Il Cor Tristo
Bernardo PISANO (1490 - 1548)
Or vedi, Amor [2:21]
Nova angeletta [2:09]
Chiare, fresche, e dolci acque [2:48]
Roger MARSH (*1949)
Il Cor Tristo - I° [5:56]
Jacques ARCADELT (c. 1507 - 1568)
Solo e pensoso [3:20]
L’aer gravato [1:42]
Tutt’il dì piango [3:46]
Roger MARSH
Il Cor Tristo - II° [5:54]
Bernardo PISANO
Si è debile il filo [3:23]
Ne la stagion [4:50]
Che debb’io far? [4:10]
Roger MARSH
Il Cor Tristo - III° [12:44]
The Hilliard Ensemble (David James (counter-tenor); Rogers Covey-Crump
(tenor); Steven Harrold (tenor); Gordon Jones (baritone)
rec. November 2012, Probstei St. Gerold
ECM NEW SERIES 2346 [2012]
The Hilliard Ensemble needs little or no introduction and, housed
here in the familiar acoustic of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Gerold in
Austria, ECM collectors of their work will know what kind of sound to
expect. The ECM website announces that Il Cor Tristo is a release
which marks the Hilliards’ celebration of their 40th anniversary and
the start of their final year together. They are to disband at the end of
2014. Counter-tenor David Jones says that this last year will be a kind of
creative round-up of their musical journey: “As well as all the music
that we have discovered and enjoyed performing over the years, we want to
embrace the important relationships and people that have contributed to some
of the remarkable landmarks and turning points in our career”.
This release brings together two significant Renaissance names with
one of our living composers, Roger Marsh, who sets part of Dante’s
Inferno from the Divine Comedy. Bernardo Pisano kicks off
proceedings, his Or vedi, Amor sounding as modern as anything
elsewhere on the album. Pisano is considered “a pioneer in taking
Italian polyphonic song from gaiety to a greater gravity, more musically
sustained and substantial.” I quote Paul Griffiths’ notes as he
sums up Pisano so well.
Jacques Arcadelt took on the example of Pisano and developed it
further, sublime examples such as Tutt’il dì piango
standing as testimony to a music which responds ever more emotionally to the
texts, in this case those of Francesco Petrarca. For those of you concerned
that the modern music which punctuates these jewels of the ancient past will
spoil your experience you need not worry too much. Roger Marsh’s style
is distinctly tonal, at times using bluesy close harmony which distinguishes
his music from the earlier examples. He also employs declamatory techniques
as there is so much text to get through. The gentler harmonic elements of
this, with words sung over a pedal tone or single harmony, put me in mind of
a butch Arvo Pärt. The intensity of this use of text also results in an
inherently dramatic feel, and there is a certain amount of shouting in Il
Cor Tristo - II. Marsh says that his “primary concern has been to
keep Dante’s words clear at all times, and thus you will find in this
contemporary music many devices more usually encountered in music of much
earlier times.”
The booklet prints the section of La Divina Commedia used
both in Italian and English, so you can have fun following the narrative and
seeing how Marsh characterises each portion, the Hilliards responding with
élan in their variety of colour and articulation.
This is a highly successful programme with all-round appeal and an
inventive concept. Of course we regret the Hilliard Ensemble’s
decision to make 2014 their final year together, but with further new ECM
releases promised this looks like being one of their most fruitful and
fascinating periods.
Dominy Clements
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