It is rare for two recordings to complement one another as well as this and the Vitry record by the Orlando Consort (Amon Ra (CD) CD-SAR49, 10/91). In terms of its repertory, this one gives a more orthodox view of his achievements: all 14 of the works given to him in Leo Schrade's currently definitive edition, plus the one further anonymous piece that Ernest Sanders argued was his in 1975, and five of the anonymous monophonic works in the Roman de Fauvel which could be among the songs that an early fifteenth-century theorist said he had composed. Beyond these, the disc adds the two surviving keyboard intabulations of his work, played with unusual clarity by Stephen Grant. So this is perhaps a better place to begin trying to understand who Vitry was.
It may also be a better place to gain a sense of the music's excitement. My gentle reservation that the Orlando Consort could have been more aggressive in their treatment of the rhythms and texts is amply answered here: some of the more politically outspoken pieces fairly spit with venom, and often you get a far clearer picture of the broad rhythmic design that is the basis of so many of Vitry's works.
One further matter of particular interest is the relatively free rhythm that Sequentia use for the earliest motets. The point here is that the Roman de Fauvel manuscript contains adjustments made by a later hand to give the rhythms found in, for example, Schrade's modern edition; and it is open to discussion whether the adjustments were actually changing the original looser rhythms or just clarifying them in terms of later notational practice. On balance, they were probably just clarifications; but in opting for the former view, Sequentia have offered an unusual and highly attractive alternative to what we otherwise hear. Apart from anything else, they seem to connect Vitry more securely with the motet composers of the preceding generation.
But the real fascination comes from hearing the two records side by side. Quite often Sequentia sing nearly twice as fast as the Orlando Consort: Tribum quem non abhorruit lasts 1'28'' as against 2'32'', Colla iugo lasts 1'41'' as against 2'47'', and so on. The Orlando Consort, who are generally more fastidious about intonation, enable you to hear every detail of every smallest dissonance, whereas in Sequentia's performances you get more sense of the flow of the lines, of the changing textures, of the verbal bite. Which is another way of saying that although both recordings are extremely good they both sound even better when put alongside the other (and of course they sound worse too, leaving the way open for somebody to do a recording that combines the virtues of both). You can have a wonderful time comparing the two records and come out at the end with a much clearer view of who Philippe de Vitry really was. That is a nice way to have marked the seventh centenary of his birth.'