MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Crotchet

 

Guillaume de MACHAUT (c.1300-1377)
Lay de la fonteinne, [27:27]
Lay de consolation [21:24]
Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor)
The Medieval Ensemble of London/Peter Davies, Timothy Davies
rec. January, 1982, London, United Kingdom. DDD
L'OISEAU-LYRE 478 0026 [48:51] 

 

Experience Classicsonline


This is a reissue of a recording made in 1983 by the short-lived (1981-85) Medieval Ensemble of London. The usual repertoire of the group was music of the century after Machaut, who lived from about 1300 to 1377. But this highly appealing disc is an exercise in the intensity of Machaut. And it works. 

Machaut's lais seem to have had a special significance for the composer. They're monophonic, very lengthy by the standards of the time, highly inventive and they conceal, in their apparent sparseness, great pathos and sophistication. Each of the two lais here is in twelve stanzas, which all differ, one from the other, in length, metre, rhyme, timbre and style. 

That palette of sound is primarily one of focus, concentration. The clean and understated yet immensely impactful communication of a small pool of ideas is what one is struck by. This concentration is centred around the anguishes of love. There is an uplifting, transcendent tone - in ways similar to those of the Pearl Poet in England at the same time. No need to shout, or to whisper. Yet the pain, potential exaltation and measured affirmation cannot be mistaken - provided the music is treated as much as a meticulously-crafted exposition as a 'sound-picture': 

            … les pechés
            Qui sont en mi,
            Vieil et endormi
            S'en fremi,
            Car emmi
            Mon cuer sont fischiés 

Exposition, explanation, Yes. But neither self-indulgent, nor spuriously extraordinary or eccentric. The words of suffering, of creed, of fulfilment and of resignation are paramount. Their articulation must be clear, forthright and considered yet unostentatious. Throughout. Otherwise the lais become allusive and demonstrative, rather than reflective. That way they have a narrative air too: its unfolding is as though for the first time. 

There was scholarly evidence - not least from Page and Gothic Voices, in the early 1980s - that Machaut may have intended these lais to be performed with one clear voice to the text and another (lower) which vocalised. The decision by Davies and The Medieval Ensemble of London to perform them this way dramatically exposes Rogers Covey-Crump - then in his late 30s. His style is anything but dramatic, though. He achieves a near perfect blend between a gentle but muscular declamation that could be to another person; and an almost speculative exploration of the lines of the text, which are often long in meaning and complex. At times other members of the Ensemble reinforce his singing and add a minimum of complementary texture and sonority. But it's to Covey-Crump's understanding of Machaut's feelings and art that we are repeatedly and inevitably drawn. And willingly - so expert and accomplished is his art. 

Machaut's lais cover as many as two octaves: Covey-Crump's register is both easily capable of that and well suited to the task. There is no strain, no forcing; yet no holding back. When you add to this the tenor's excellent and sympathetic French diction, it's easy to see why the communication which he achieves so consistently is so broad. 

And it's that sense of singers singing to listeners and passing down a well-lit a tunnel the nuances, particularities and generalities intended by Machaut the poet and the human being that makes this music so persuasive. No show. No effects. No exoticism. All of this is achieved despite the point in history at which this performance was made - a quarter of a century ago, not long after the death of David Munrow, and the experimentation of other sets of performers with hugely different priorities. Plain, idiomatic, beautiful and characterful singing of music that seems so simple because its burden is so clear. 

The recording is acoustically very successful. The booklet is well-written, by David Fallows, together with a stylish translation of the French text into English by Nigel Wilkins. If you missed this the first time, are looking for a cleansing yet graciously forceful example of fourteenth century singing at its best with much more than a historical interest, this CD, although containing less than 50 minutes of music, will not disappoint. 

Mark Sealey

 





 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.