Celi 2

The Orlando Consort once again shows its intelligence and educated approach to Renaissance-era music, while not denying the beauty of the pieces. The album is a demonstration, in varied works, of the contenance angloise, the sound that distinguished English music of the fifteenth century from that of the continent.

This release continues this successful series. This ensemble has revived the music in one of the greatest collections of polyphonic music in Western Europe.

This two-CD selection from the fifth rediscovered Leiden Choirbook consists of around eighteen items - ranging in time from around 1480 to 1570 - including motets, settings of more substantial works such as Salve regina and Magnificat, and a splendid Mass. Composers include relatively familiar figures such as Isaac, Crecquillon, Willaert, Richafort and Clemens non Papa, and some lesser-known such as the very fine choirmaster of the Pieterskerk in Leiden, Johannes Flamingus, Nicolle des Celliers de Hesdin, Benedictus Appenzeller, and Joachimus de Monte who already made a couple of delightful contributions to Volume I in the series.

The Binchois Consort - The Lily & The Rose: Adoration of the Virgin in sound and stone (2018) {Hyperion CDA68228}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Official Digital Download (hyperion-records.co.uk) -> 362 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 187 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 144 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2018 Hyperion Records | CDA68228
Classical / Medieval / 15th Century / Sacred / Vocal Music

In the "long" 15th century, which lasted from 1380 to 1520 and represented the transition from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance, there was increased attention paid in England to setting Marian devotional texts in increasingly complex counterpoint, and a corresponding growth in religious images carved in alabaster. This Hyperion release is part of an ongoing project to bring together the plainchants and choral works of early English composers, of whom John Dunstaple is the best known, and images of the alabaster sculptures that adorned English cathedrals and churches, adding substantially to the solemnity and mystery of Catholic worship.

The exquisitely decorated 15th century choir book known as the Old Hall manuscript was lost to history for the best part of 400 years until its reappearance in a Catholic seminary at the end of the 19th century. The largest surviving collection of medieval motets and mass movements, it immediately became the most celebrated source of English music of the period. It was written in the first instance by a single scribe to ensure that the music of his fellow singers was not forgotten. Many of them are known only from this manuscript, and on this album they find their voices again after more than half a millennium of silence, transformed by the singing of Trio Mediæval in the company of Catalina Vicens, alongside new music by David Lang and Marianne Reidarsdatter Eriksen.