MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

CD REVIEW



Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Traditions Monastiques


 

 

Gregorian Chant for Easter
Lumen Christi
Exsultet
Responsorium:Cantemus
Lectio
Gloria I
Offertorium: Dextera Domini
Communio: Omnes
Ite Missa est
Hymnus: Salve festa dies
Introitus: Resurrexi
Kyrie I
Graduale: Haec Dies
Alleluia: Surrexit Dominus
Sequentia: Victimae paschali
Offertorium: Terra tremuit
Sanctus I
Agnus Dei I
Communio: Pascha nostrum
Abbey of Saint Joseph de Clairval, Flavigny
rec. live, Abbey of St. Joseph de Clairval, Flavigny
TRADITIONS MONASTIQUES CD12 [54.26]


There has been an abbey at Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in Burgundy from the 7th century until the French Revolution. It is now the site of the Abbey of St. Joseph de Clairval. The Anis de Flavigny candles now find their home in the remains of the historic abbey buildings. 

The community moved to Flavigny in 1976 having been founded in 1972 in the Switzerland by Dom Augustin Joly. The Benedictine community of St. Joseph de Clairval are now settled into the former Minor Seminary of the historic abbey. It seems to be a thriving community of some fifty members. 

The abbey runs a thriving commercial enterprise, Traditions Monastiques, devoted to making the monastic life better known. Amongst the Icons and books are CDs of plainchant including a number made live at the abbey itself. 

This disc, of plainchant for Easter, is a live, rather unvarnished and homespun recording of the whole community. The results are disarming and vivid though the recording is far from perfect. A particular curiosity is the way that some of the items cut in rather suddenly. This is particularly true of the first item, Lumen Christi which lasts just 11 seconds. 

The recording has a good atmosphere, giving a strong impression of the acoustic in which the choir sings; this is always important on a disc like this. The results are attractive and warm. 

The recording mixes plainchant sung by the entire community - usually with discreet organ support. The more complex chants are sung just by the schola - the smaller group of monks responsible for the chant. No indication is given as to the relative size of these groups and the CD booklet fails to elucidate which groups sing when. In fact, considering that the CD is intended to enlighten, the booklet is relatively uninformative. There is some detail about what is happening in the service, but not quite enough. 

The disc is divided into two parts, the first covering music from the Easter Vigil Mass and the second from the Easter Day mass. The second item is perhaps the most distinctive. It is the Exultet - a long (11 minutes) solemn proclamation of Easter sung by a single voice. The unnamed cantor has a pleasant and expressive voice. The remainder of the chant from the Vigil Mass covers the Gloria, excerpts from the reading from Genesis, plus the Offertorium and Communio. 

The music from the Easter Day mass includes the lovely hymn Salve Festa Dies, plus the Introit, Kyrie, Graduale, Alleluia, Sequentia – Victimae Paschale, Offertorium Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Communion. 

The CD booklet contains only a listing of the items sung and a short introduction to the chant. I could discover no recording date. The disc is available on-line from the abbey’s web site (see link above). Another thing to beware of is that the disc has only two tracks, one for the plainchant from the Vigil mass and another for the plainchant from the Easter Day mass. This is most definitely a disadvantage to those listeners who want to explore in more detail the various sections of the mass and vespers. 

The whole disc has a suitably meditative atmosphere, whilst preserving a very real feeling of being in a living community; it is certainly not a plastically packaged product. This warts and all feeling will not appeal to everyone but I loved the disc. If you want to experience chant as sung in a real Benedictine community then do try this.

Robert Hugill

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.