Western music as we know it today-many individual lines of whatever nature combining in whatever manner into a single whole-has its roots in the fourteenth century, and most famously in the pioneering works of Guillaume de Machaut. Why he chose to set his remarkable poetry to music in this way we may never know, but the results continue to hold those who hear it enraptured.
Few groups have matched The Orlando Consort-formed in 1988 specifically to explore this repertoire-in capturing and recording the essence of Machaut. This is the second volume in their Machaut Edition for Hyperion.
“The second anthology in the Orlando Consort's Machaut marathon…[is] characterised by supreme text- sensitivity and beauty of tone. One marvels at their trademark exquisite balance and their ability to reveal even the most complex of Machaut's structures with enviable agreement and ensemble.” Early Music Today
“Machaut, in the skilled hands of these musicians, turns these brutalities into music of ethereal purity, pulsating with poised, almost jaunty rhythms. Music for quiet concentration.” The Observer, 25th January 2015
“Much of the time the musical and textual argument puts the spotlight on the consort's younger members, the countertenor Matthew Venner and the higher tenor Mark Dobel…Their agility and Venner's clear, well-modulated timbre and admirably control of phrasing play no small part in the Orlandos' rejuvenation.” Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine, March 2015