Ave Virgo (CD)

Géry de Ghersem (1573–1630) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance, active both in Spain at the court of Philip II and Philip III, and in his native Netherlands. He was a prolific and highly regarded composer at the time, but little of his work survives, almost all having been destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake and fire of 1755. Ghersem seems to have written most of his music in Spain. His sacred vocal music included masses, motets, settings of the Lamentations, Magnificats, psalms, and 170 villancicos; he also wrote some secular music, including chansons in French and a few songs in Spanish. No music for instruments only is known from the catalogue. His solitary surviving complete work is “Ave Virgo Sanctissima”, a mass for seven voices, in the polyphonic style of the Renaissance. It makes use of canon, and is based on the ‘hit’ motet “Ave Virgo Sanctissima” by Francisco Guerrero (1528-1596).

 Currende was founded in 1974 by Erik van Nevel. Currende's repertory has centered in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, though it has taken brief forays into both earlier and later music. The varied and spirited programs have run the gamut from Ciconia to Bach, with highlights including the music of Lasso, Carissimi, Schütz, Domenico Scarlatti, and Buxtehude, as well as a monumental 10-CD collection of the central "Netherlandish" masters.