Dionysos Now! releases their fourth album “Adriano 4” in the Adriaen Willaert Series. This release focuses on the world premiere recording of Willaert’s St John Passion, composed around 1545, followed by Easter motets.

The cover artwork of Adriano 4 is a photo by renowned photographer Stephan Vanfleteren. The cd and vinyl design are also composed with more pictures by Vanfleteren, which results in a very unique piece of art.

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Adriaen Willaert’s little-known St John Passion is his only surviving setting of the Passion of Christ. This recording proves that a compositional innovation took place in the Renaissance that aimed to make the recitation of the Passion on Good Friday (which was then traditionally sung in unison, Gregorian chant) more musically interesting. The passion is composed in an innovatively polyphonic, but homo-rhythmical manner: every voice sings the same text at the same time. This way, the text remains very intelligible, and the listener is captivated by the way the story is presented."

All the “roles” that appear in his St John Passion are set in a polyphonic manner. The part of the Evangelist is worked out in four voices; Jesus in three voices; Pilatus, Ancilla, and Petrus in two voices; and the crowd (turba) in six voices. After the death of A. Willaert, this work has probably never been performed in its original form, as can be found in the part books (manuscripts, not printed).

Discover the Adriaen Willaert Series

Adriano 4 is available worldwide as a digipack CD & will be available as a double, black vinyl, gatefold LP on March 17th in Benelux only. 

This production is supported by The National Lottery Belgium.