This downright strange release from the German audiophile label MDG is highly recommended, especially if you have either a brass player or a stereo equipment aficionado on your gift list. What, you may wonder, is a Mass for Saint Hubert, and why is there no choir listed on the cover of the album? The booklet notes don't fully answer these questions, but the basic point is that hunters (whose patron saint is Hubert), in France specifically, sometimes celebrated mass in the open air while on a hunt led by the king or another ...
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This downright strange release from the German audiophile label MDG is highly recommended, especially if you have either a brass player or a stereo equipment aficionado on your gift list. What, you may wonder, is a Mass for Saint Hubert, and why is there no choir listed on the cover of the album? The booklet notes don't fully answer these questions, but the basic point is that hunters (whose patron saint is Hubert), in France specifically, sometimes celebrated mass in the open air while on a hunt led by the king or another noble figure, and the music on such occasions was played by hunting horns. Exactly how this evolved in the nineteenth century into an in-church celebration, with organ accompaniment, isn't exactly clear, but what you'll hear here are multimovement pieces for an ensemble of giant horns with organ, with each movement corresponding at least nominally to a section of the mass. There are no texts whatsoever, and the style of all of it necessarily includes a lot of tonic triads. But the...
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