Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo Virtutum

2 CDs (total times 51:09 and 40:52)

Recorded June-July 1997 in the Basilica of Knechtsteden (D)

Released 1998 by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi / BMG Classics (05472773942)

Booklet 63 pp.

 

Sequentia’s Hildegard von Bingen Project: Initially in collaboration with the West German Radio Cologne (WDR Köln) Sequentia made a series of recordings of the complete works of Germany’s most important medieval composer, the abbess and visionary Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179).

As the 900th anniversary of Hildegard’s birth approached in 1998, Barbara Thornton (1950-1998) made a compelling case to BMG Classics to re-record Hildegard’s music-drama Ordo Virtutum. The first recording, made 15 years earlier, no longer seemed viable to her, and in the intervening years Barbara had not only gathered a new and virtuoso ensemble of soloists from Europe and North America, but had also developed and perfected her personal approach to the performance of Hildegard’s works. Here, the play is recorded with large female and male vocal ensembles, four instrumentalists, and German actor Franz-Josef Heumannskämper in the role of the Diabolus.

The recording was made in July 1997, only months after Barbara had undergone surgery for removal of a highly malignant brain tumor. She continued to work throughout the recording, and even while undergoing radiation treatments she recorded her final solo – the small part of Contemptus Mundi (World Rejection).