As our favorite 18th century lyric goes:

So let’s rejoice in our freedoms, in the generosity and compassion of millions of our fellow Americans, and in our Yankee flair for thumbing our noses at all autocrats and tyrants!

And, oh yes, in our magnificent and liberating musical heritage.

Under the artistic leadership of singer/director Anne Azéma, this CD features a program of miniature masterworks by Josquin des Pres, Heinrich Isaac, Clemens non Papa, Claudin de Sermisy and others in sterling performances. (more…)

From the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, powerful music of conflict and reconciliation by great masters like Monteverdi, Byrd, and Schütz, in this classic reissue by one of the world’s pre-eminent early music ensembles.

This pioneering recording of Henry Purcell’s masterpiece was the first ever to use “early instruments.” It became a milestone in the history of recorded sound, influencing many subsequent interpretations. Digitally restored from the original analog tapes!

Two versions of the beloved carol text, “While Shepherds watched their flocks by night.” The first is from the English countryside; the second is a vigorous fuguing tune by the early American composer Daniel Read. A Christmas delight!

An astonishing treatment of the Jewish Kaddish from 17th century Italy! This solemn text in Aramaic and Hebrew is set by the great Rossi to the tune and rhythm of a Renaissance galliard. An unforgettable moment.

A unique and trailblazing recording of Jewish music from the Baroque era, from Italy and Provence, of the highest historical interest, but, above all full of musical delight! An all-time classic, now newly available in digital download form.

Want to hear some wonderful songs that the real Shakespeare probably knew? Check out this wonderful Boston Camerata CD, an anthology of ravishing vocal and instrumental pieces from Elizabethan England, featured in…

As urban America of the nineteenth century grew and prospered, it became anxious to show itself civilized and “cultured” along the lines of established European culture. And so it was that the music of America’s…

This program of old French music and poetry explores a very important but-little known aspect of the Middle Ages: the art of story-telling. Centuries ago, the frontier between the musical and literary worlds was much…

Much of the music you are about to hear was produced in the saddest and most shamefully cruel corners of old Europe – its ghettos. Yet the Jews and Christians, though forced to live apart, were in many ways…

A rich holiday celebration from the Spanish speaking parts of the globe: from Spain and Catalonia of the Middle Ages and Renaissance; and also from the New World…

This is a recording about a surprising phenomenon: The vigorous survival, in the Northern part of the United States, of folk-inspired religious hymnody. It is well known that the “folk” element in American church…

Just as the stark beauty of Shaker craftsmanship and architecture is unsurpassed, so is the haunting loveliness of Shaker music…

The name of Jean Gilles, which had been forgotten for more than a century and a half, emerged from obscurity in the 1950’s, thanks largely to the rediscovery of his Messe des Morts. Yet this musician, whom his contemporaries considered to be…

The region now referred to as the south of France was in the Middle Ages known as Proenza (that is, Provence), and was truly a crucible of creative activity that was to change for ever the relationship between men…

We salute the CD reissue, on Harmonia Mundi HMA 1901034, of a classic Boston Camerata program, recorded in France in 1979.

The Age of Exploration! In our school days, we were told it was a time of heroes, and of high adventure. Later, we came to understand what terrible suffering and injustice the Spaniards had wrought in their drive for fame…

An extremely rich recording, procuring constant enchantment on repeated hearings. Once more, the intelligence of Joel Cohen and his musicians ravishes us. The voices are superb, among others those of Anne Azéma… -Compact (Paris)

The words you will be hearing on this recording are sung in Hebrew, a language evolved and first spoken in the Holy Land; yet the music which accompaniesthese liturgical texts is European through and through…

Astonishing in their diversity and grace, the circa-four thousand poems of the Occitanian and Catalan troubadours survive by the forsight of a few enlightened patrons who, sensing the end of an epoch, began…

Our view of the American past is shaped by many things — dimly remembered history lessons from our earliest school days; the posturings of present-day public people; and, perhaps most importantly, by the popular media — radio, television, and the movies. Talk about static! Can we ever, then, experience our collective past as it “really” was?

In the year 1310 manuscript copies of a scurrilous satirical poem, the Roman de Fauvel, began circulating around Paris. Corrosive, pitiless, the poet, a mid-level government functionary named Gervais de Bus…

Love is a game, and every game has its rules. In medieval France, the rules are new and give the woman, the dame, a novel status. And the game of love, thus played out with the consent of all those involved, takes…

Ever since the middle ages, the troubadours of Provence have exerted a special kind of fascination for historians, poets, and lovers of music and literature.

By Bernatz de Vendadorn (12th century)

Joel Cohen may well be the best precisely where, a priori, you least expect him to be. If anyone is a many-faceted talent, it is surely he, since he undertakes, with the Boston Camerata, seven centuries of music, including, a few years back…

As urban America of the nineteenth century grew and prospered, it became anxious to show itself civilized and “cultured” along the lines of established European culture. And so it was that the music…

Like all true Latins, the French have always adored a good show. The splendors of opera and ballet at the court of seventeenth-century Versailles were famous all over Europe in their day — and this century’s “early music” revival in France…

The ages-old manuscript, that lay in the vaults of the Benediktbeuren monastery in Bavaria, did not begin with the usual devotions. On the contrary, the opening song — meant as some satirical mime, or a dance perhaps…

High among the many achievements of the Spanish King Alfonso X, called “El Sabio” — the Wise (1221-1284) is the superb collection of more than 400 sacred songs to the Virgin Mary, the celebrated Cantigas de Santa Maria.

Certain angels are believed to intercede for humankind in times of need…

An extremely rich recording, procuring constant enchantment on repeated hearings. Once more, the intelligence of Joel Cohen and his musicians ravishes us. The voices are superb, among others those of Anne Azéma… -Compact (Paris)

Celebrating the birth year of Jean Calvin, this live recording DVD features a range of melodies from the Renaissance and early Baroque periods.It includes works from Claude Goudimel, John Dowland, Heinrich Schutz, Salamone Rossi Ebreo and others.

Also available on BluRay

The Christmas narrative retold using songs, chants, and instrumental pieces from the countries of the Mediterranean basin: Spain, Italy, and southern France, as well as north Africa and the Holy Land. Works are drawn from medieval manuscripts and more recent, though still archaic, folklore and oral traditions. With voices, early instruments of Europe and the Middle East, and readings of the Christmas story.

The midwinter date of the festival of Christ’s nativity coincides with many pagan celebrations of the winter solstice, and most particularly with the Roman Dies sol invictus (“the day of the unconquered sun”)…

Beautifully crafted

– Musiccriticism.com

This 3 CD box set includes: An American Christmas, A French Christmas and A Spanish Christmas

This is not the first CD to explore music devoted to the Virgin Mary, but it’s unquestionably one of the most beautifully conceived and performed. French soprano Anne Azéma and Berkeley-based string player Shira Kammen breathe warmth and humanity…

Recorded at the Shaker Village, Sabbathday Lake, Maine, June/July 2000.

American civilisation came in large part from old Europe. So we all know — but do we? For the myth of modern, industrial America, that brand-new, technology-driven, rootless place is strong in the contemporary mind. American music, we tend to think, is a product of modern times and big cities.

The United Society of Believers, commonly known as the Shakers, have best been described as a Protestant Monastic Community. An old hymn of ours states “at Manchester in England this blessed fire began” and so it did in 1747.

Tristan and Iseult, Camerata’s most honored production of recent seasons, was originally conceived as a recording project. At the request of Erato records, intense literary and musical research took place during winter and spring 1987.