You may remember a few years ago the Orlando Consort’s magnificent debut for Harmonia Mundi, titled “Food, Wine, & Song”, which celebrated music and food with a combination recording/medieval cookbook, complete with beautiful illustrations and some intriguing recipes along with expertly sung music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Well, this time the male quartet focuses on the importance of the garden in music and poetry from the 13th through 16th centuries, offering musical selections from France, England, Spain, Italy, and the Low Countries. As before, the hard-cover book that accompanies the CD includes gorgeous color reproductions of appropriate Medieval and Renaissance art along with scholarly commentary, this time pertaining to the significance of the garden to life, love, and celebration during the period in question. Immediately apparent in the music are certain commonalities of style–and certainly of themes–owing to the widespread influence of itinerant musicians roaming Europe, each carrying a varied mix of repertoire depending on what countries, courts, and taverns he had visited.
And while there are some similarities, it’s also easy to hear differences, from the chansons of the Low Countries (Crecquillon, Clemens non Papa) to the motet style of Spanish and French composers such as Ceballos, Brumel, or Guerrero. And then there’s the unmistakable voice of Machaut, represented here in the beautiful chanson “Rose, liz, printemps, verdure” (Rose, lily, spring, greenery). As we might expect from a program devoted to a garden theme, there’s tremendous variety on display, from the more overt harmonies and saucy rhythms to the more delicate, subtle details of phrasing, dynamics, and expressive nuance. And yet, as in any well-planned garden, these varied components all fit together in one pleasing, compatible whole, any part of which may be enjoyed separately or in the context of the greater setting. There are many highlights–the art works are an important and fascinating complement–but my favorite musical selection is Brumel’s lovely little motet Sicut lilium, an ideal setting of the text from the Song of Songs, “As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” The Orlando Consort and Harmonia Mundi have delivered another inspired, enlightening, and entertaining project, first-class from cover to cover and from first note to last. [1/16/2006]
