Riding high in the Classical Charts listings on its release, this is
the kind of title which has wide appeal in numerous markets. Hildegard of
Bingen has been hot property ever since Hyperion brought out its hit album
A Feather on the Breath of God (see
review), the magical standard against which numerous subsequent releases
have been compared. Early music specialists, Monk mystics, feminists and
plain lovers of remarkable music all gravitate towards this remarkable
figure, and justifiably so. Hildegard von Bingen’s eloquent melodic
shapes evoke an open sky of inspiration and ecstasy, simultaneously
inhabiting and breaking out of the idioms and stylistic constraints of
medieval religious composition.
Stevie Wishart and Sinfonye indeed already have some respected
releases with the Hyperion label, including The Courts of Love, and Gabriel’s Greeting.This Hildegard
album is an ambitious combination of reasonably attractively performed early
music purity and some added pop sparkle from Whishart’s friend Guy
Sigsworth, who has work with Björk to his credit among numerous others.
Probably for this reason, you will search in vain for the red and blue Decca
Classics logo on this release. Sinfonye has good vocalists and an
attractively rustic quality to their ensemble performance. The purely vocal
tracks are a little glassy in recorded texture which is a surprise for a
Tony Faulkner engineered recording, but things aren’t too bad in
general and we can always blame post-production for the end result. Texts
and translations are provided in the booklet.
If you expect quiet a pastoral opening take care with your volume
control from the outset, the first track Introitus hits us with bells
galore, and a cinematic soundscape from which the only thing missing is the
deep voice of a narrator saying, “once, long ago, in a far away
land…” There are a few tracks which develop on this aspect of
the programme, the O beata infantia of track 8 being one, with a sort
of Peter Gabriel meets Enya in the monastery feel. Heavy drums and some
zingy bass take us to different realms in Azeruz. Keeping a largely
acoustic Steeleye Span feel to the sound means we’re not hit too hard
with the pop vibe, though the track nearly slips into Los del Rio
‘Macarena’ territory at 2:44. It would appear Guy Sigsworth is
no Boris Blank, and an over-acoustic resonance alas makes the sound a bit
overloaded and muddy in this case which is a frustration, but it’s all
good fun. Inventive vocal arrangements are also part of the deal, and there
are some rewarding counter-melodic additions to some tracks. O quam
preciosa has a magical moment at 3:15 where the rising vocal lines are
taken over by electronic sounds which evoke recorders and mix with string
harmonics, but which are alas dispersed before any meaningful development is
permitted. There is some nice close-harmony singing in the
Magnificat, surprising in context and perhaps a little reminiscent of
Herbert Howells in places. Further vocal exoticism is a feature of the
penultimate O Doctor optime, which at times creates multi-layered
canonic textures, the final vocal wash of sound leading us into a final
ZuuenZ which has everything from handbells to what sounds like an
electronic hyper-tabla.
If you like your concept albums intelligent, richly textured and
subtly coloured in an Art of Sound kind of way then numbers such as this
final track will do very nicely. I suspect listeners flocking for Hildegard
of Bingen might feel otherwise, and those seeking that Deep Forest kind of
groove will find it hard to put up with long swathes of non-garnished
medieval singing. I have no problem with either approach but come away with
a sense that this album never quite made up its mind one way or another.
Download customers can of course pick and choose their own selection of
tracks. What we need now is for someone to come along and make a proper
‘Hands on Hildegard’ remix album, and then we can all go
shopping for real.
Dominy Clements
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Sinfonye/Stevie Wishart
