Prior to Guillaume de Machaut's Notre Dame Mass, a complete polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary in the third quarter of the fourteenth century, inaugurating a tradition that has come down to the present time, various anonymous composers made experimental steps in that direction, creating several related mass movements. This disc by the innovative French group Ensemble Organum is essentially a recording of one of those fragments, the so-called Mass of Toulouse. In order to create a complete "Missa Gotica" (Goths, by the way, may enjoy the booklet's brief exegesis on why the music of the Middle Ages was later termed Gothic), director Marcel Pérès joins the Toulouse fragments to another early mass pair, the Gloria and Credo known together as the Mass of Barcelona.
Following Emmanuel Ceysson’s successful Naïve debut 'Opéra Fantaisie', 'Belle Epoque' features works for harp and orchestra composed in France in the early 20th century, probably the 'golden age' of that brilliant instrument. The result is an exhilarating recording of concertos by Saint-Saëns, Henriette Renié, Dubois and Pierné. With his powerful, virtuoso playing, Emmanuel Ceysson, the ‘enfant terrible’ of the harp, sweeps away all the clichés associated with his instrument. His infectious enthusiasm and boundless energy reveals the harp in all its sparkling splendour, in a world where poetry vies with temperament.