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Reviewer:
Fabrice Fitch
This year’s quincentenary of the accession of King Francis I is being commemorated by a number of ensembles. This impressive offering from Doulce Mémoire, which is unlikely to be surpassed for scale or splendour, recalls Alia Vox’s lavishly illustrated and documented productions. Its two CDs are devoted to sacred and secular repertories respectively. The first reimagines the music for the High Mass that concluded the historic ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold’ summit of 1520 between Francis and Henry VIII, in which both chapels royal participated. Which works they sang is not known but Denis Raisin Dadre’s selection draws plausibly on the principal composers active within each group. The choice of Sermisy, Mouton and Divitis to represent the French is logical; that of Ludford on the English side is more surprising but very welcome. If the resulting confrontation of styles is one of the project’s most stimulating and unusual elements, the performances themselves are more variable: unsurprisingly given their discography, Doulce Mémoire are most at home with Sermisy but the selections from Ludford’s Missa Benedicta et venerabilis are less assured. The vocal ensemble lacks body and is oddly mismatched (Véronique Bourin seems to me miscast as a high treble) and struggles to shape convincingly the longer, more polyphonically intricate pieces generally.
Doulce Mémoire are far more secure in the secular disc, which presents some of the most famous polyphonic songs of the day in rarely heard, rewardingly inventive reworkings. Among the finest of these are from a publication by Pierre Certon, the now missing voice parts of which have been reconstructed for this recording. The instrumental consorts are especially fine, a technical and artistic match for the inventiveness of the programming. They more than make up for my reservations concerning the sacred disc.
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