Texte paru dans: / Appeared in:
Early Music Today (12/2014- 02/2015)
Hyperion
CDA68053
Code-barres / Barcode : 0034571280530
(Classicalacarte ID419)
Vienna‑based all‑male ensemble Cinquecento examine a very different side to Habsburg music, here presenting a recording of vernacular songs by four composers to the emperors Ferdinand I and Maximilian II. Of these, Philippe de Monte enjoyed the greatest reputation, but his chansons and many madrigals have often been overlooked in favour of his sacred compositions; while history has not been so kind on the whole to Jean Guyot, Jacob Regnart and Jacobus Vaet.
Cinquecento, however, have
dedicated whole discs to the sacred music of de Monte, Regnart and Vaet, and
as such are ideal advocates for their secular music. Actually, it’s Guyot
whose chansons are the most interesting here ‑ slightly older than
the other three, his six‑part writing seems to hark back to illustrious
forebears such as Willaert and Clemens non Papa ‑ although in de Monte's
settings we can hear why he was regarded as one of the most influential
composers of his time. If a disc of Renaissance chansons all under
four minutes in length rnigt seem uninteresting at first glance, I urge you
to reconsider: with such spirited and suave performances as these the album
could be
considered
a platter of amuses‑bouches, to be sampled and enjoyed for their variety
rather than for their profundity. Dig in, I say.
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