Marc Mauillon’s performance of Guillaume de Machaut’s monumental Loyauté que point ne delay, with its two dozen double strophes, is nothing less than a tour de force. The constant repetitions and the subtlety of the content are a challenge for any singer, though when you look more closely at this poem with its seemingly simple music – the first of the composer’s 33 lais – it is anything but monotonous: it is, indeed, a work of great subtlety, both poetically and musically, and no matter if the effect on the listener is hypnotic. However, some relief is provided – albeit still based upon the same melody – by the short instrumental interludes. Just imagine the courtly setting, the great hall, the noble audience…

Among the four remaining songs there is a ballade by Jehannot de l’Escurel with authentic ornamentation, and another lai, a complete contrast to Machaut’s and enormous fun, the Lai de la Pastourelle by an anonymous 13th-century trouvère. This is a rustic drama with a jolly introduction, and with cheeky little “plucked” notes and big leaps of a ninth. The shepherdess is swept off her feet by her unknown admirer, to the brilliant accompaniment of fiddle, flute, bagpipes, drum and bells, rising ever higher in pitch, and getting faster and faster as the drama unfolds.

Machaut is represented once more by the delightful little virelai Ay mi!. Lamenting the anguish of the rejected lover, it ends the recital with its three stanzas and charming refrain.