GRAMOPHONE AWARDS SHORTLIST 2018
‘One bullseye after another’: The Orlando Consort continue their magisterial Machaut series on Hyperion
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Then there are the performances, aided by a sound recording that sets each voice up distinctly while allowing textures (and text, come to think of it) to come across with wonderful clarity from the off. Rarely since the Gothic Voices has the vocalisation of the lower lines appeared so self-evidently the right approach, even (or especially?) in the dense four-voice Se quanque Amours, whose compactness and lyricism forces admiration (as does Mark Dobell on the cantus line). The primacy of text is urged with great eloquence in the solo virelais, Donald Greig (whose voice hasn’t been heard on its own so far in the series) turning in a very moving Comment qu’a moy lonteinne. (Interestingly, the Gothic Voices recorded the same three virelais but with high voices where The Orlandos go low, and vice versa.) Any blemishes? Well, the textures aren’t quite so clear in the two motets, and something very strange happens at the end of De bon espoir/Puisque la douce/Speravi. But the rest stands for The Orlandos at their very best, and if I hear a finer recording of 14th-century music this year I’ll be very surprised. Fabrice Fitch (7/17)
‘Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol 5’ Anonymous Missa sine nomine. Kyrie Orbis factor Hunt Ave Maria mater Dei Mason Ve nobis miseris Sturmy Exultet in hac die Blue Heron / Scott Metcalfe Blue Heron F BHCD1007 (56’ • DDD • T/t)
This impressive recording is the fifth of a series devoted to the music of the
Peterhouse Partbooks, so called because, though copied by a single scribe at Magdalen College, Oxford, in the closing years of Henry VIII’s reign, they are currently housed in the college of that name. Part of the set – notably the tenor partbook – having been lost, the reconstruction of the music not surviving elsewhere has been the life’s work of the British scholar Nicholas Sandon, which has made possible this extensive survey of the repertory.
Blue Heron are a multivalent group. Here they sing with two or three voices to a part, using adult trebles for the top ones, as is customary in this repertory. Their tone and approach is more reminiscent of English ensembles than most mixed American choirs I can think of (more fullbodied than Pomerium, for example, or even some English groups one could name). As the final volume of a long-term project, it is right that this should count among the most polished, but I suspect that their sound may take some listeners by surprise. At full stretch there isn’t a weak link from top to bottom, and at their best (that is, usually) the trebles stand comparison with those of far better-known ensembles either side of the Atlantic: try the Mass that forms the centrepiece here.
By and large the series has focused on music whose performance is only possible through Sandon’s ministrations. Among the high points of previous instalments are three antiphons by Hugh Aston (Vol 1), Nicholas Ludford’s Missa Regnum mundi and a Salve regina by Richard Pygott (Vol 2). Those names will be familiar to aficionados of this repertory, but here the focus is on figures who are either really obscure or actually nameless. Don’t let that put you off: the Mass in particular is superb. Whoever wrote it almost certainly knew Taverner’s Gloria tibi Trinitas, for echoes of it abound, yet it is no slavish imitation. For this piece alone the disc is worth owning. The confident rendition of Hugh Sturmy’s Exultet in hac die sets the tone and the more extended Ve nobis miseris by John Mason gives the male voices a chance to show off, but in the Mass things get seriously impressive. I doubt whether I’ll be alone in thinking this one of the discoveries of the year. Fabrice Fitch
‘Parle qui veut’ ‘Moralizing Songs of the Middle Ages’ Andrea da Firenze Dal traditor Anonymous Hont paur. O pensieri vani. Parle qui veut. Pour che que je ne puis. Va, Fortune Antonio ‘Zacara’ da Teramo Cacciando per gustar/Ai cinci, ai toppi Ciconia Ligiadra donna Giovanni da Firenze Angnel son biancho Landini Musicha son/Già furon/Ciascun vuol Niccolò da Perugia Il megli’ è pur tacere Paolo da Firenze Perché vendecta Solage La basile Sollazzo Ensemble Linn F CKD529 (46’ • DDD • T/t)
This has to be one of the most exciting and engaging releases of medieval song in recent years. The Sollazzo Ensemble offer a programme of French and Italian works drawing chiefly on Trecento composers from around Florence and their French counterparts. The moralising theme allows for a great deal of variety from both known and anonymous composers to form a coherent and varied programme. This album forms part of the ensemble’s prize as winners of the 2015 York Early Music Artists Competition and is recorded with a warm clarity by Linn Records in the National Centre for Early Music.
The Sollazzo Ensemble are formed of three voices, two vielles and a harp. Their sound is generally bright, deft and energetic with a very clear focus on text.
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GRAMOPHONE SHORTLIST 2018 21
