Take a glance
at the CD cover above. Don’t you feel sorry for the kid who
sees this in a shop, makes an impulse buy thinking they are
getting the music from the “Da Vinci Code” movie, gets home
and finds they have bought a disc that mostly consists of
sophisticated 15th century sacred, polyphonic art music; a
minority taste even in classical music circles.
It is no doubt
Sony’s intention to ride on the shoulders of the film in the
interests of sales. The words “Da Vinci” are writ large in
a lettering font that resembles that used in the movie publicity
which in turn is taken from the cover of the sensational novel
that is one of the best-sellers of all time.
The size of the
lettering of the CD subtitle, “music from his time”, is more
than ten times smaller than the letters above. I am willing
to bet that the majority of people in the world who have heard
of the “Da Vinci Code” know next to nothing about Leonardo
the man, or even if he existed at all, let alone when “his
time” was. I experimented by flashing the CD under the nose
of anyone who came to the house and without exception all
thought it would be music from the film.
Sorry to bang
on about this but only yesterday I listened to a radio programme
which was a serious debate about how far those involved in
marketing classical music could go without their integrity
being called into question. In the case of this CD I will
leave you to judge. I will make a confession though. If I
thought that one of those who buys the CD by mistake, plays
it and finds they have accidentally discovered a new pleasure,
then, the packaging might be considered forgivable. I cannot
see it happening though.
What we have on
this disc is a mixture of 15th century sacred and
secular music from eight different composers. Sacred music
dominates and of that most of it is by Josquin Desprez, a
direct contemporary of Leonardo. In fact half of the disc’s
music is by him. He was after all the greatest composer of
the period. In fact some in the know would regard him as one
of the greatest of all time, certainly one of the most influential.
The sacred music
is interspersed with lighter items of secular song or instrumental
pieces, most of them quite short. Two exceptions are Josquin
motets including his substantial setting of Psalm 50 which
lasts well over twelve minutes. The other composers represented
are names fairly well-known to the period specialist, the
greatest being Ockeghem whose canonic choral contribution
betrays the more archaic style of a composer born at least
a generation before the others.
As for the performances,
Sony seems to have trawled the archives and come up with four
different ensembles in recordings that are probably spread
from between about thirty years ago up to a decade ago; the
booklet gives no information on this. As a result there is
some variety in both style and recording quality. The groups
are all very competent, the Munich Capella Antiqua under Konrad
Rühland taking the lion’s share of the Josquin and it makes
a beautiful sound. This contrasts with the Waverly Consort
which in Josquin’s Ave Maria Motet vocally sounds rather
feeble although paradoxically they are very spirited in a
witty frottola by a composer described as “Anonymous
or Josquin Desprez”.
I thought this
disc a very enjoyable, cleverly assembled anthology. It would
make an excellent introduction to 15th century music for those
music lovers who would like to branch out from mainstream
baroque/classical/romantic. It is a shame that many such people
may not be targeted thanks to the marketeers succumbing to
the “Da Vinci Code” mania. Naxos produced such a compilation
four years ago in its “Art and Music” series. It was called
Leonardo da Vinci: Music of His Time. That disc includes
music by three big names that are notably absent from the
Sony disc: Dufay, Isaac and Obrecht (see review).
John Leeman
BUY NOW
AmazonUK
Huelgas Ensemble/Paul
van Nevel (2-8, 17-19); The Waverly Consort/Michael Jaffee (9-11); Capella
Antiqua München/Konrad Rühland (1, 13-16); Niederaltaicher Scholaren/Konrad
Rühland (12)
