Guillaume DUFAY. Lament for Constantinople & other songs —
The Orlando Consort
[30.4.2019]
hyperion-records.co.uk
CDA 68236
Release: 3 May 2019
1. O tres piteulx / Omnes amici 'Lamentatio sancte matris ecclesie Constantinopolitane' [3:45]
2. Je vous pri / Ma tres douce amie! / Tant que mon argent dura [1:23]
3. La dolce vista [3:22]
4. Je me complains [2:18]
5. Mon chier amy [5:59]
6. Malheureulx cueur [5:27]
7. Ma belle dame, je vous pri [4:22]
8. Pouray je avoir vostre mercy? [4:32]
9. Helas, et quant vous veray? [1:08]
10. Je ne suy plus tel que souloye [2:24]
11. Je vueil chanter de cuer joyeux [2:50]
12. Ce moys de may [3:24]
13. Belle, que vous ay je mesfait? [4:07]
14. En triumphant de Cruel Dueil [6:00]
15. Par le regard de vos beaux yeux [4:25]
16. Vostre bruit et vostre grant fame [6:26]
17. Le serviteur [5:07]
18. Puisque vous estez campieur [3:40]
[10.5.2018]
medieval.org Remarks
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/remarks.html
29 May 2019
Todd M. McComb
———
[Let me also take a moment to discuss a couple of other recent
releases devoted to key 14th & 15th century repertory, even as
my thoughts will be briefer & perhaps more ambivalent....]
The new Orlando Consort album, titled simply
Dufay, includes some of the more
unusual secular unica in the great composer's output, but also comes
off as a rather conservative production: In particular, although
it moves decisively — as is the norm with this ensemble —
to all-vocal renditions (& with one voice to a part), the group
continues to use the Besseler-Fallows edition (1964/1995) of the
songs, and even involves Fallows to provide the liner notes.
These
are interesting for some of their associations & discussions
of the unique place of some of these songs, but also say little
about the approach to performance. (What is considered is e.g.
whether to take repeats, how to fill in missing material, etc.
I.e., the basic sound & structure is taken for granted, making
it a question of which verses....) In particular, the tuning here
seems out of place to me from the opening, with strange passings
& curious cadences, although it starts to seem a bit more
idiomatic by the later part of the program (which is mostly later
music).
Such an impression is in sharp contrast to e.g. the recent
The Dufay Spectacle from Gothic
Voices, which might come off as relatively over-showy, and does
include some bigger repertory & (sometimes overdone) instrumental
doubling, but also provides a quite convincing sense of tuning &
structure. Although it's partly due to specific repertory choices
(as noted), that program is also more energetic, whereas the new
Dufay comes off rather more subdued: In that, it recalls
the same ensemble's Compère
(where sound engineering is also an issue — seemingly worked
out in the course of the group's Machaut Edition...), an album that
seems quite valuable for its ongoing exploration of the later
composer, but which often comes off as muddled & as a relatively
random assortment. (There the similar tuning does seem more
appropriate.)
Maybe that album just needed more presence from the
engineering to hear the lower voices better, but that Dufay
takes such a conservative approach to performance style & sources
is somewhat surprising. (The Machaut Edition is based on new,
forthcoming editions.) And maybe this effort really revolves around
an unstated insistence on later 15th century tuning principles, as
they develop between Pythagorean & mean-tone.... Anyway, there
are appealing moments — right from the beginning — and
Dufay is always great, but I was disappointed by this project.
[In contrast to the Orlando Consort, La Reverdie ... ]
[30.5.2019]