Josquin des Prez

The composer Josquin des Prez lived from around 1450 to 1521. He was »one of the greats of his time. A Michelangelo, a da Vinci of music, a secret genius to this day,« says Christoph Vratz in this introduction to the works of Josquin, whom everyone called by his first name. He sang in the choir of the papal chapel in Rome, worked at princely courts and even helped the unmusical King Louis XII to perform a profound solo. With 19 masses, 90 motets, 70 secular works and several orchestral works, Josquin des Prez's oeuvre is vast and his work »of a delicacy and depth of feeling that not only his predecessors had no idea about, but which hardly any of his successors have ever achieved,« according to the first thorough appraisal of the composer, published in 1868. In the concert on 19 October 2022, his »Nymphes des bois«, a funeral song of the forest nymphs for mixed choir a cappella, will be performed by Cappella Amsterdam.