MACHAUT Sovereign Beauty
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: 07/2017
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 64
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDA68134
Author: Fabrice Fitch
Then there are the performances, aided by a sound recording that sets each voice up distinctly while allowing textures (and text, come to think of it) to come across with wonderful clarity from the off. Rarely since the Gothic Voices has the vocalisation of the lower lines appeared so self-evidently the right approach, even (or especially?) in the dense four-voice Se quanque Amours, whose compactness and lyricism forces admiration (as does Mark Dobell on the cantus line). The primacy of text is urged with great eloquence in the solo virelais, Donald Greig (whose voice hasn’t been heard on its own so far in the series) turning in a very moving Comment qu’a moy lonteinne. (Interestingly, the Gothic Voices recorded the same three virelais but with high voices where The Orlandos go low, and vice versa.) Any blemishes? Well, the textures aren’t quite so clear in the two motets, and something very strange happens at the end of De bon espoir/Puisque la douce/Speravi. But the rest stands for The Orlandos at their very best, and if I hear a finer recording of 14th-century music this year I’ll be very surprised.
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