The Orlando Consort has paused their traversal of the songs of Guillaume de Machaut (their intention to record them all has yielded three CDs so far) and devoted their latest release to charting the radical development of music between the late thirteenth and mid fifteenth centuries—the transition from what is at essence embellished chant to … Continue reading The Orlando Consort’s latest : the radical development of music between the late-13th and mid 15th centuries
Category: Reviews
This is where I will post my thoughts about my favorite classical or jazz CDs and sometimes survey the various recordings of a specific piece.
Dufay’s Missa de Sancti Anthonii de Padua
St Anthony of Padua held a very particular significance in the devotions of Guillaume Dufay. The single holy relic in his possession was a piece of the Saint’s belt, or girdle, listed among the ‘jewels’ in the account of the executors of his will. But the main expression of his veneration was undoubtedly the Mass … Continue reading Dufay’s Missa de Sancti Anthonii de Padua
Palestrina : Lamentations by Musica Contexta
Jerome Roche writing in Palestrina (Oxford Studies of Composers), claims that Palestrina wrote 41 complete sets of Lamentations for Tenebrae, although in his notes to their recording of Lamentations for Holy Thursday, Book III, Simon Ravens, director of Musica Contexta, says that only four sets survive. These Lamentations come from the Roman liturgy for Holy Week, which … Continue reading Palestrina : Lamentations by Musica Contexta
Holy Week at the Chapel of the Dukes of Braganza : A Capella Portuguesa, Owen Rees
This recording is a celebration of the vast outpouring of masterpieces which survived the destruction by earthquake of the Lisbon libraries solely due to the dedication of the Vila Viçosa copyists. It is a collection of Renaissance polyphony celebrating Easter Week in Renaissance Portugal by some big names, Palestrina, Lobo, and Victoria but also includes … Continue reading Holy Week at the Chapel of the Dukes of Braganza : A Capella Portuguesa, Owen Rees
Johannes Ciconia and Ars Subtilior : Bridging Machaut and Dufay
Johannes Ciconia was a Franco-Flemish composer, mainly active in Italy around 1400. Born in or around Liège, a Flemish bishopric, he moved to Italy at a young age and remained there for his entire life. In 1955 Heinrich Besseler suggested that the period between the death of Guillaume de Machaut in 1377 and the beginning … Continue reading Johannes Ciconia and Ars Subtilior : Bridging Machaut and Dufay
The Polyphonic Lais of Guillaume de Machaut : Overview + Recordings
Fourteenth-century France exhibits the effects of an era grappling for an identity through its language, poetry and music. Amidst intellectual rigidity and diurnal despair, this transitional period enfeebled by medieval traditions yet aspired to humanist artistry. Guillaume de Machaut, illustrious poet-composer in the medieval myth, offered a means of embellishing life through a variety of … Continue reading The Polyphonic Lais of Guillaume de Machaut : Overview + Recordings
Taking Liberties : Björn Schmelzer & Machaut’s “Messe de Nostre Dame”
The La Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut has been called the most important polyphonic composition of the 14th century. There are at least 35 recordings dating back to 1951, although most of those pre-1980 are hard to find and if found only available on vinyl. There appears to be general agreement now … Continue reading Taking Liberties : Björn Schmelzer & Machaut’s “Messe de Nostre Dame”
John Luther Adams : The Place We Began
“Last summer in my studio I discovered several boxes of reel-to-reel tapes that I’d recorded in the early 1970s. Using those "found objects," I sculpted these new soundscapes from fragments of my past.” Listening to John Luther Adams’s re-workings of his earliest music on his Cold Blue CD, The Place We Began, calls to mind … Continue reading John Luther Adams : The Place We Began
Brahms violin sonatas receive fine performances in new recording : Tetzlaff & Vogt
Recently, the question was posed on a popular online music discussion forum: “What are your eight favorite chamber works?” My answer was that I could easily answer the query using only works by Johannes Brahms. Brahms was a master of chamber music and wrote more than one work in all of the traditional forms: instrumental … Continue reading Brahms violin sonatas receive fine performances in new recording : Tetzlaff & Vogt
Haydn: Sonata ‘Un piccolo divertimento’
“Haydn’s piano music is often complicated and formally wayward: its beauties do not, on the whole, lie on the surface. It is music whose appeal is primarily intellectual, requiring both thought and explanation.” (H.C. Robbins Landon) Haydn composed the Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 in Vienna in 1793 for the talented pianist Barbara (‘Babette’) von Ployer, … Continue reading Haydn: Sonata ‘Un piccolo divertimento’
Musica Kaleidoskopea 