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Hildegard becomes a leader and strikes out on her own. With Donald Macleod.

Hildegard becomes a leader and strikes out on her own. With Donald Macleod.

As Christians around the world prepare for Easter, Donald Macleod explores the life and music of two nuns who were also composers. Though Hildegard of Bingen and Isabella Leonarda lived five centuries apart, their stories and music are connected by their shared faith and their shared vocations. Both lived cloistered lives, shut away in convents and cut off from the everyday concerns of the societies in which they lived. Yet, they also enjoyed a profoundly rich and human connection with the world and with their God, revealed in the music and poetry they created and sent into the world.

Today, Donald Macleod returns to the story of Hildegard of Bingen with Hildegard’s biographer, Fiona Maddocks. We see Hildegard begin to use her new-found renown to push against some of the strictest rules of her order, eventually resolving to set up her own community of nuns and follow her religious vocation as she sees fit.

Hildegard: Caritas abundant (instrumental)
Barbora Kabátková, medieval harp
Hana Blažiková, medieval harp
Margit Ãœbellacker, dulce melos

Hildegard: Ordo Virtutum (Prologue and Scene 1)
Sequentia, directed by Benjamin Bagby

Leonarda: Sonata, Op 16 No 7
Emanuele Breda, violin
Barbara Mauch-Heinke, violin
Daniela Wartenberg, cello
Toshinori Ozaki, theorbo
Sofya Gandilyan, harpsichord

Hildegard: Ave generosa
Hildegard: Ave Maria O auctrix [instrumental]
Augsburg Early Music Ensemble

Hildegard: Antiphon, O quam mirabilis est
Anonymous 4

Leonarda: Lauda Jerusalem Dominum, Op 10
Nova Ars Cantandi, directed by Giovanni Acciai

59 minutes

Music Played

  • Hildegard von Bingen

    Caritas abundat (instrumental)

    Performer: Barbora Kabátková. Performer: Hana Blažíková. Performer: Margit Übellacker. Ensemble: Tiburtina Ensemble.
    • Ricercar : RIC383.
    • Ricercar.
    • 12.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    Ordo Virtutum (selection)

    Performer: Elizabeth Gaver. Performer: Rachel Ambrose Evans. Performer: Robert Mealy. Performer: Norbert Rodenkirchen. Performer: Benjamin Bagby. Ensemble: Sequentia. Singer: Paul Guttry. Singer: Pamela Dellal. Singer: Suzanne Ehly. Singer: Ellen Hargis. Singer: Maria Jonas. Singer: Heather Knutson. Singer: Nancy Mayer. Singer: Marianne Nielsen. Singer: Lena Susanne Norin. Singer: Barbara Thornton. Singer: Janet Youngdahl. Singer: Franz-Josef Heumannskaemper. Singer: John Fleagle. Singer: Steven Grant. Singer: Eric Mentzel. Singer: Mark Mcsweeney. Singer: Frank Kelley. Singer: William Hite. Singer: Rebecca Bain.
    • Deutsche Harmonia Mundi : G0100017184418.
    • Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.
    • 1.
  • Isabella Leonarda

    Sonata in A minor, Op 16, No 7

    Performer: Emanuele Breda. Performer: Barbara Mauch-Heinke. Performer: Daniela Wartenberg. Performer: Toshinori Ozaki. Performer: Sofya Gandilyan.
    • Toccata Classics : TOCC-0655.
    • Toccata Classics.
    • 27.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    Ave generosa

    Ensemble: Augsburg Early Music Ensemble.
    • CHRISTOPHORUS : CD 74584-.
    • CHRISTOPHORUS.
    • 3.
  • Hildegard Of Bingen (1098-1179)

    Ave Maria O auctrix (instrumental)

    Ensemble: Augsburg Early Music Ensemble.
    • CHRISTOPHORUS : CD 74584-.
    • CHRISTOPHORUS.
    • 7.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    Antiphon, O quam mirabilis est

    Ensemble: Anonymous 4.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI : HMU 907327.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
    • 3.
  • Isabella Leonarda

    Vespro a cappella della Beata Vergine, Op 10 (Lauda Jerusalem Dominum)

    Ensemble: Nova Ars Cantandi. Director: Giovanni Acciai.
    • Tactus : TC-623702.
    • Tactus.
    • 8.

Broadcast

  • Wed 5 Apr 2023 12:00

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