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The Art of Music (AOM)

Si quis diliget me by The Art of Music

Si quis diliget me

The Art of Music

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AOM 25 years - Virtual Album (15/05/2018)

The Art of Music was set up in Luxembourg in 1993 by Eric Hartley, who also directed it for the first three years; since his departure, it has been directed by Mick Swithinbank. It was originally a sextet, and is only very little larger now. Its purpose during Eric’s directorship was to sing works from a quite specific repertoire: 16th century church music from England and Scotland. Thereafter the ensemble expanded its repertoire to include medieval and especially Renaissance music from all over Europe. It takes particular delight in delving into the inexhaustible seams of little-known early music, looking for gems that it can share with audiences. Its performances are largely confined to the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. Thanks to the recordings of the ensemble made by Josy Peschon, the Art of Music won first prize in the classical section of the first ever ‘Prix musique en ligne’ competition organised by the French performers’ rights organisation Adami in 2001. The winning entry was a recording of Josquin’s ‘Tu solus qui facis mirabilia’. The following year, the Art of Music’s recording of ‘Si quis diliget me’ by David Peebles won the second prize. The files posted here are a selection from some 20 years of concert recordings, beginning in 1998. In choosing them, the aim has been not to play it too safe but to focus especially either on works that are interesting because of their combination of quality of composition and rarity value, or else, in the case of the few better known works, those that seem the most exciting to listen to. The occasional blemish in a performance has been accepted if it was felt to be offset by other factors. Most of these works were performed and recorded only once, so then it is a question of ‘take it or leave it’.

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  1. 1
    GESUALDO Tenebrae factae sunt 4:59
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  2. 2
    CORNYSH Woefully arrayed 7:17
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  3. 3
    D'HELFER Sanctus & Pie Jesu 3:34
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  4. 4
    JOSQUIN Tu solus qui facis mirabilia 3:30
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  5. 5
    PEEBLES Si quis diliget me 5:40
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  6. 6
    PASHE Sancta Maria Mater Dei 10:26
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  7. 7
    ANONYMOUS O Maria 2:06
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  8. 8
    FERRABOSCO Laboravi in gemitu meo 4:16
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  9. 9
    ANONYME Salve virgo virginum 3:14
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  10. 10
    Giesu nostro riscatto (Lauda) 1:35
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  11. 11
    Stava a pie della croce (Lauda) 2:46
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  12. 12
    JOSQUIN Inviolata 5:23
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  13. 13
    OCKEGHEM Mort tu as navré de ton dart 3:53
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  14. 14
    STURMY Exultet in hac die 4:38
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  15. 15
    JOSQUIN Tu pauperum refugium 2:16
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L'ensemble vocal The Art of Music a été fondé en 1993 par un Anglais, Eric Hartley, qui en a d'ailleurs été le chef de chœur pendant les trois premières années. Il s'agissait d'un sextet dont l'objectif initial était d'interpréter des œuvres appartenant à un répertoire bien précis : la musique sacrée anglaise et écossaise du XVIe siècle. 

Au fil des ans, l'ensemble – qui compte un septième membre depuis 2010 et est rejoint parfois par d'autres chanteurs – a élargi son répertoire, notamment pour y inclure de la musique du Moyen-Âge et de la Renaissance de toute l'Europe (dont certaines pièces qui n'étaient pas chantées depuis des siècles nulle part en Europe) ainsi que des chants grégoriens. Il se produit régulièrement à Luxembourg-Ville et occasionnellement dans des églises et chapelles à Soleuvre (en 2004), Rindschleiden, Girsterklaus, Olingen, Niederanven et Mondorf, ainsi qu'au château de Bourglinster, allant même jusqu'à s'aventurer dans des contrées plus lointaines, telle la ville de Trèves. Il est toujours à l'affût d'occasions de chanter dans d'autres lieux du Grand-Duché. 

