A Winged Woman The Marian Consort Rory Mccleery

In March 1575, a party led by the Venetian diplomat Giacomo Soranzo set out on a mission to Constantinople. They sailed down the Istrian coast, along the length of present-day Croatia, and on to the Bay of Kotor. Much of the land they passed was the territory of the Serenissima – inhabited by both Italians and Slavs, and of strategic importance since it was exposed to constant Turkish threats from the Balkan hinterland.

A Christmas programme with a difference: Rory McCleery and his acclaimed consort echo the shepherds’ noels through a motet by Jean Mouton which, astonishingly, remained in the repertoire of the Sistine Chapel for over 100 years after its composition around 1515. So famous already by the middle of the century, when Cristóbal de Morales was engaged as a singer in the papal chapel, that Mouton’s motet would form the basis for a mass by Morales; and, later still, a new motet to the same text by Annibale Stabile. A world premiere recording of the latter work crowns this unique programme, drawn from new performing editions by McCleery himself.

For their debut recording, the six-strong Marian Consort explores music from late 16th- and early 17th-century Spain. This fascinating programme celebrates the rich compositional fruits of the Siglo de Oro’s intensely competitive musical culture. These luminary works, all dedicated to the Virgin Mary, demand performances of great intelligence and vocal commitment. The youthful Marians respond absolutely, bringing hushed intimacy and bristling excitement to some of the most gorgeously searing lines in the history of European polyphony.

Jean Maillard's life is shrouded in mystery, and his music is rarely heard today. Yet in his own time his works were both influential and widely known: indeed, the musicologist François Lesure held him to be one of the most important French composers of his era. Who better, then, than Rory McCleery's Marian Consort to give this composer's rich and varied output its first dedicated recording? Their characteristically precise and yet impassioned performances bring out both the network of influence in which Maillard's music participated its Josquin-esque pedigree, and influence on successors including Lassus and Palestrina and its striking, individual beauty.

Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa - Sacrae Cantiones - The Marian Consort, Rory McCleery (2016) {Delphian DCD34176 }
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© 2016 Delphian Records | DCD34176
Classical / Renaissance / Motets / Choral

Carlo Gesualdo has become notorious, not only from his royalty but for the eccentricities of his life and music. Gruesomely murdering his first wife and her lover, mistreating his second wife and isolating himself have all fuelled the ""myth of Gesualdo as a madman"". Gesualdo turned his prodigious compositional talent to the creation of a collection of pieces that betray his obsession with his own personal sin. The five-voice motets on this release speak as strongly as Gesualdo's words ever could. The Marian Consort possesses both a lean vocal delivery and a robust interpretation of the texts.

For its second Delphian recording, The Marian Consort have leafed through the beautifully calligraphed pages of the partbooks compiled in Oxford between 1581 and 1588 by the Elizabethan scholar Robert Dow, to present a deeply satisfying sequence of some of their brightest jewels. Sumptuous motets, melancholy consort songs and intricate, harmonically daring viol fantasies are seamlessly interwoven, all brought to life by seven voices and the robust plangency of the Rose Consort of Viols in the chapel of All Souls College, Oxford – where Dow himself was once a Fellow.

This exquisite late-Renaissance Portuguese polyphonic repertoire is as richly expressive as it is politically poised…This beautiful new album from The Marian Consort is surely one of the best one-to-a-part ensemble recordings of this repertoire. Throughout the programme they nurture a warm blend while drawing out long polyphonic threads to expressive ends.

John Baldwin was a lay clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1575 and became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1598. The so-called ‘Baldwin Partbooks’, held at Christ Church, Oxford, were his creation – a very personal collection, representing his individual tastes and interests from a wealth of English and Continental polyphony and consort music.
As in their previous collaboration, an exploration of the similarly conceived partbooks of Robert Dow, the Marian Consort and Rose Consort of Viols have kept faith with Baldwin’s own intentions, bringing to light some of the rarer gems preserved by this great advocate and music-lover and providing the listener with ‘such sweete musicke: as dothe much delite yeelde’.

Following its digital debut on Linn presenting a triptych of works by Josquin des Prez, Vicente Lusitano and Roderick Williams, The Marian Consort now focuses its attention on the central figure of this trio, the ‘Portuguese’.

Following an album dedicated to the forgotten Renaissance master Vicente Lusitano (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Der Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik Quarterly Critic’s Choice), The Marian Consort makes an enthralling leap forward to the present day. True to its core mission of expanding the vocal repertoire, A Winged Woman showcases the ensemble’s commissions from a crop of the UK’s finest composers – including seven world premiere recordings – with music by Dani Howard, James MacMillan, Electra Perivolaris, Howard Skempton, Chloe Knibbs and others. The works challenge traditions and tropes in imaginative and refreshing ways, bringing together a rich array of musical styles and textual approaches. As Perivolaris’s titular work makes clear, this album puts centre stage the compelling work of some of today’s most exciting women composers.