Frye, Byttering, Dunstable, Driffelde - Music for Saint Katherine of Alexandria 2019

Music for Saint Katherine of Alexandria

Жанр: Classical sacred
Страна-производитель диска: Made in England
Год издания диска: 2019
Издатель (лейбл): Hyperion
Номер по каталогу: CDA68274
Дата записи: 2018
Аудиокодек: FLAC
Тип рипа: image+.cue
Битрейт аудио: (lossy + lossless)
Продолжительность: 01:06:13
Источник: релизер
-источник/ник/другое: basso profundo, подарок; Caterina Sforza - работа с cue, доп. сканы
: да
Треклист:

1 WALTER FRYE (d1475) Missa Nobilis et pulchra-
Kyrie ‘Deus creator omnium’ [6'16]

2 FRYE Missa Nobilis et pulchra-Gloria [6'27]

3 THOMAS(?) BYTTERING (fl c1410-1420) En Katerine solennia / Virginalis concio /
Sponsus amat sponsam [2'46]

4 ANONYMOUS Gloria ‘Virgo flagellatur’ reconstructed by Philip Weller [6'30]

5 CHANT & FABURDEN Nobilis et pulchra [1'57]

6 FRYE Missa Nobilis et pulchra-Credo [6'07]

7 JOHN DUNSTAPLE (c1390-1453) Gaude virgo Katherina [4'26]

8 ROBERT(?) DRIFFELDE (fl 1424-1468) Sanctus & Benedictus ‘Regnum mundi’ [4'46]

9 CHANT & FABURDEN Virgo flagellatur [2'48]

11 DRIFFELDE Agnus Dei ‘Eructavit cor meum’ [5'02]
FRYE Missa Nobilis et pulchra

12 Sanctus & Benedictus [6'25]

13 Agnus Dei [6'09]

14 DUNSTAPLE Salve scema sanctitatis / Salve salus servulorum /
Cantant celi agmina laudes [6'34]

Исполнители

Music for Saint Katherine of Alexandria
Walter Frye (d1475)
Missa Nobilis et pulchra: Kyrie “Deus creator omnium”
Missa Nobilis et pulchra: Gloria
Thomas Byttering (fl 1410-1420)
En Katerine solennia / Virginalis concio / Sponsus amat sponsam
Anonymous
Gloria “Virgo flagellatur”
Nobilis et pulchra
Walter Frye (d1475)
Missa Nobilis et pulchra: Credo
John Dunstable (c1390-1453)
Gaude virgo Katherina
Robert Driffelde (fl 1424-1468)
Sanctus & Benedictus “Regnum mundi”
Anonymous
Virgo flagellatur
Robert Driffelde (fl 1424-1468)
Agnus Dei “Eructavit cor meum”
Walter Frye (d1475)
Missa Nobilis et pulchra: Sanctus & Benedictus
Missa Nobilis et pulchra: Agnus Dei
John Dunstable (c1390-1453)
Salve scema sanctitatis / Salve salus servulorum / Cantant celi agmina laudes
[u]The Binchois Consort[/u]
Andrew Kirkman, cond.
Recording Date: May 7, 2018 - May 9, 2018
Recording Location: Ascot Priory, Berkshire
Release Date: May 31, 2019