Grâce aux enregistrements de l'ensemble effectués par Josy Peschon, The Art of Music a remporté le premier prix dans la catégorie « musique classique » du tout premier concours « Prix musique en ligne » organisé en 2001 par Adami, société française de gestion collective des droits de propriété intellectuelle des artistes-interprètes. Les critères gouvernant l'attribution du prix tenaient à la fois à la qualité de l'interprétation et à celle de l'enregistrement ou du mixage. Le morceau lauréat fut un enregistrement du « Tu solus qui facis mirabilia » de Josquin. Depuis 1997, Josy Peschon a produit douze albums de The Art of Music, qui consistent principalement en des enregistrements de morceaux choisis des concerts. 

The Art of Music s'intéresse à toute personne capable et désireuse de chanter avec le groupe à l'avenir. Veuillez dans ce cas nous écrire à l'adresse:

 mickswithinbank@gmail.com

The AOM Story

In 1993, Eric Hartley – an Englishman living in Luxembourg – persuaded a few fellow singers in the Grand-Duchy to join him in setting up a sextet whose original aim was to sing works from a very specific repertoire: 16th century church music from England and Scotland. In this he was enthusiastically encouraged by historian and music-lover Jamie Reid-Baxter. With the line-up Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone and Bass, Eric reasoned that it would be possible to sing enough of this repertoire to keep the group occupied for some time. Composers whose music was regularly featured included Taverner, Tallis, Byrd, Fayrfax, Carver, Ludford and Sheppard. 

The ensemble debuted with weekday lunchtime concerts in the Kirchberg chapel on the fringes of Luxembourg City, before eventually moving on to its usual venue, St John’s church in the Grund, rue Münster, at a more central location in the city, and to other times of the day and week. It has also performed in churches and chapels in Soleuvre, Rindschleiden, Girsterklaus, Olingen, Niederanven, Mondorf and elsewhere in Luxembourg City, as well as at Bourglinster castle, and has ventured as far afield as Trier in Germany, not to mention occasionally appearing in non-church settings such as the European School of Luxembourg and the European Investment Bank. It is still looking for opportunities to perform elsewhere in the Grand-Duchy, particularly in the north. 

The original members were Eric Hartley (baritone and director), Nicki Crush, Ria Favoreel, Marita Thomas, Mick Swithinbank and Edward Seymour. The first to leave, rather unexpectedly, was Eric himself, when his personal circumstances required him to move back to England. As a singer, he was replaced by Jim Foulkes (1996-2006) and then Alan Carlisle (2008-present). Mick took Eric’s place as director. After 2000, when Nicki Crush left the group, she was succeeded by several other sopranos over the next 10 years: first Ann Ramsay, then Baiba Rozenbaha and Mireille Wagner. Since 2010, when the Art of Music was enlarged to seven members by recruiting two sopranos simultaneously – thus also expanding the available repertoire – both Jennifer Schofield and Magdalena Mateńko have been members. The alto region, or thereabouts, has been occupied by Ria Favoreel (1993-2013), Marita Thomas (1993-2006; 2013-present) and Nigel Heavey (2008-present). Founder members Edward Seymour and Mick Swithinbank are still with the group. 

Other singers who have performed with the Art of Music on occasion include: Teija Immonen, Barbara Hall, Colin Buckland, Henry Wickens, Horatiu Dragan, Jeannot Goergen, Tom Osborne, Nancy Coons, Karin Muller, Ian Kent, Kristina Mascher, Miguel Turrión, Jonathan Grocock and Chris Vigar. 

Gradually, a few changes of format were introduced into the concerts. Initially, Renaissance polyphony was interspersed with instrumental interludes on the virginal (small harpsichord). These interludes were later replaced by the singing of Gregorian chant. The repertoire also soon diversified into mainland Europe, with occasional excursions also into pre-Renaissance music, from the Middle Ages, as far back as Perotin. There have even been a few forays into the 19th and 20th centuries and into secular repertoire, but the insufficiently explored and inexhaustible repertoire of Renaissance religious music remains the group’s true raison d’être. 

It was in October 1997 that Josy Peschon first recorded an Art of Music concert, since when he has recorded every concert that the group has given in an acoustic of which he approved, the most successful from this point of view being the Eglise St-Jean in Luxembourg City and Soleuvre and Olingen churches. Thanks to Josy’s efforts, the Art of Music won first prize in the classical section of the first ever ‘Prix musique en ligne’ competition organised by the French performers’ rights organisation Adami in 2001, the criteria being a combination of performance quality and recording quality/mixing. The winning entry was a recording of Josquin’s ‘Tu solus qui facis mirabilia’. 

