Messes de Barcelone et d'Apt —
Ensemble Gilles Binchois
Sacred Vocal Music from the 14th century
[2.8.2019]
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Evidence Classics 060
2019
Après 40 ans d’activités, plus de 50 disques et quelque 1000 concerts,
l’Ensemble Gilles Binchois cultive toujours le goût de la curiosité et
du partage. Si son répertoire se trouve entre le Moyen Âge et la
Renaissance, l’Ensemble a tout chanté, du chant grégorien au répertoire
religieux du XIXe siècle. C’est aujourd’hui vers les rives de la
Méditerranée qu’il guide nos oreilles, là où une intense vitalité
artistique se développe entre les XIVe et XVe siècles. Suivant le modèle
de Machaut, les compositeurs des cours d’Avignon, de Barcelone et de
Chypre rivalisent d’ingéniosité : leurs motets et leurs messes sont le
terrain de trouvailles rythmiques et mélodiques. Pour compléter le
paysage sonore, l’Ensemble mené par Dominique Vellard interprète des
pièces de plain-chant et des compositions instrumentales avec deux
vièles et une mandoline médiévale. Premier jalon de ce 40e anniversaire,
ce nouveau disque fait briller pour nous la chaude lumière du sud grâce
aux voix des chanteurs et au timbre des cordes anciennes.
[2.8.2019]
medieval.org Remarks
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/remarks.html
6 October 2019
Todd M. McComb
———
The remarks made while adding the new
Ensemble Gilles Binchois album to
my personal list
already express much of what I'd otherwise say here, but I do want
to note a few things (more) concretely: For one, it took months
for this album to make its way to me. I'm not loving the direction
of music retail lately, that's for sure.... (I suppose that, among
the world's various wars — of the "trade" variety
& otherwise — & intensifying persecutions, the ability
to receive recordings promptly from European media companies is
among the least important issues, but it's still what makes this
particular project possible....)
It's also worth noting that, to
this point, Vellard had recorded very little from the Ars Nova:
He'd recorded a wide variety of earlier material, both of the
polyphonic & (various) monophonic sorts, and then again with
the generation of Dufay & Binchois, and further into a rather
idiosyncratic selection of often much later music, but little from
the Ars Nova beyond Machaut specifically. (Of course, his series
of Machaut recordings — now decades old — continue to
be represented on my favorites list, so I've actually enjoyed his
work with the Ars Nova going back to the 1980s....)
That seems
curious now that I've really noticed, but this latest recording
(devoted to Barcelona & Apt masses) also seems to follow the
inspiration & logic of the previous album
of Ars Antiqua selections closely, making for a parallel Ars
Nova anthology: Given its wonderful interpretive command —
superbly flexible, yet emphatic phrasing from both voices &
instruments (when used) — such a parallel opportunity seems
particularly worthwhile. And the individual pieces aren't necessarily
selected for their technical brilliance, but do illustrate &
articulate an era of sacred music rather well, and indeed serve to
provide much continuity with Vellard's various plainchant explorations,
not only from the earlier era, but extending to many out-of-the-way
survivals from modern times. This program & interpretation are
thus both incredibly detailed & part of a "long view."
E.g. the exotic intervals for which Apt et al. are known come to
sound quite right in this context....
[8.9.2019]