The Hilliard Ensemble
The Hilliard Ensemble was a British male vocal quartet that gave its first concert in London in December 1973 and took its name from the Elizabethan miniature painter Nicholas Hilliard. It sang mainly medieval and Renaissance polyphony alongside new music, and it worked often with Arvo Pärt. With saxophonist Jan Garbarek it recorded Officium (1994) for ECM. The group retired at the end of 2014. The founding members were Paul Hillier, Errol Girdlestone, Paul Elliott and David James.
Officium
ECM's landmark cross-over: Jan Garbarek's saxophone improvising around medieval and Renaissance chant sung by The Hilliard Ensemble, recorded in a monastery. Sublime, meditative and utterly unclassifiable.
Passio
2024 stock. Pärt's long-form The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. John dramatizes the apostle John's account of the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. The form he adopts sounds as though it were centuries old, with its choral orchestra…
A Hilliard Songbook - New Music For Voices
*2024 stock. Deluxe packaging* Although by now almost habitually referred to as Britain’s foremost early music vocal group, the Hilliard Ensemble (founded 1974) has long had an equal, and complementary, commitment to contemporary music. Its members h…
Mnemosyne
Double album by Jan Garbarek (soprano and tenor saxophones) and The Hilliard Ensemble: early, ancient Greek and folk vocal music with improvisation, recorded April 1998 at Propstei St. Gerold, Austria, produced by Manfred Eicher.
Remember me, my dear
Live recording from the October 2014 farewell tour of Jan Garbarek (soprano saxophone) and The Hilliard Ensemble, made in the Collegiata dei Santi Pietro e Stefano, Bellinzona: Komitas, Pérotin, Hildegard von Bingen, Brumel, Pärt, Kedrov and Garbarek…
Transeamus
Final album by The Hilliard Ensemble: 15th-century English carols and motets by John Plummer, Walter Lambe, William Cornysh, Sheryngham and anonymous composers, sung by David James, Rogers Covey-Crump, Steven Harrold and Gordon Jones, recorded in 201…
Il cor tristo
The Hilliard Ensemble sings Roger Marsh's Il Cor Tristo, a 2008 setting of cantos from Dante's Inferno, framed by Petrarch madrigals by Bernardo Pisano and Jacques Arcadelt. Recorded in November 2012 at Propstei St. Gerold.
Heinz Holliger, Guillaume de Machaut, Geneviève Strosser, Jürg Dähler, Muriel Cantoreggi, The Hilliard Ensemble
Machaut-TranskriptionenHeinz Holliger's Machaut-Transkriptionen (2001-2009) for four voices and three violas, alternating with Machaut originals, sung by The Hilliard Ensemble with violists Geneviève Strosser, Jürg Dähler and Muriel Cantoreggi, recorded November 2010 in Zü…
Quinto Libro di Madrigali
The Hilliard Ensemble, joined by soprano Monika Mauch and countertenor David Gould, sings Carlo Gesualdo's complete Fifth Book of five-voice madrigals (1611), recorded in November 2009 at Propstei St. Gerold.
Song of Songs
One-page string quartets and settings of phrases from the Song of Songs by Boris Yoffe, played by the Rosamunde Quartett with the four singers of The Hilliard Ensemble, recorded in November 2009 at Propstei St. Gerold.
Officium Novum
Third album by Jan Garbarek (soprano and tenor saxophones) and The Hilliard Ensemble, centred on Armenian sacred music arranged by Komitas, with chant, Pérotin and Pärt. Recorded at Propstei St. Gerold in summer 2009.
Thomas Tallis / Christopher Tye / John Sheppard - Audivi vocem
The Hilliard Ensemble sing sacred polyphony by Thomas Tallis, Christopher Tye and John Sheppard, built around movements of Tye's Missa sine nomine. Recorded March 2005 at Propstei St. Gerold, produced by Manfred Eicher.
Tituli / Cathedral in the Trashing Rain
Two vocal works by Stephen Hartke, Tituli (1999) and Cathedral in the Thrashing Rain (2000), sung by The Hilliard Ensemble with violinist Michelle Makarski and two percussionists, conducted by Donald Crockett, recorded in February 2003 at Mechanics H…
Morimur
Bach's Partita in D minor BWV 1004 played by Christoph Poppen on baroque violin, interleaved with chorales sung by The Hilliard Ensemble after Helga Thoene's analysis; recorded September 2000 at Propstei St. Gerold, Austria.
Codex Speciálnik
Sacred polyphony from a Prague manuscript of about 1500, sung by the Hilliard Ensemble (David James, Rogers Covey-Crump, John Potter, Gordon Jones), recorded in January 1993 in the Stadtkirche, Gönningen.
Perotin
Organa and conductus by Perotin and anonymous composers of the Notre-Dame school (c. 1200), sung by the Hilliard Ensemble directed by Paul Hillier, recorded in September 1988 at Boxgrove Priory, Sussex.
Terje Rypdal, The Hilliard Ensemble, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Dennis Russell Davies, Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, Sebastian Perłowski
Melodic WarriorTwo live orchestral works by Terje Rypdal (electric guitar): Melodic Warrior with The Hilliard Ensemble and Bruckner Orchester Linz under Dennis Russell Davies (Linz, 2003), and op. 97 with the Wrocław Philharmonic (2009). CD, ECM 2006.