As well as Josy’s arrival on the scene, another new departure for the Art of Music in October 1997 was the decision to sing music by Hildegard of Bingen. Although her music was less well known then than now, there was a suspicion that the following year – the 900th anniversary of her birth – everybody would be singing it, and the Art of Music wanted to get in first. It need not have worried: in Luxembourg in 1998, conferences were held to discuss Hildegard’s herbal lore and her writings on the healing properties of gemstones, but no one, as far as could be ascertained, paid any attention to her music, with its remarkably individual melodic style (and its frequent tendency to use a vocal range of nearly two octaves within a single piece!). The ensemble has regularly returned to her music over the years. 

The main concerts are usually given in March and September/October. As a rule, each concert is organised thematically. The most recurrent themes have been Lent/Holy Week and veneration of the Virgin Mary, for both of which a vast repertoire is available. Others have included the Renaissance tradition of lamenting the death of a specific, named composer; the Office and Mass for the dead; All Saints (including Victoria’s Gaudeamus Mass); Advent and Christmas; music from England and Scotland; music from Spain and Portugal; the Song of Songs; the life of Jesus; music for troubled times; the frescoes in Rindschleiden church; Catholic and Protestant musical traditions in the 16th century (a programme consisting entirely of settings of psalm texts, but as musically varied as any other programme, if not more so); Josquin, Willaert and the Franco-Flemish school (including settings of Virgil texts); Renaissance music from the German lands; Cristóbal de Morales, 'The light of Spain in music'; 20th anniversary concert, including an arrangement of Tallis’s ‘Spem in alium’ for 11 voices. 

 Contact: mickswithinbank@gmail.com

 

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AOM BIS Vol. 1 - From Hildegard to Gesualdo by The Art of Music

AOM BIS Vol. 1 - From Hildegard to Gesualdo

The Art of Music

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Nicki Crush (soprano), Ria Favoreel (mezzo), Marita Thomas (alto)

Mick Swithinbank (tenor & direction) Jim Foulkes (baritone) & Edward Seymour (bass)

featuring also (tracks 13 and 14): Barbara Hall (soprano), Teija Immonen (alto), Henry Wickens (baritone) and Colin Buckland (bass)

The Art of Music takes its name from the title of an anonymous treatise on musical theory written in Scotland in the late 16th century. The group was set up in 1993 by Eric Hartley with the principal aim of performing English and Scottish renaissance church music. This still remains at the core of the group's repertoire, and is represented on this disc by Sheppard, Tallis, Cornysh, Carver and Browne. In addition, however, recent concerts have branched out both geographically, to include works from mainland Europe, and chronologically, into the Middle Ages.

Since its inception, the group has consisted of six singers; to date, in fact, the only change of personnel has been the departure of Eric Hartley himself and his replacement by Jim Foulkes. Many of the masterpieces of the Renaissance are scored for five or six voices (in earlier music, three or four was the norm), but a few call for larger forces. Occasionally therefore, the assistance of a small number of additional performers has been enlisted, as was the case for part of the Lenten programme included on this disc, and The Art of Music would like to thank those concerned for making some ambitious projects possible.

The first of the two concerts represented on this disc offers a panorama of 500 years of religious music, from the 12th to the 16th centuries. The earliest pieces of all consist of a single voice-line: the plainchant Salve Regina (anonymous) and Ave generosa by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, who wrote both the words and the music. Both pieces are addressed to the Virgin Mary. Polyphony originated in the increasingly free addition of extra voices to plainchant. By the mid-13th century, composers were writing pieces like Alle psallite, where the lowest voice sings chant, albeit in a dance rhythm, while the upper voices are assigned independent material. Representing the later Middle Ages, the Johannes Regis Kyrie is built around the secular melody "L'homme armé", whereas the works by John Dunstaple and Johannes de Lymburgia are freely composed. Similarly, Browne's Salve Regina (late 15th century) owes nothing to the plainchant setting of the same text; yet in the mid-16th century we find John Sheppard still using plainchant as a cantus firmus throughout his polyphony, a device which had never been entirely abandoned.

