When I reviewed the Musique en Wallonie recording of music for the
feast of St Charles (Emperor Charlemagne),
O Rex Orbis (MEW1267 -
review) and again when I reviewed the first volume of the
musical biography of Lassus on the same label (MEW1158,
Download News 2013/3), I referred to the second volume of that
Lassus series, MEW1268, and indicated that a review of it had been written
and would be appearing soon. As Singer Pur feature on the recording, I
searched for the review, intending to add a reference to it in reviewing
their 3-disc recording of Adrian Willaert’s motets (Oehms OC835 -
review by Johan van Veen; also due for review in
Download News 2013/12) only to discover that it seems to have disappeared
without trace - I can find no reference in Outlook to having sent the review
off; I can’t find it in my Documents folder or on Skydrive, either, so
it looks as if I never wrote it.
MEW1268, volume II of what I take to be a projected series, contains
works from Lassus’s earliest period at the Bavarian court of Duke
Albrecht, a period in which Lassus rapidly rose from a humble chorister to
Kapellmeister, at first in an acting capacity, but soon after officially.
As in the Willaert, Singer Pur are ably assisted by guest singers
and in this recording by Cristoph Eglhuber on renaissance guitar; if
anything the performances are preferable to those of Willaert, with the
animation that I found very slightly lacking there. Perhaps that’s a
response to the fact that most of the music is set to secular texts; even
the extract from the Song of Songs,
Surge propera amica mea, track 8,
though sung at feasts of the Virgin Mary, is actually a love poem -
‘arise my beloved, hasten and come away’. Just don’t
expect the kind of animation that you would find from the likes of Jordi
Savall, but the opening
Gloria goes at a pace that will give you an
idea of the whole collection. I’d like to hear Singer Pur in the whole
of the Mass from which this is taken,
Missa On me l’a dict, not
currently available, nor do I recall it ever having been recorded.
Some of the texts are rather silly - track 4 is about the
inevitability of getting fat - and the final work enshrines the kind of
encomium to Lassus’ patron which now looks frankly distasteful - but
read Thomas More’s Latin address to Henry VIII on his accession and
you’ll see that such toadying was necessary if you were ambitious. In
any case Lassus’ music rises well above the words.
Slightly confusingly, whereas the French original notes and the
English translation give the composer’s name as Roland de Lassus, a
part-Latinisation of his name Roland de Lasse, the German translation gives
the Italianised version by which he was also commonly known, Orlando di
Lasso. The facsimile of the 1579 edition of his third Book of Madrigals on
the facing page offers another variant, half Latin, half Italian: Orlando di
Lassus. Your native name just wasn’t enough to shine as an
international composer in the sixteenth century: John Cooper transmuted his
base English metal to Giovanni Coperario.
Not all dealers seem to stock the CD, but do search for it online.
The performances can be downloaded from amazon.co.uk for £7.49 or from
amazon.com for $8.99, but it’s worth paying a little more for the CD
which is housed in a lavish booklet with notes, texts and translations:
£15.99 from
amazon.co.uk, $15.99 from
amazon.com; currently reduced from $18.99 to $16.99 from
arkivmusic.com.
I wouldn’t recommend either of Musique en Wallonie’s
first two volumes of Lassus’ musical biography to beginners. They
would be better served by, say, the Naxos recording of two of his masses
(8.550842, Oxford Camerata/Summerly [68:25] - download available from
classicsonline.com or stream from Naxos Music Library, both with
pdf booklet) or the
Missa osculetur me and motets (Gimell CDGIM018* -
from
gimell.com or stream from Naxos Music Library). Experienced Lassus
fans should find much that is new to them to enjoy in this second volume in
particular when performances, presentation and recording are so good.
* The Mass alone is better value on two-for-one
The Tallis
Scholars sing Flemish Masters (
CDGIM211).
Brian Wilson
