Guillaume de MACHAUT (c.1300–1377)
The Dart of Love
Full details at end of review
The Orlando Consort
rec. St John the Baptist, Loughton, Essex, UK, 21-24 January 2013. DDD
Texts and translations included
HYPERION CDA68008 [64:57]
This is the second volume in the Orlando Consort’s Machaut
Edition for Hyperion. I enjoyed the first, an award-winning CD entitled Le
voir dit, on CDA67727, reviewed in DL
News 2013/14, though I also suggested getting to know Machaut’s great
Messe de Nostre Dame first, from the Oxford Camerata (Naxos 8.553833)
or the Hilliard Ensemble (Hyperion CDA66358).
That’s still, I think, the right order, first the Mass, then the earlier CD
before the present one.
As Hyperion write in their publicity material, ‘Western music as we know it
today – many individual lines of whatever nature combining in whatever manner
into a single whole – has its roots in the fourteenth century, and most famously
in the pioneering works of Guillaume de Machaut’. In his sacred music the
process coalesced into the early renaissance polyphony which many listeners
will know and love in its later sixteenth-century forms. There’s a direct
line from Machaut’s Mass to the likes of Palestrina’s Missa Papæ Marcelli
and Byrd’s three Masses.
The secular music on the other hand, ballade, rondeau, virelai
and motet, the latter a different animal from the sacred motet, will
probably appeal to a more limited audience. I would therefore favour sampling
the two Orlando Consort albums from the Hyperion web-site unless you know
that you are part of that potential audience. Works with three texts, often
multi-lingual, four of which appear on this recording, are something of an
acquired taste but well worth persevering with.
The Orlando Consort was formed with the purpose of recording the music of
Machaut and his contemporaries and their scholarly credentials can be taken
for granted, including use of the latest edition of the music; they even go
to the extent of employing a pronunciation consultant, credited in the notes.
More to the point they do their best to make the music as accessible to the
modern listener as it would have been to Machaut’s contemporaries without
compromising on authenticity. This is not the musical equivalent of reading
Machaut’s contemporary Chaucer in Nevill Coghill’s translation so much as
of reading him in an accurate edition such as the Riverside Chaucer
with all its helpful translations and notes.
There isn’t much competition – none at all for some of these pieces – but
you’ll find Il n’est dons de nature (B22) performed by Gothic Voices
on The Spirits of England and France 3, music by Binchois and his contemporaries
on budget-price Hyperion Helios CDH55283,
a splendid recording which should be in any collection of late medieval/early
renaissance music. Gothic Voices sing this ballade in a more forthright manner
and at a faster tempo which may be more immediately appealing, but I’m not
going to attempt a judgement of Solomon between two such distinguished ensembles.
Ensemble Musica Nova perform a collection of Machaut ballades on Æon
AECD0982. The result in Il n’est dons de nature and Phyton, le
mervilleus serpent (B38) is undeniably beautiful and more immediately
appealing to the modern ear than either Gothic Voices or the Orlando Consort.
That said, although the notes indicate that they have taken pains to use the
French pronunciation of the fourteenth century and the singing is undeniably
beautiful, I’m left wondering whether a degree of authenticity has been sacrificed
to make the music more appealing to the modern ear. I have the same slightly
nagging doubt about the singing of Phyton, le mervilleus serpent on
a Machaut CD entitled Mon chant vous envoy from Marc Mauillon and others
on Eloquentia EL1342, which also includes an instrumental backing. I mentioned
the backing as making the music more appealing – DL
Roundup May 2012/2 – but now I wonder. I don’t have doubts about authenticity
with the Orlando Consort and Gothic Voices.
I’ve already mentioned Gothic Voices in a single Machaut piece but there’s
a complete album entitled The Mirror of Narcissus (CDA66087) on which
they perform his music. The CD descended through no fault of its own to limited
availability through the Archive Service but it is readily available as a
download from hyperion-records.co.uk
in mp3 or lossless format, complete with pdf booklet, for just £5.99, which
I recommended in DL
Roundup May 2012/2.
The Orlando Consort close their programme with Rose, lis, printemps, verdure
– I defy you to get more archetypal courtly love concepts into four words
– which Gothic Voices also perform. This time there is almost complete agreement
on the right tempo for the piece but here again Gothic Voices are more forthright
in their interpretation. Lovers of Machaut’s music really will have to bite
the bullet and have both – after all, there’s very little duplication. The
Mirror of Narcissus comes as an inexpensive download, in excellent sound,
and how could you not want a recording featuring Emma Kirkby?
I really did not like an arrangement of Machaut’s music for shawm and accordion
on a Genuin album combining his music with some modern pieces (Mixtura, GEN13284),
despite Jake Barlow’s enthusiasm – review.
I listened to the new Hyperion recording in 24/88.2 download format; I also
sampled the less expensive mp3. Both are very good of their kind. There’s
also a 16-bit lossless version at the same very reasonable price as the mp3
– from hyperion-records.co.uk.
The booklet is up to Hyperion’s usual high standard. As well as an eye-catching
cover from the Très riches heures du Duc de Berry, also used as the
CD tray insert, and an illustration from one of the manuscripts of the music,
the notes by Anne Stone are very informative, including a lucid explanation
of the duplex and triplex forms.
Lovers of Machaut’s music are becoming more fortunate all the time and this
new recording adds to the bounty.
Brian Wilson
Track-listing :
Guillaume de MACHAUT (c.1300–1377)
Il m’est avis qu’il n’est dons de nature [6:21]
Se vous n’estes pour mon guerredon nee [3:54]
Quant en moy / Amour et biauté parfaite / Amara valde [3:50]
S’Amours ne fait par sa grace adoucir [6:57]
Phyton, le mervilleus serpent [7:42]
Ay mi, dame de valour [3:31]
Lasse! comment oublieray / Se j’aim mon loial amy / Pour quoy me bat mes
maris? [2:45]
Pour ce que tous mes chans fais [6:42]
Denis Le GRANT (d.1352) Se je chant mains que ne suelh [4:40]
Guillaume de MACHAUT Helas, tant ay doleur et peinne [7:08]
Sans cuer, m’en vois / Amis dolens / Dame, par vous [4:37]
Dame, je sui cils / Fins cuers dous / Fins cuers dous [2:30]
Rose, lis, printemps, verdure [4:20]
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