Sunday, 26.10.2025 | 6:00 PM
Dom zu St. Jakob, Innsbruck
Heinrich Isaac (1450–1517) was one of the most significant composers in the European musical world around 1500. Highly esteemed by his contemporaries and celebrated by later generations of musicians as one of the great masters, Isaac’s music resonated on the stages of power and opened a path for him into the very heart of the cultural and political spheres of influence – Italy and the Holy Roman Empire.
Heinrich Isaac (1450–1517)
Motets from the Choralis Constantinus for the great feasts of Easter, Pentecost, and the Virgin Mary
Hans Buchner (1483–1537)
Organ versets in alternatim
Sandro Comagnon
Saxophone improvisation
Choralis Constantinus
Among Isaac’s works, one project stands out as unique in scope: the Choralis Constantinus. This monumental collection comprises 375 motets for every Sunday and the various feasts of the liturgical year, and in both scale and function it is comparable to Bach’s cantatas. The starting point for this ambitious compositional undertaking was a commission from the cathedral chapter in Constance.
In 1507, Isaac travelled as composer of the imperial chapel in the retinue of Emperor Maximilian I to the Imperial Diet in the city on Lake Constance. During his stay, the quality of his music evidently left such a deep impression that the canons of Constance commissioned a collection of new motets in summis festivitatibus – for all the great feasts of the liturgical year. These works form the very heart of the Choralis Constantinus.
Alternating with Isaac’s music are organ versets by Hans Buchner, organist of Constance Cathedral. It is likely that Buchner and Isaac collaborated regularly, and that their works were performed in liturgy in alternation with monophonic Gregorian chant.
As a counterpoint to these historical sonorities, internationally acclaimed saxophonist Sandro Compagnon contributes interwoven improvisations, building musical bridges from the Renaissance to the present day.
Isaac Pilgrimage – The Tour
For many years, we of ensemble cantissimo have been deeply engaged with the music of Heinrich Isaac. As an ensemble with homes in Zurich and Constance, the rediscovery and revival of the Choralis Constantinus is especially close to our hearts. With the Reformation, most of the motets fell out of liturgical use only shortly after their creation, and over time the Choralis Constantinus slipped almost entirely into oblivion.
We wish to counter this oblivion – to preserve, cultivate, and share this cultural treasure. For beyond their liturgical function, these motets embody above all one essential truth: they are outstanding music.
In this spirit, we will carry the Choralis Constantinus across national borders and, for the first time in the form of an exclusive concert tour, retrace the path that Heinrich Isaac himself so often took as a traveller during his lifetime: from Constance, via Innsbruck and Verona, to Florence and Rome.