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Machaut - Songs from Le Voir Dit

£13.60

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Label: Hyperion

Cat No: CDA67727

Barcode: 0034571177274

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 30th September 2013

Works

Machaut, Guillaume de

Le Voir Dit

» Dame, se vous n'avez aperceu

» Dis et sept, cinq

» Longuement me sui tenus 'Le lay de Bon Esperance'

» Ne que on porroit

» Ploures dames

» Puis qu'en oubli

» Quant Theseus / Ne quier veoir

» Sans cuer dolens

» Se pour ce muir

Artists

Matthew Venner (countertenor)
Mark Dobell (tenor)
Angus Smith (tenor)
Donald Greig (baritone)
Orlando Consort

Works

Machaut, Guillaume de

Le Voir Dit

» Dame, se vous n'avez aperceu

» Dis et sept, cinq

» Longuement me sui tenus 'Le lay de Bon Esperance'

» Ne que on porroit

» Ploures dames

» Puis qu'en oubli

» Quant Theseus / Ne quier veoir

» Sans cuer dolens

» Se pour ce muir

Artists

Matthew Venner (countertenor)
Mark Dobell (tenor)
Angus Smith (tenor)
Donald Greig (baritone)
Orlando Consort

About

The Orlando Consort performs the music of Machaut, the most significant French poet and composer of the fourteenth century.

Sometimes described as ‘the last of the trouvères’ because of his dual talents as poet and musician, Machaut built on past traditions yet spearheaded a new school of lyric composition. In the field of literature, he developed several of the poetic forms and genres that dominated for generations to come. His impact on the musical life of his age was equally profound - he is closely associated with the new style of polyphonic love-song that became so popular in the fourteenth century, and today is considered the supreme representative of the Ars nova musical tradition that revolutionized composition and notation in that period.

Livre dou Voir Dit (‘Book of the True Tale’) is Machaut’s masterpiece. By its very title, the tale purports to be autobiographical: it relates a supposedly recent episode in the ageing poet-composer’s life, his love affair with a lady some forty years his junior.

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Ploures Dames
2

Dame, Se Vous N'Avez Aperceu
3

Ne Que On Porroit
4

Sans Cuer Dolens
5

Longuement Me Sui Tenus
6

Dis Et Sept, Cinq
7

Puis Qu'En Oubli
8

Quant Theseus / Ne Quier Veoir
9

Se Pour Ce Muir

Europadisc Review

Although more numerous than they used to be, recordings of Guillaume de Machaut’s music are still infrequent enough to be welcomed enthusiastically when they do appear. Even more so when they are made by groups of the calibre of the Orlando Consort, which is among the finest active exponents of this early repertoire. Equally renowned as both poet and composer, Machaut (c1300–1377) is sometimes known as ‘the last of the trouvères’, and his links with many illustrious patrons, not least Jehan of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, ensured that during his lifetime his fame was wide and great.

Machaut’s musical masterpiece is the Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest complete mass setting by a single composer. In the literary field, however, arguably his greatest achievement is the Livre dou Voir Dit (Book of the True Tale), one of several lengthy narrative poems he bequeathed to posterity. The tale it tells is of his own love, late in the 1360s, for a lady some forty years his junior, its text apparently built around letters and lyrics exchanged between the two lovers.

The items on this stunning new disc from Hyperion are all mentioned or alluded to in the text of the Livre dou Voir Dit, and they make for an exceptionally vivid collection of love songs in the late medieval mould. The centrepiece is a lengthy monophonic lai, the so-called Lay de Bon Esperance, in a form that, although already archaic, was brought to perfection by Machaut. It is a twenty-minute tour de force for a single singer, performed here with stamina and sensitivity in equal measure by tenor Angus Smith. Anyone sceptical about the expressive power of monody should hear the disc for this alone, for it is a powerfully moving performance.

The other items are in two of the polyphonic forms favoured by Machaut, the ballade (lengthiest of the short ‘fixed’ forms of the fourteenth century) and the rondeau. Particularly striking are the ballade Plourés dames, written during a long illness in 1362–63 when the composer supposed himself close to death, and the low-lying rondeau Puis qu’en oubli. Yet all the music here contains memorable and unique features, and it is performed with a level of care over textures, balance and nuance that is remarkable for this repertoire even today. The Orlando Consort sing these works without any instrumental accompaniment, yet there is no lack of colour or variety, and in performances of late medieval music this is about as good as it gets.

As the first in a planned series of recordings of Machaut’s music by the Orlando Consort on Hyperion, this is a hugely promising start and a strong candidate for one of the discs of the year. The project is advised by a team of scholars led by Machaut expert Yolanda Plumley, who provides detailed and illuminating liner notes, and there are full French texts with English translations. In two words: simply marvellous!