Nothing quite like this has happened before: a disc devoted entirely to Machaut’s songs, all performed with voices alone. Only the texted line in the manuscripts is sung with text; the rest are vocalized. While this has been the accepted orthodoxy in many circles for over 15 years now, nobody has previously quite had the courage to do it for an entire 78 minutes. It works very well, not least because the sheer skill of the Orlando Consort leaves one speechless: everything is immaculately tuned, balanced and phrased; the music is flawlessly edited (by Daniel Leech-Wilkinson), itself still no easy task; absolutely nothing seems to impede the flow of the music.
What some listeners may feel is that the texts are not quite sufficiently projected. Particularly in the four-voice pieces you need to listen carefully to distinguish the texted line, which is after all the ‘main’ voice in any of these songs. But that becomes a lot easier if you follow the texts in the booklet: suddenly the ear can focus on the texted line. And that seems important. Despite what the booklet-note says, the poems are central to Machaut’s achievement, and the need to focus on them in listening actively helps the listener’s appreciation.
The choice of works is also excellent, with an emphasis on pieces that are rarely heard. (It is odd how Machaut recordings in general tend to stay with the same handful of sure favourites.) In fact everything about this disc makes me hope that it could be the start of a project to record Machaut’s entire surviving music – one of those ideas often mooted but never realized. On the evidence of this disc, the Orlandos are now ready to do it.'