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Le ray su soleyl (3 settings)Album Summary
Performers- Antoni Fajardo
- Thomas Vanlede (Voice)
- Marius Peterson
- Albert Riara (Voice)
- Olalla Aleman (Voice)
- Tomàs Maxé
Notes & Reviews:
Björn Schmelzer and Graindelavoix have recently embarked on a startling and radical new stage in their career which involves a collaboration with Rosas, the ensemble of choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and which unites the music of the late 14th century Ars subtilior and contemporary dance. In July the world première of the production Cesena took place at Avignon in the medieval Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes (the performance commencing at 4.30am!), and Graindelavoix has recorded since then a "soundtrack" album for release on Glossa. The two ensembles are now performing across Europe and beyond in a tour which is scheduled to continue until 2014. The contents of the album mirror the production onstage, and draw on the almost abstract structures, with their complex and fascinating contrapuntal relations, of this early polyphony, much of it deriving from the Codex Chantilly. Through the performances with Rosas, Schmelzer is hoping to gain new insights into performing this repertoire.
As to the meaning of the album's title, Schmelzer says that Cesena is only a good one if it functions in all different directions at once; whether it refers to an Italian city whose population was slaughtered in the late 14th century (a "Passendale" of its age), at the time of the Western Schism in the Catholic Church as both Rome and Avignon struggled for control, or to a very important Franciscan, Michael of Cesena who fought for a church in poverty against all the decadence of power or, indeed, to other ideas.
Gramophone Magazine
Everything is done with considerable precision and there are some superb voices, carefully controlled. Equally, it is clear that a powerful mind has gone to work on trying to see and hear this music in a new way...This is either a truly innovative approach to the music or a load of pretentious ideas that rather lost their way. I think, probably, a bit of both.
American Record Guide, July / August 2012
The packaging of this release is also unusual. Rather than a booklet, the texts (only in Latin, French, and Serbian), accompanied by short explanations, are printed on a separate poster-sized sheet wrapped about the CD package. This is a recording that I would recommend for a specialist collector of medieval music, but not as an introduction to the intricacies of the ars subtilior.
Recording information: Église de Franc-Waret, Belgium (08/2011).
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Works Details
Anonymous, Codex Chantilly : Pictagore per dogmata / O terra sancta / Rosa vernans, motet - Conductor: Bjorn Schmelzer
- Ensemble: Graindelavoix
- Running Time: 3 min. 28 sec.
- Written: by 1395
Caserta, Philippus de : Espoir dont tu m'a fayt partir, song - Running Time: 9 min. 20 sec.
- Form: Vocal
Solage : Corps feminin - Running Time: 3 min. 9 sec.
- Period Time: Medieval
Solage : Fumeux Fume par fumee - Running Time: 8 min. 11 sec.
- Period Time: Medieval
- Written: 1389
Caserta, Philippus de : Par les bons Gedeon et Sanson delivré (The Worthy Gedeon and Samson), song - Running Time: 4 min. 57 sec.
- Written: after 1350
Anonymous, Codex Chantilly : Inter densas deserti meditans/Imbribus irriguis/Admirabilem est, motet - Running Time: 2 min. 50 sec.
- Period Time: Renaissance
- Written: by 1395
Matheus de Sancto Johanne : Science n'a nul annemi, song - Running Time: 4 min. 44 sec.
- Period Time: Medieval
- Form: Vocal
Galiot, Johannes : En atendant d'avoir la douce vie, rondeau (from the Chantilly Manuscript) - Performers: Marius Peterson; Albert Riara (Voice); Olalla Aleman (Voice)
- Running Time: 8 min. 7 sec.
- Period Time: Medieval
Ciconia, Johannes : Canon :: Le ray su soleyl (3 settings) - Running Time: 3 min. 50 sec.
- Period Time: Medieval
Senleches, Jaquemin de : Fuions de ci, fuions, povre compaigne, ballade - Running Time: 8 min. 31 sec.
- Period Time: Medieval
- Written: after 1382
Traditional, Croatian : Cujes li mi Majko, song - Running Time: 4 min. 41 sec.
- Form: Vocal
Anonymous : Hodie puer nascitur - Running Time: 6 min. 20 sec.
Anonymous, Codex Chantilly : Adieu vous di, tres doulce compaygnie, ballade - Performers: Tomàs Maxé; Antoni Fajardo; Thomas Vanlede (Voice)
- Running Time: 3 min. 30 sec.
- Written: by 1395
