Walter Frye

This early ECM New Series offering chronicles the music of Walter Frye, a 15th-century English composer whose biographical details are as elusive as his music is captivating. He is survived by a significant handful of vocal works, of which the Hilliard Ensemble gives us a thoughtful cross section. Of these, the Ave regina is the most well known, though the Missa Flos regalis forms the backbone of this altogether revelatory album. The mass itself—which, in true Hilliard fashion is divided among a selection of motets—is a brooding flow of delicate harmonies, seamless “hand-offs,” and intimate exchanges. Its inward-looking tone invites the listener into a prayerful space in which worldly cares are both the source of one’s burdens and the key to absolving them.

Saint Katherine of Alexandria may or may not have actually existed, but the tale of the imprisoned 17-year-old Christian martyr was catnip to medieval Christians, and the English cult of devotion to this saint (ca. 287-ca. 305) was in full swing in the era of Dunstaple and his contemporaries. This puts it right in the sweet spot of England's Binchois Consort and its conductor, Andrew Kirkman. Katherine was represented in quite a number of alabaster sculptures of the time, and Kirkman takes the unusual step of employing a "sculptor in residence," Sarah Danays, to add to this body of work.

The Binchois Consort - The Lily & The Rose: Adoration of the Virgin in sound and stone (2018) {Hyperion CDA68228}
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© 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 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.

La Morra - Le Jardin de Plaisance: Songs from Late 15th-Century French Manuscripts (2003) {Raumklang RK 2301}
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© 2003 Raumklang | RK 2301
Classical / Early Music / Medieval / Renaissance

The generation of musicians after Guillaume Dufay began around 1450 to experiment with new compositional techniques that led to a very progressive and independent repertoire of secular songs. The ensemble 'La Morra', Basel, presents an anthology of this highly refined art of instrumental and vocal music-making in the freshness and immediacity of a 'garden of pleasure'.

A long-awaited new release of one of the world’s most respected medieval music ensembles, Crawford Young’s Ferrara Ensemble continues its interpretation of late Gothic composers, in the first recording ever of what has been called the Mt. Everest of music notation puzzles - Angelorum psalat of the Codex Chantilly, recently published in a new edition by Crawford Young. A pinnacle of complexity, the Codex Chantilly, c1400, reflects the taste of popes and secular rulers such as Jean, Duc de Berry.

The Leuven Chansonnier (1470–75) includes not only fifty compositions by such leading 15th century Franco-Flemish names as Johannes Ockeghem, Antoine Busnoys and Firminus Caron but also twelve newly rediscovered works that exist in no other source. The Ensemble Sollazzo here brings a selection of this music to life in an interpretation that is both brilliant and refreshing. Sollazzo Ensemble was founded in 2014 in Basel and brings together musicians with a strong interest in late medieval and early renaissance repertoires. The ensemble is directed by fiddle player Anna Danilevskaia and benefits from the different musical backgrounds of its members: while some of them come from Early Music families, others have found their calling via modern classical music, theatre or even musical.

Gothic Voices’ reputation for the originality of its programming is cemented with its first recording of medieval Christmas music, in which Julian Podger reimagines a fifteenth-century carol evening. Mirroring the modern practice of performing mostly music from the preceding centuries alongside some contemporary repertoire, the programme includes late medieval English carols, chant, mono-and polyphonic songs and motets for the Advent and Christmas season, focusing on Mary, her Annunciation and the birth of Jesus. Larger-scale festive motets and mass movements by English late medieval celebrities John Dunstaple and Leonel Power also feature.

Agricola was already considered one of the 'old masters' soon after his death in 1506. His works were approached with veneration and, already in the early 16th century, regarded as examples of good and demanding counterpoint. As a member of the first generation of genuinely instrumental composers, he wrote not only the masses, motets and chansons that were customary during this period, but also a large number of works without text that were obviously created for instruments by virtue of their construction. As a result, his musical rhetoric went considerably farther than his otherwise congenial colleagues Josquin Desprez and Heinrich Isaac, and he composed instru¬mental works that were far ahead of his time.