IX
Pierre de la Rue
9. Gaude Virgo
Suster Bertken
10. uit Song IX
Antoine Brumel (ca 1460-ca 1515)
11. Noé noé
III: Neerdaling
Antoine Brumel
12. Ave, ancilla trinitatis
Josquin Desprez (1450/55-1521)
13. Gaude Virgo
Cappella Pratensis o.l.v. Stratton Bull: Stratton Bull, Andrew Hallock – superius. Lior Leibovici, Korneel Van Neste – altus. Pieter De Moor, Julian Podger – tenor. Máté Bruckner, Grantley McDonald – bassus
Mmv. Vincent Kibildis, harp en Herman de Winné, verteller
Opname: zondag 15 december 2019, Grote Kerk, Den Bosch
Techniek: Theo van Soest, productie: Wijnand de Groot
