This disc presents a sequence
of French music regarding different aspects of the Virgin Mary.
It was written for female voices - predominantly nuns - during
the second half of the 17th century. The majority of the music
featured was written by Charpentier and the recording marks
the 300th anniversary of his death in 1704.
The music is, I'm ashamed
to say, all but unknown to me; apparently Charpentier wrote
over one hundred works for women's voices. Here it is beautifully
presented, together with works of Lully, Nivers, Lebègue, and
interspersed with organ works by the latter pair. It is good
to hear these organ works in something of a liturgical, or at
least wider musical, context. The London-based keyboard player
Alastair Ross plays the remarkable instruments at Rozay, perhaps
the best preserved 17th century organ in France, surprisingly
little known and restored in 1996 by Yves Cabourdin. The original
builder in 1690 is seemingly unknown, or at least the CD booklet
doesn't tell us. The virile Pleins Jeux, with its modified 1/5th
comma meantone tuning, reminds us of how much Classical French
organ building had changed by the time its most famous executants,
Dom Bedos, and Francois-Henri Cliquot built their most famous
surviving works at Bordeaux and Poitiers respectively. As far
as I can tell, Ross uses a second organ, presumably a continuo-organ,
for the accompaniment of the singers. If so, this is a shame,
as such an instrument would have been completely unknown to
Charpentier, and the use of the large organ presents more interesting
possibilities in this regard, as well as more key-colour.
The singing on the whole
is first-rate; excellent blend, intonation, a very musical feeling
for expression, and careful diction, despite some very Anglican-sounding
Latin from time to time. The three principal sopranos of the
Concerto delle Donne are joined by six further sopranos for
the works with alternating soloists and choir. For me, everything
is perhaps a little too pretty. Of course, one must remember
the situation for which the music was created, but I can't help
feeling that the approach lacks a certain variety of affekts
suggested by the texts. Likewise Ross's organ playing, while
very neat and tidy, lacks a little flexibility in the pulse,
or at least a feeling for the inherent rhetoric, so essential
to bring this literature off the page.
These are charming performances
of charming music. Warmly recommended.
Chris Bragg
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