Little known today, Pierre de Manchicourt was nevertheless one of the leading polyphonists of the 16th century. Thirty years after recording his music with Paul Van Nevel, Stephan MacLeod returns to Manchicourt with Gli Angeli Genève in an album conceived as both a rediscovery and a tribute. 
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Though largely forgotten today, Pierre de Manchicourt was once regarded as one of the great masters of 16th-century Franco-Flemish polyphony. With the Missa Veni Sancte Spiritus, surrounded by motets and chansons, Stephan MacLeod and Gli Angeli Genève return to music that left a profound mark on the Swiss conductor’s own musical journey. Thirty years after taking part in Paul Van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble’s recording, MacLeod revisits almost the entire programme, turning it into both a rediscovery and a tribute.
Born around 1510, Pierre de Manchicourt pursued his career in Tours and Tournai before joining the court of Philip II of Spain. Admired in his own lifetime and mentioned by Rabelais among others, he is now overshadowed by Josquin, Gombert and Lassus. Yet his music has a highly distinctive character: dense polyphony, long interwoven lines and tightly woven counterpoint, coupled with an expressiveness that continually emerges from beneath the complexity of the writing.
The Missa Veni Sancte Spiritus forms the centrepiece of the album. Its individual sections alternate with motets and French chansons, including O Virgo Virginum, Maria Magdalene, Longtemps mon cueur languissoit and Faulte d’argent cest douleur non pareille. This arrangement reveals several sides of Manchicourt, from sacred to secular music, while preserving the unity of a language continually shaped by the interweaving of voices.
But this album is also a personal story. In 1996, when Stephan MacLeod was still a young singer, he took part in a recording devoted to Manchicourt with the Huelgas Ensemble under Paul Van Nevel. It was his first recording with the ensemble and his first experience of recording Renaissance polyphony. MacLeod credits this Mass and several pieces from the programme with inspiring his love of Franco-Flemish polyphony.
Thirty years later, he wanted to return to the same programme with Gli Angeli Genève. After seeking Paul Van Nevel’s permission, the ensemble performed the works in concert in autumn 2025 before recording them in Geneva in January 2026. The programme follows the 1996 recording almost exactly, with just one addition: the motet O Thoma Didyme.
This is far from being a straightforward reconstruction. Rather, it is an act of transmission: a return, with thirty more years of experience, to polyphony in which MacLeod hears both “the intelligence of its construction” and “the physical pleasure of sound”. By bringing Manchicourt back to life through music that played such an important role in his own development, Gli Angeli Genève reminds us just how immediate this music can still feel, despite its density and sophistication.
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