Hans Leo Hassler

Hans Leo Hassler is familiar to most through his madrigals ‘Nun fanget an’ or ‘Tanzen und springen’. Yet he also composed magnificent sacred works, chief among them his settings of the Mass. These settings play a vital role in today’s church music heritage – for example at Mainz Cathedral: traditionally, Hassler’s works are performed across a range of musical ensembles here, and the present disc gives testimony to this variety. Domkapellmeister Karsten Storck performs Hassler’s ‘Missa super Maria dixit’ and the eponymous motet, as well as the Missae ‘Come fugier’, ‘Ecce quam bonum’, ‘Octo vocum’, and other pieces together with the Mainzer Domchor, the Domkantorei St Martin, and the Mainzer Dombläser. The disc thus offers listeners a remarkable insight into the church music of Mainz Cathedral, which has a history of over one thousand years. The alternating performances by the boys’ choir, the mixed vocal ensemble, and the brass players demonstrate the diversity of Hassler’s music, whose oeuvre stands on the threshold between late Renaissance and early Baroque styles, influenced by various traditions: Hassler received his musical training not only in his home town, from his father and Leonard Lechner (a pupil of Orlando di Lasso), but in young years also gained decisive compositional experience in Venice, the day’s most important musical hub.