DUFAY with various composers & 'anon'.
Missa Ecce ancilla Domini & Le Banquet du Voeu
Ensemble Gilles Binchois/Dominique
Vellard
Virgin Veritas VBD5 61818
2 (59.34+64.06)
Crotchet
(Bargain price around £9)
It is hard to enthuse about this sort of production. The core of it is to
be found in the second CD, a Mass by Dufay, one of the most consistently
interesting of Flemish liturgical composers. It dates from the early 1460s
and is one of his four mature masses, unusual in having two chants as a basis
for development. No texts are given, but those of the Ordinary are no doubt
familiar to most prospective buyers. Not necessarily so those of the Proper
(Introit, Gradual, Evangelium etc) which are also included, though whether
those are by Dufay is speculative. The rendering of the score by 10 male
singers is clear and the acoustic of the Abbaye de Vaucelles in France (1992)
suitable.
The other CD is speculative too, a tapestry of secular music of a type 'likely
to have been performed' between the courses of a famous feast given in 1454
to inaugurate a new crusade. Better simply to have made room in the sparse
booklet for some information about the various composers and the words of
the songs by Vide, Legrant, Grenon, Fontaine & Binchois etc, which are
interspersed with instrumental items. The cover picture Portrait of a
Young Man of the period, from the National Gallery, London, is savagely
bisected!
With better presentation, really not too tall an order, it would qualify
for another star. As offered, pleasant background music for a 21st
Century supper party, maybe?
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
