This is a recording of exceptional interest. Beneventan chant represents an area of early liturgical music about which, until recently, little has been generally known, and which has been almost entirely overshadowed by Gregorian chant. To a large extent, in past centuries, Benevento and its surrounds were geographically cut off from Roman and Carolingian influence. Many Greek monastic communities had previously taken refuge and settled in Southern Italy. It was normal that the inhabitants of Benevento should have contacts with these communities and that they should establish cultural and political links with Greece itself. It is hardly surprising to find that the Latin rite of the Cathedral of Benevento contains numerous bilingual texts.
The liturgy of Holy Week is a case in point, in particular the Adoration of the Cross: each antiphon is heard first in Greek and then in Latin, followed by Latin psalmody to slight variations of the more familiar Gregorian psalm tones. Some of this music, of purely Beneventan origin, is of quite extraordinary beauty. The responsory Amicus meus (sung by Josep Benet and Marcel Peres) is such a piece, and one for which alone I would wish to possess this recording. Ensemble Organum's normal recourse to a style of singing inspired by Greek Orthodoxy really comes into its own here: the choice seems entirely fitting for a repertoire such as this. The singers are to be congratulated on such a splendid result, the fruit of their study with Lycourcos Angelopoulos. The ornamentation is sounding more natural the ison well controlled. Professor Thomas Kelly's concise and informative notes are an excellent introduction to the music.'