Review

AllMusic Review by James Manheim [-]
Saint Katherine of Alexandria may or may not have actually existed, but the tale of the imprisoned 17-year-old Christian martyr was catnip to medieval Christians, and the English cult of devotion to this saint (ca. 287-ca. 305) was in full swing in the era of Dunstaple and his contemporaries. This puts it right in the sweet spot of England's Binchois Consort and its conductor, Andrew Kirkman. Katherine was represented in quite a number of alabaster sculptures of the time, and Kirkman takes the unusual step of employing a 'sculptor in residence,' Sarah Danays, to add to this body of work. The music is the main attraction, however, and it's gorgeous. The very small Renaissance vocal group has its pros and cons, but here, in music of a highly devotional mood, it works very well. Dunstaple is represented, but more of the program is devoted to the likes of Walter Frye (d. 1475), Thomas Byttering (active 1410-1420), and Robert Driffelde (active mid-15th century). There are also examples of the faburden or fauxbourdon technique, a semi-improvised form of singing that cultivated composers took up and used to expand the palette of vertical harmonies in polyphony with the all-important third. Sample Virgo flagellatur to hear this unique effect, which is mentioned in music history books but not so often performed. The presence of this album on British classical charts (where several previous Binchois Consort albums had already landed) is unsurprising, for no matter how scholarly Kirkman's approach may be, he gets a sensuous tone from his six singers. Hyperion contributes superb engineering in the entirely appropriate Ascot Priory in Berkshire. Highly recommended.

Review

Was it only last August that I reviewed the Binchois Consort’s previous disc The Lily & the Rose, and went to hear them at Hereford Cathedral during the Three Choirs Festival? Well, just before that disc came out, they had already recorded this disc, again tackling English music of the early to mid-fifteenth century.
This was such an important time in English music. Its style has been called the ‘contenance anglais’ because of the preference for smooth lines and the more consonant intervals of 3rds and 6ths. The pieces by John Dunstaple, Walter Frye and Robert Driffelde (aparently never recorded - his name does not even appear in Frank Llewellyn Harrison’s authoritative Music in Medieval Britain published 1958) exemplify this style. There also is (John?) Forest (d. 1453), not represented on this disc.
As in the Binchois Consort’s other recent CDs, the booklet is adorned with beautiful coloured photographs of medieval alabasters. This time, we can learn the significant aspects of the life of St. Katherine, very popular throughout the middle ages, now remembered for the firework ‘Katherine Wheel’. The booklet shows the entire polyptych now found in the Ca'd’Oro in Venice, dated c.1450. Then, dotted around the texts and their translations, each of its five panels is highlighted. The amazing surviving colour, easily visible, has been wonderfully reproduced.
The section which shows the beheading of St. Katherine is partially damaged: an arm is missing. In steps Sarah Danays, described as ‘sculptor in residence’, who has supplied the missing limb especially for this project. It looks a bit odd - very white compared with the weathered and greying look of the rest - but that may be the point. Andrew Kirkman mentions that it is the equivalent of completing a musical torso (think of Anthony Payne completing Elgar’s 3rd Symhony). Here the late Philip Weller, who also contributed to the booklet notes and to whose memory the CD is dedicated, has reconstructed an anonymous Gloria ‘Virgo flagellatur’, a text which focuses on the saint’s suffering.
The main work, randomly placed across the disc, is the Missa Nobilis et pulcra by Walter Frye. Unusually for English music of this period, it is given a troped Kyrie ‘Deus creator omnium’ . It is in three parts but occasionally moves to two, for example in the middle section of the Agnus dei. It is based on the plainchant Nobilis et pulcra used on St. Katherine’s day (November 25th) as the first responsary at Matins. The rest of the chosen repertoire has a more or less direct link with the saint’s feast day. The exception may be the rather showy, isorhythmic and polytextual motet by Bittering from the Old Hall manuscript En Katerine solennia, which, it is thought, was composed for the wedding of Henry V to Catherine of Valois.
The Binchois Consort consist for this recording of two altos and four tenors. They have a superb blend, and always seem to judge tempi perfectly. They pronounce the Latin in what they consider to be the authentic manner of the period, so for example you will hear something akin to ‘percem’ for pacem and ‘diye’ for dei (forgiving the phonetics). I am not sure how necessary this really is, but it obviously works for them.
In addition to the fascinating (detailed and lengthy) essay mentioned above, the texts and so on, there is Weller and Kirkman’s ‘project note’ Late Medieval English Music and Alabaster, and a brief anonymous essay about the series of works by Sarah Danays The Arms of the Martyrs. There is also a lovely illustration of an alabaster found in Ashover church in Derbyshire, which is well worth seeing.
Gary Higginson