After an album devoted to the desiccate repertoire at the court of Maximilian III (1558-1618) and Ferdinand II (1578-1637), the Musikmuseum label, conducted by Franz Gratl, continues its enhancement of the Tyrolean heritage, and this time documents the sacred spectrum, focusing on Paul Sartorius (c1569-1609), organist of the Innsbrucken court. Unlike the Jesuit culture of his nephew Ferdinand for which he assumed the regency, and despite the Catholic piety of his Spanish mother, Maximilian evolved in a humanist and tolerant setting towards Protestantism, moderating the zeal of the Counter-Reformation. The Franco-Flemish heritage, spread by masters from the north, was still alive at the court, even though in the progressive circle of Graz was the Italian way. It includes the presence of Anniibale Padovano among the instrumentalists of the Hofmusik, and of the Venetian Simone Gatto as Kapellmeister.

At the residence of Mergentheim, in the present-day Baden-Wurttemberg, then the accounts of the Teutonic Order of which he was Grand Master, Maximilian had constituted his own chapel, under the aegis of the Liégeois zgidius Bassengius (c1550-1595). Shortly before his disappearance in 1595 had been hired by the organist Paul Sartorius, who in 1602 and for about fifteen years accompanied the "Deutschmeister" which ruled Tyrol and Swabian in Innsbruck. In the service of the sovereign, he was soon joined by the Bavarian Johann Stadlmayr in 1607, torn from the Prince-Bishop of Salzburg. Held in high esteem and greedily paid by Maximilian, he was sent to the forefront as director of the Hofmusica at solemn embassies such as Regensburg in 1613.

Addressing these two composers, the disc combines a liturgical sequence for Easter and Pentecost. A pupil of Leonhard Lechner (c1553-1606) and possibly Ruggiero Giovanelli (c1565-1625) in Rome, Sartorius was from this angle a disciple of the Palestrin school whose aesthetic imprint he followed in his masses and motets. It is, however, the cement of the serene city that illuminates the works recorded here. The program borrows four pieces from its fundamental collection Sacrae cantiones published in the city of the Doges in 1602, for six to twelve voices and instruments, in the polychoral manner for the most provided polyphonies. Thus the majestic pascal motet Alleluia - Surrexit Dominus which introduces this anthology, or the Spiritus Domini which mixes two five-part choirs. Considering the number of seven singers gathered for these May 2022 sessions in the Seminarkapelle d'Innsbruck, we can guess some adjustments to respect the broad nomenclature derived from the cori spezzati ... At least, the loud acoustic of the place does not betray the mind or the pomp.

The Motoes Maria Magdalena and Repleti sunt omnes confront two sets, such as the eight-part Missa Laudate Dominum, which is entirely proposed to us. As part of the parody-mass, essentially structuring homophone blocks, with some contrapuntal incursions, it is based on a psalm of which the composer has not been identified. Stadlmayr's three works reflect different ferments and prove that his pen handled both the antico stile and the stile nuovo: archaisms leveted by the Renaissance (the Veni Creator hymn as an alternatim of Grégorien), influence of the spatializations of Giovanni Gabrieli stile concertatoat the Basilica of San Marco (Dum Completing with the DelicacyRegina coeli).

Specializing in this era of transition, familiar with the deployments of the Venetian school, the Marini Consort is honoured by an expert, fervent, and no less attractive performance. The team of blowers (cornlets, trombones) magnifies the architecture of the right, full and agile voices. The harp, theorb and colascione lattice ensures the impulses, it revives them (Repleti sunt omnes), the halo... Certainly, not all the stages are the ultimate perfection: one would imagine a little more enthusiastic about Maria Magdalena, we would like a Dum that is a compulsive Dum of more affluent, more consistent coherence. But these reserves remain minimal, within a suckling path to which Simon Lanz’s microphones guarantee an anointing of the highest refinement. Rarely do we give the maximum rating for sound quality, but we must confess that the capture is distinguished by transparency, finesse, subtlety of timbres and a restitution of space that are absolutely confusing.