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Reviewer: Charles
Brewer
This is an eclectic anthology of renaissance choral music by the five
members of the Vienna Vocal Consort to which a heavy dose of medieval spice
is added by Guillaume de Machaut’s Nostre Dame Mass. The motets range from
Dufay’s fauxbourdon hymn ‘Ave Maris Stella’ and Josquin’s famous ‘Ave Maria
Virgo Serena’, through Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ and Victoria’s ‘Salve
Regina’, to a Czech 17th Century song by Adam Michna and a retrospective and
simple setting of a single verse from the Stabat Mater by Juan Frances de
Irebarren (1699-1767). The most extensive renaissance selection is Pierre de
la Rue’s alternatim setting of the Magnificat sexti toni. La Rue’s increase
from monophonic chant through three and fourvoice polyphony to a full
five-voice texture for the concluding verses is very effective. The clarity,
balance, and melodiousness of the polyphony which these five singers supply
in their interpretations of the renaissance repertoire are also evident in
the Machaut Mass. Perhaps the main other recording with this same kind of
lyricism is by the Ensemble Gilles Binchois (N/D 1992 & S/O 2000), but even
that earlier interpretation brings out more of the chromatic cross-relations
and dissonance in Machaut’s writing. Other recordings have sought to
emphasize how different Machaut is from later choral styles (extreme
examples were by Ensemble Organum, M/J 1997, and Graindelavoix, S/O 2016).
The Vienna Vocal Consort sounds as if they are adapting Machaut to their
style of interpreting renaissance music. It sounds less distant from the
other selections.
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