The second concert comprises music for Lent. Pange lingua and Tristis are settings for Maundy Thursday, Tenebrae and Woefully arrayed for Good Friday. The Gesualdo pieces graphically depict events from the Passion. In Tristis, Christ addresses the Disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane; Tenebrae describes His crucifixion and death. O bone Jesu is a penitential piece for any season, and If ye love me looks forward to the more cheering prospect of Pentecost. O bone Jesu calls for special comment, as it was originally scored for 19 voices: 2 groups of trebles and 17 solo men (including altos). For the purposes of this performance, it was necessary to rescore the work for 10 voices. In the substantial 'solistic' sections of the work, which were in any case scored for fewer than 10 voices in the original, not a note has been lost; only in the full, chordal sections was pruning required, which was carried out wherever possible by eliminating doublings. The main loss therefore is in the contrast in sound between small groups of soloists and the massive power of the full choir envisaged by Carver, although the singers endeavoured to convey this contrast dynamically.

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  1. 1
    Salve Regina 3:19
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  2. 2
    ANON Alle psallite 0:41
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  3. 3
    REGIS Kyrie 6:11
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  4. 4
    LYMBURGIA Surge 2:26
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  5. 5
    BINGEN Ave generosa 5:49
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  6. 6
    SHEPPARD Jesu salvator saeculi 4:19
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  7. 7
    DUNSTAPLE Sancta Maria 2:11
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  8. 8
    BROWNE Salve Regina 11:59
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  9. 9
    Pange lingua gloriosi 3:41
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  10. 10
    GESUALDO Tristis est anima mea 4:44
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  11. 11
    GESUALDO Tenebrae factae sunt 4:59
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  12. 12
    CORNYSH Woefully arrayed 7:17
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  13. 13
    CARVER O bone Jesu 11:24
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  14. 14
    TALLIS If ye love me 2:27
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AOM BIS Vol. 2 - Ave Maris Stella by The Art of Music

AOM BIS Vol. 2 - Ave Maris Stella

The Art of Music

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Nicki Crush (soprano), Ria Favoreel (mezzo), Marita Thomas (alto) Mick Swithinbank (tenor & direction) Jim Foulkes (baritone) & Edward Seymour (bass) * with Teija Immonen (17-19)

The Art of Music takes its name from the title of an anonymous treatise on musical theory written in Scotland in the late 16th century. The group was set up in 1993 by Eric Hartley with the principal aim of performing English and Scottish renaissance church music. This still remains at the core of the group's repertoire, and is represented on this disc by Tallis, Peebles and Taverner. In addition, however, the concerts of recent years have branched out both geographically, to include works from mainland Europe, and chronologically, into the Middle Ages.

'Ave Maris Stella' (Hail, star of the sea) is the title of a plainsong hymn dating from no later than the 9th century, which clearly enjoyed great popularity throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. It must have owed its appeal to a combination of factors: its pleasing melody, the devotion it expresses to the Virgin Mary and its poetic imagery. Ironically, the image of Mary as the star of the sea, which the poet took as his starting point, may have previously originated through a scribe's error, 'stilla' becoming 'stella'. The idea of Mary as 'maris stilla' - one drop in the ocean of humanity, albeit one uniquely chosen - is attractive enough, yet 'maris stella' possesses a different resonance, partly because it is a visual image and cannot so readily be reduced logically to any abstract notion.

Dunstaple was one of many composers who adapted this ancient hymn. His approach, a common one in his day, was to incorporate a decorated version of the plainsong melody in his setting - in this case in the top line - while leaving alternate verses to be sung to the original plainsong unadorned and unaccompanied. The Dufay piece applies the same procedure to another plainsong hymn, and Brumel, although writing later, adopted a rather similar technique in his Dies Irae.

In the Middle Ages, the rose garden was a symbol of virginity, and the rose was therefore another of the many images of the Virgin Mary, as in the medieval Christmas carol 'There is no rose of such virtue' which opens this disk. Hildegard, on the other hand, addresses her as 'frondens virga' - a flourishing branch of the tree of Jesse (referring to the family tree through which Mary traced her lineage back to him).

