1998

Goldberg

What a curious disc. The «cantio triplex» of the title is the mixture of Byzantine and Russian chant with both sacred and secular works by Dufay, the link being the latter's «Lamento for the Fall of Constantinople», all this performed by recorders! There are voices too, discreetly contribuing here and there, but the main concentration of the disc is on the recorder ensemble. The Dufay works are sensitively performed, the motets in a reverential, gentle fashion, the songs more demonstratively. Bells, lute and fiddle are used to add variety to the consort's sound. The Lament, O très piteulx/Omnes amici eius», in fact sounds the least secure on the disc, with its combination of recorders, voice and fiddle. Intonation is not entirely reliable, articulation is idiosyncratic, and the instrumental/vocal blend ist not entirely satisfactory: the recorder consort on its own would have been a better choice. The two Byzantine chants fare much better, principally, I believe, because they are treated as recorder pieces, and performed in a decorated, personal fashion - reinterpreted, in other words - which means that they become entirely idiomatic works for the instruments. In adapting the Russian polyphonic chants there is less problem in any case: their fluidly dissonant lines work just as well on recorders as vocally. The second of this group is quite a tour de force, the (lowest) recorder being accompanied by the bells and employing some dramatic over-blowing and multiphonic techniques which recall, of all things, Tibetan Buddhist chanting. Of the remaining Dufay pieces, the elaborate canonic writing of «inclita stella maris» is extremely well handled, and the use of breath in the socalled «Cantio Triplex» is a nice touch. A disc guaranteed to fascinate recorder enthusiasts, and recommended to other adventurers.