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Reviewer: Barry
Brenesal
This album was meant to
celebrate the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, an upset English
victory over the French won by mud, woods, and longbows. In practice such a
program would have been too narrow to support its theme, given how little
music has survived from the period, much less tied to a specific event. (The
Agincourt Carol is a spectacular exception.) So Andrew Kirkman decided to
widen the net to include English repertoire during the Hundred Years’ War—in
which for 116 years (1337–1453) the kings of the Plantagenet and Valois
lines threw multitudes of soldiers at one another, and severely crippled
both their economies. Music set to sacred texts was invoked, as it often is, to celebrate one’s leaders, in and out of battle, and the cultural icons that underpin the state. These are points Andrew Kirkman makes both his liner notes, and in his program. The latter is divided into 19 selections in four categories: “Kingship and the Rise of Nations,” “Sir Thomas Becket—Protector of England,” “St. Edmund, King and Martyr—Protector of England,” and “The Coronation of Henry VI.” Despite the scholarship that informs Kirkman’s research, much of the music is tied to particular occasions which are, he admits, founded upon conjecture. Whatever the truth of the matter, it isn’t in any case the program that makes this kind of album successful, any more than the lack of a program would doom it. It’s the music and its performance that determine its worth. Fortunately, the music is extremely well chosen from a viewpoint to both quality and rarity. It consists of nine isorhythmic motets (eight three-voice, one two-voice), five Mass movements, several chants, and two carols (including a rousing performance of the aforementioned Agincourt Carol). Of particular note is the first appearance on record of a new performing edition by Philip Weller of the fragmentary Kyrie to Dunstable’s Missa Da gaudiorum premia. There’s also a rendition of that fine English example of ars subtilor, Sub Arturo plebs, more experimental sounding here than in the Ferrara Ensemble’s orchestral arrangement for Medieval harps (Arcana 382), in part because the Binchois Consort’s disparate vocal textures are less inclined to suggest anachronistic vertical harmonies that disguise the music’s sudden melodic leaps and shifting polyrhythmic character. Much of the material on this release remains difficult to find and hear, whether live or on records. Even La Reverdie’s excellent version of Anglia tibi turbidas (Arcana 399) has been removed from the active catalog, and is currently available only in secondhand copies or as a digital download. The Binchois Consort comprises six male voices on this album. As in past releases of theirs, Kirkman puts a premium on precision, clarity, clean production, and beauty of sound. The interweaving high voices in Dunstable’s Preco preheminencie never lose their individual lines, while carefully limned rhythmic values bring out the exuberance of such works as Power’s Credo Opem nobis. The venue for the recording, Berkshire’s Ascot Priory, is not over-reverberant, but supplies just enough “room” to let the voices display their richness, individually and as a group. Given the quality of the music, the performances and sound on this release, a positive recommendation is not merely inevitable, but a distinct pleasure. | |
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