Laudario di Cortona No. 91
Paraliturgical vocal music from the Middle Ages
Details at end of review
Armoniosoincanto/Franco Radicchia with Anonima Frottolisti
rec. Chiesa del Monasterio delle Suore Clarisse di S. Agnese, Perugia,
Italy, 2013/14.
Texts available online at www.brilliantclassics.com (but see below)
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 94872 [4 CDs: 71:48 + 70:45 + 78:19 + 68:48]
Can a set of devotional pieces of music, sung in the
vernacular to supplement the Latin of the official liturgy in medieval
Italy possibly appeal to a modern audience in our 21st-century
secular society? The answer is a definite affirmative, especially when
it’s as beautifully performed and recorded as it is here and even more
so when the whole well-filled 4-CD set can be yours for less than you
might expect for one CD.
Laudario is the Italian equivalent of the Latin word Laudarium,
a collection of songs of praise. This collection, dating from around
1250, contains laude or vernacular hymns which would have been
sung as an adjunct to the Latin liturgy for particular times of the
church year or feasts of the Virgin Mary and other saints. They range
from simple monophonic settings to early polyphony and some of the items
are accompanied.
Associated with St. Francis, or at least with the Franciscans, they
would have helped the laity to keep in touch with the liturgy in the
same way as the English Lay Folks Mass Book from a rather later
period of the Middle Ages – EETS text online.
That text also contains some verses not dissimilar to the laude
in the Cortona collection. The number 91 is something of a red herring:
there are not that number of laude in the collection; rather
that’s the number of the manuscript in which they are preserved in the
Biblioteca Communale di Cortona.
Let me deal first with one possible reservation: the original music
would have been sung by an all-male ensemble whereas Armoniosoincanto
is an all-female ensemble; though on this occasion they are supplemented
by male singers and instrumentalists from Anonima Frottolisti it’s the
female voices that predominate.
That didn’t worry me, but if you want a recording on which the male
voices are slightly more predominant, there’s a Tactus recording of
sixteen of these pieces sung by La Dolce Vista/Giovanni Caruso. I also
enjoyed hearing that recording but it costs at least as much for a single
selection as the whole Brilliant Classics set and there are some all-female
items there, too. (TC270001: Sample/stream/download from Qobuz.)
In fact, there’s almost as much minority male participation on Brilliant
as on Tactus, so you may as well have four times the music for the same
money.
If you think that predominantly female voices may rule out this recording
for you, I suggest sampling from Qobuz,
though I wouldn’t recommend downloading from there: at least one dealer
is currently offering the CD set for less than the Qobuz download.
For those who have fallen in love with the music of Hildegard of Bingen,
the female singers here may well prove an advantage in evoking recordings
of her works.
Another, more serious, reservation: there are no texts in the brief
booklet – available online
– and I couldn’t find the promised online texts and translations: 13th-century
Italian isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The Tactus release does contain
texts, but no translations, and they are available, with the recording,
from Naxos
Music Library.
Both the Tactus and Brilliant recordings are beautifully sung. There
is very little to choose between them in that respect, except that the
acoustic and recording quality on Brilliant, together with that of the
performances, makes the music sound even more ethereal. At times Armoniosoincanto
sound like six Emma Kirkbys – and I can’t offer higher praise than that.
The other equally distinguished comparison that comes to mind is with
Anonymous 4. My next stop was their recording of similar repertoire,
a few items also taken from the Cortona collection, Ave Donna Santissima
(Tactus TC260001). That was recorded in 2005 and they take a little
longer now over the three items common to both collections but I liked
both.
We can’t be sure if there would have been instrumental accompaniment
or of what kind, but the flutes, harp, lute, vielle, dulcimer, portative
organ and other instruments of the time employed here are never obtrusive.
The Tactus recording also employs instruments.
I don’t propose that you listen to all four CDs in sequence but there
is certainly enough variety on each disc to maintain your interest for
the 70 minutes or so of each. Lovers of the likes of the music of Hildegard
of Bingen should need no bidding. Others may wish to sample first but
most will succumb to these ethereal performances. This is an unbelievably
inexpensive set – even less per disc than the original Naxos releases
– but it’s certainly not cheap in the other sense.
Brian Wilson
Track-list:
CD 1
Venite a laudare
Laude novella sïa cantata
Ave, donna santissima
Madonna santa Maria
Ave Maria, gratïa plena
Ave, regina glorïosa
Dal ciel venne messo novella
Altissima luce col grande splendore
Fami cantar l’amor di la beata
O Maria, d’omelia
Regina sovrana de gram pïetade
CD 2
Ave, Dei genitrix
O Maria, Dei cella
Ave, vergene gaudente
O divina virgo, flore
Salve, salve, virgo pia
Vergene donçella da Dio amata
Peccatrice, nominate
Cristo è nato et humanato
Gloria ’n cielo e pace ’n terra
Stella nuova ’n fra la gente
Plangiamo quel crudel basciare
Ben è crudele e spïetoso
CD 3
De la crudel morte de Cristo
Dami conforto, Dio, et alengrança
Onne homo ad alta voce
Iesù Cristo glorïoso
Laudamo la resurrectïone
Spiritu sancto, dolçe amore
Spirito sancto glorïoso
Spirito sancto, dà servire
Alta trinità beata
Troppo perde ’l tempo ki ben non t’ama
Stomme allegro et latioso
Oimè lasso e freddo lo mïo core
CD 4
Chi vole lo mondo descprecçare
Laudar vollio per amore
Sïa laudato San Francesco
Ciascun ke fede sente
Magdalena degna da laudare
L’alto prençe archangelo lucent
Faciam laude a tutt’i santi
San Iovanni al mondo è nato
Ogn’om canti novel canto
Amor dolçe sença pare
Benedicti et llaudati
Salutiam divotamente
