Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo Virtutum

2 LPs (total times: 40:09 & 48:54)

Recorded June 1982 in the Klosterkirche Knechtsteden

Released 1982 as 2 LPs by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and as digitally remastered 2 CDs (CDS7492498) by EMI (1987)

This is the first of two entirely different recordings (1982 and 1998) of Ordo Virtutum made by Sequentia

Booklet 58 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).

This first recording of the series, Hildegard’s music drama ‘The Play of the Virtues’, was made following a long gestation and rehearsal period, a scholarly conference in Cologne hosted by the WDR, a series of fully staged performances in Germany and the Netherlands (including at the first Utrecht Early Music Festival in 1982), and a television film. This version features the German actress Renate Köper in the role of Hildegard and actor William Mockridge in the role of the Diabolus (speaking roles). The role of the Soul was sung by Barbara Thornton, whose conception of the work is the basis for this recording.