Sophie Klußmann - Chansons & Frottole (2025)

The French and Italian Renaissance song repertoire, immortalised during the first three decades of the sixteenth century by the printed editions of Pierre Attaingnant in Paris and Ottaviano Petrucci in Venice, invites audiences, and in former times performers, to immerse themselves in a world in which memories of medieval courtly poetry, the austerity (as reimagined in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) of ancient lamentations, and a fully polyphonic narrative style, were all collided and superimposed-a certain sense of conversation can remind us also of the French air de cour as well as the early Italian madrigal form. These chansons and frottole give rise to discrete, almost enigmatic emotions, where music and text unite as one, transparent and restrained.Guided by the subtle sound of Hopkinson Smith's lute, the diaphanous voice of German soprano Sophie Klussmann roams over this little-known early Renaissance territory through four sections which take the form of return journeys between France and Italy. The sly melancholy of songs by Claude de Sermisy (Puisqu'en amours) and other French contemporary figures, some of them settings of poems by Clement Marot, thus collides with more plaintive pieces, by Marchetto Cara (Io non compro piu speranza) and Bartolomeo Tromboncino, whose supplicatory Per dolor me bagno il viso and final, heady Dolermi sempre voglio both attain peaks of intensity, at the same time being two sumptuous examples of the frottola form. During these sixty minutes, Sophie Klussmann produces exquisitely subtle and precious wisps of sound, recalling that the heart and soul of these snapshots very often remains the matter of love. Her dark gold timbre hints at the eternal in the one piece in the programme whose text is of a religious nature, the sublime, questioning prayer Se mai per maraveglia.

TRACKLIST

1. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 34 Chansons musicales a quatre parties: No. 10, mes ennuyz
2. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 37 Chansons musicales a quatre parties: No. 12, Jouissance vous donneray
3. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 42 Chansons musicales a troys parties: No. 12, Amy, souffrés (Version from the "Très brève et familière Introduction" - No. 10)
4. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 37 Chansons musicales a quatre parties: No. 10, Dont vient cela (Version from the "Très brève et familière Introduction" - No. 23)
5. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 37 Chansons musicales a quatre parties: No. 37, Tant que vivrai (Version from the "Très brève et familière Introduction" - No. 33)
6. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Intabulatura de lauto: No. 7, Recercar VI
7. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 5, Se mai per maraveglia
8. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 26, Ostinato vo’ seguire
9. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 48, S’io sedo a l’ombra
10. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Intabulatura de lauto: No. 35, Poi che volse la mia stella
11. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 46, Io non compro più speranza
12. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 37 Chansons musicales a quatre parties: No. 14, Il est jour
13. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 31 Chansons musicales a quatre parties: No. 26, Puisqu’en amours
14. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 35 Chansons musicales a quatre parties: No. 24, Le Jaulne et bleu (Version from the "Très brève et familière Introduction" - No. 30)
15. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 42 Chansons musicales a troys parties: No. 7, Le cueur est mien
16. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 42 Chansons musicales a troys parties: No. 16, Dolent depart (Version from the "Très brève et familière Introduction" - No. 18)
17. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - 34 Chansons musicales a quatre parties: No. 26, De toy me plaintz
18. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Libro 9 di frottole: No. 27, Poiché speranza è morta
19. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 8, Per fuggir d’amor le punte
20. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - The Capirola Lutebook: No. 40B, Che farala che dirala
21. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 55, Ala guerra
22. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 2, Per dolor me bagno il viso
23. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 43, Starala ben cussi?
24. Hopkinson Smith;Sophie Klussmann - Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto: No. 41, Dolermi sempre voglio