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]
Lovers of Machaut’s music are becoming more fortunate all the time and
this new recording adds to the bounty.