Also addressed to the Virgin are 'Ave Maria', Victoria's setting of the Angel Gabriel's words at the Annunciation, and the anonymous lauda 'O divina virgo'. This is in Italian, and would have been sung not by the church's regular singers but by devout laymen who formed societies for this purpose.

The pieces on this disk are drawn from four concert programmes dating from October 1998 to October 1999, one of which had the title 'Laments and Requiems'. It included the requiem-mass movements by Brumel and the little-known 17th century Lorraine composer Charles d'Helfer which are featured here, as well as Ockeghem's lament on the death of Binchois (c. 1460) and Josquin's lament on the death of Ockeghem (c. 1497), both of which are heart-felt settings of French poems sung to the accompaniment of Latin texts from the requiem mass. The words make it clear that these widely admired composers whom the world has lost are irreplaceable; at the same time, these settings and those from the requiem mass serve to remind us of our own mortality and perhaps, through some mysterious process, to reconcile us to it in some degree.

'Si quis diliget me' by Peebles was one of the first pieces learned by The Art of Music in its early days under the directorship of Eric Hartley. While the tenor sustains the notes of a passage of plainsong drawn out to such vast length that time almost seems to stand still, the other parts create slowly changing harmonies, into which small fragments of faster, but unfailingly calm, melody are woven. This piece has always retained a special place in the singers' affections, and the aim of presenting to audiences such rarely performed gems as this is the whole reason for the group's existence.

concerts recorded live in St John's Church, Luxembourg-Grund and Olingen Church

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  1. 1
    There is no rose of such virtue 4:02
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  2. 2
    Puer natus est 2:12
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  3. 3
    UTENDAL Adesto dolore meo, Deus 2:59
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  4. 4
    DUFAY Conditor alme siderum 2:58
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  5. 5
    O divina virgo (lauda) 2:57
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  6. 6
    BRUMEL O crux ave spes unica 1:55
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  7. 7
    Victimae paschali 1:44
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  8. 8
    DUNSTAPLE Ave maris stella 3:33
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  9. 9
    HELFER Sanctus Pie Jesu 3:34
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  10. 10
    BRUMEL Dies Irae 8:26
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  11. 11
    OCKEGHEM Mort tu as navré de ton dart 3:53
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  12. 12
    JOSQUIN Nymphes des bois 4:59
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  13. 13
    BINGEN O frondens virga 2:52
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  14. 14
    VICTORIA Ave Maria 1:43
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  15. 15
    JOSQUIN Tu solus qui facis mirabilia 3:30
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  16. 16
    PEEBLES Si quis diliget me 5:40
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  17. 17
    TAVERNER Quemadmodum 7:25
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  18. 18
    TALLIS Videte miraculum 10:11
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  19. 19
    TALLIS Te lucis ante terminum 2:10
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notes
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  1. 1
    CHOPIN Etude op.10/3 5:18
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  2. 2
    Fammi cantar 2:41
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  3. 3
    PAERT Magnificat 7:42
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  4. 4
    FISCHER Fr/BOLLING Chicago 3:36
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  5. 5
    MONTES Bossa nova 2:26
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  6. 6
    PONZO In the Wood - Im Wald - Dans la forêt 1:34
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  7. 7
    DE ABREU Tico Tico 1:11
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  8. 8
    SHINOHARA Kassouga 7:11
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  9. 9
    Quia ergo femina (Hildegard von Bingen) 2:19
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  10. 10
    BEETHOVEN Duo WoO 27 2 9:43
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  11. 11
    LISZT Harmonies du soir 8:56
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  12. 12
    TURINA Hommage à Tarrega 5:26
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  13. 13
    BITARTEAN Bthvn Woo 27 1 9:49
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  14. 14
    ROUSSEL Les joueurs de flûte (extrait) 4:53
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  15. 15
    PADEREWSKI Nocturne o16 4 3:47
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  16. 16
    Le piano de Reinhold Glière (extraits) 4:46
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  17. 17
    Hildegard von Bingen - Ave, generosa 5:46
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  18. 18
    THEODORAKIS Sto Perigali (à la Clapton) 3:26
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  19. 19
    MORRICONE The Mission 6:14
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  20. 20
    JOLIVET Ascèse 1 3:59
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