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GRAMOPHONE
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Aeon
AECD1108 (2CD)

Reviewer: David Fallows
 

A reissue of a magnificent and indispensable recording

Early in 2004 two different recordings of the Machaut motets came out: one was by the Hilliard Ensemble (ECM 5/04) celebrating 30 years of their existence and bearing witness to even more years of top level performing across the world; the other was the debut record of Ensemble Musica Nova, young and energetic musicians who had benefited from everything that senior groups could teach them. The Musica Nova set seems not to have been issued in the UK, or at least was not reviewed in Gramophone; now it is reissued with slightly less documentation than before but is none the less more than welcome.

The Hilliards had presented the motets (oddly omitting five of them) in Machaut’s order and ail with the same scoring of just solo voices. Musica Nova presented them in an irrational order that has plainly been planned for the pleasure of the listener. They also vary the sound, sometimes with multiple voices on each line, sometimes with percussion backing, and 50 on. Some are performed in two different ways: the 23 motets here fill 34 tracks. In a few cases they present just one lie vocally, with the others instrumental, then present another one vocally: that is to say — most importantly — that whatever they do you get Machaut’s entire verbal text as well as all his music. It is also to say that everything on these discs gives clear evidence of the most scrupulous preparation, a constant search for the intrinsic features of each individual piece.

Not only that but the recorded sound is magically clear: every detail is easily heard. That is of course partly a function of the singing, astonishingly clean and sharply focused, though with an energy and musicianship that breathe real life into each piece. Oddly, individual singers are not credited, so I cannot single out any for praise: actually, they are all exceptionally good. Returning to that moment early in 2004, it now looks even more astonishing. Machaut’s motets may well be the most impressive single body of music from the Middle Ages, in that they are indeed a body of pieces (apart from the last three, perhaps) and they are works of such complexity that only repeated hearing and study can yield even a fraction of their cultural richness. The Hilliards and Musica Nova have given us — for the first time — two top-flight recordings. Any serious collection should have both.

 

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