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Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 30-MAR-2004
CD Reviews
Lovely, but ...
amc654 | Chicago, IL USA | 12/14/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Frankly, this disc sounds very little like Machaut and very much like the Hilliard Ensemble (and even more like ECM). To be sure, it's lovely singing, and it is certainly well recorded (though ECM's penchant for 9" reverb does seem quite silly), but the wash of sound favored by the Hilliard Ensemble is very much out of place here, I think (much better in the legitimately choral works of the late Renaissance). The tempi are too slow, the articulation is too smooth, and performance practice too Anglicized. For a better, more appropriately performed Machaut, look to the fantastic Project Ars Nova disc on new albion."
Hilliard Ensemble as Good as Ever
Charles Richards | Los Angeles, CA | 04/08/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Hilliard Ensemble was founded by Paul Hillier thirty years ago, a small male choir specializing in vocal music of the Mediaval and Renaissance periods. Although they've strayed a bit from their original purpose in those thirty years, recording modern music more and more frequently (as well as having several compositions comissioned for them) and even releasing a billboard-charting crossover album about ten years ago (the beautiful "Officium"), in this new release they get back to their early music roots.
And, I'm happy to say, they still sound as wonderful as ever.
Guillaume Machaut was one of the most versatile composers of his time, writing polyphonic music for the church, chansons, motets, and monodic songs and virelais as well. He's one of the few composers of the time whose work survives in bulk, and one of the few whose life was even close to being documented. Because of that, he has a sort of aura about him as one of the first "professional" composers that we know of. His music is brilliant, diversified, and soul-wrenching.
His motets are highly representational, not only of his secular output in particular, but of the motet form of the high Renaissance in general. They are almost always in three parts (the duplum, triplum, and tenor) with each part having a different text; in many cases, the texts, sung simultaneously, are extremely different in character and subject, which makes them all the more fascinating.
There is a great sadness to Machaut's motets, and the Hilliard Ensemble captures this sublime melancholy perfectly. The word "ethereal" is bandied about and used far too frequently these days, but it is a fitting description for the sound of this music: if you've never heard this sort of thing, you have a real treat in store for you. Though written some six hundred years ago, these pieces are remarkably contemporary and, like all great art, have a timeless quality that speaks to us today. The texts, also, deal with emotions and problems for humans that are as easy to relate to today as they were when they were written. Fortunately, complete English translations are included in the CD booklet, I would heartily recommend that any listener read them to get the full experience of these amazing works.
To conclude, this is a terrific release, and should please anyone who enjoys beautiful music, not just the early music aficionado."
Too beautiful?
Jeff Abell | Chicago, IL USA | 01/19/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Can something be too beautiful? The Hilliard Ensemble's creamy vocal tone and beautiful intonation make all of their recordings a sensual and delicious experience. But is that really the best approach to Machaut's motets? 14th-century French music has lots of rhythmic angularities, and surprisingly harsh sonorities (involving parallel fourths). These sharp edges seem to have been sanded off in the Hilliard's version, as if they couldn't bear to sacrifice their luscious vocal sound for the sake of the composer's slightly knotty style. As much as I admire these singers (it all sounds incredibly lovely), I prefer my Machaut from groups like Ensemble Organum, who sound more like folk-singers, in their raw, vibrato-free style. People who like beautiful singing will probably love this recording, but I think this music is better represented by a little rough treatment."
Very pretty, but is it Machaut?
S. Gustafson | New Albany, IN USA | 05/20/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Hilliard Ensemble seems to want to treat these secular Machaut motets, whose lyrics all involve courtly love themes, as sacred music.
A purely vocal performance of this material is, of course, as justifiable as any other performance practice we can surmise for this fourteenth century music. The Hilliards appear to treat some of the lines as vocal drones, and emphasize a single line above it, treating Machaut much as you would expect to treat a discant over a piece of chant in the Notre-Dame school organum. This tends to obscure what made Machaut an innovative and original composer. Machaut was one of the first composers to write -complex- polyphony, and this practice seems to treat some of Machaut's lines as being of secondary interest.
The heavy reverb in the recording, which has been noted below, adds a reverent tone. This, too, seems a bit off: it makes the music sound remote and unearthly, as if sung in the crypt of a stone church. Even given that Machaut was a churchman attached to the cathedral at Rheims, an ecclesiastical performance of this courtly love material seems somewhat unlikely.
That said, it is very pleasant to listen to. But for those who want a purely vocal performance of Machaut's secular motets, recordings such as that by Summerly's Oxford Camerata of -Le Voir Dit- make it somewhat clearer what is going on in Machaut's music."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1