hyperion-records | medieval.org
Hyperion CDA 68318
Release date: January 2021
Recording: March 2019,
Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Loughton, Essex, United Kingdom
[60:57]
1. S'il estoit nuls / S'Amours tous / Et gaudebit cor vestrum [2:11] 2. On ne porroit penser [4:07] 3. Dame, se vous m'estes lonteinne [3:04]
4. Moult sui de bonne heure nee [4:58] 5. Ne pensez pas, dame, que je recroie [2:42] 6. En demantant et lamentant [17:52]
7. Mes esperis se combat [6:57] 8. J'aim sans penser laidure [2:25] 9. Ma fin est mon commencement [6:03]
10. C'est force, faire le vueil [4:28] 11. Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer [3:43] 12. Tant doucement m'ont attrait / Eins que ma dame / Ruina [2:27]
The titular ‘lion of nobility’ was (probably) King John II of France, making the most expansive work on this album a lament for a historical event: the French defeat at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Elsewhere, Machaut’s protagonist continues to scrutinize the joys and sorrows of courtly love in obsessive detail.
Cover artwork: The lion and the swine from Liber Floridus (Flemish copy, c1448) by Lambert of Saint-Omer
[11.1.2021]