Hélas Avril

Hélas Avril
Matteo de Perugia - Chansons
Mala Punica - Pedro Memelsdorff, dir.
Erato 8573-82 163 2

Content:

    Matteo de Perugia, Modena B. Est. a. M. 5, 24
  1. Rondeau: A qui Fortune
  2. Rondeau: Pour Dieu vous pri
  3. Virelai: Plus onques dame
  4. Rondeau: Pour Bel Accueil
  5. Canon (instr.): Andray soulet
  6. Virelai: Puisque je sui
  7. Rondau: Dame de honour plesant
  8. Ballata: Già de rete d'Amor
  9. Rondeau, FPn 568 (instr.): Dame playsans
  10. Virelai: Hélas Avril
  11. Rondeau: Trover ne puis

Playing time: 64' 39"

Performers:
Mala Punica [Jill Feldman (soprano), Pascal Bertin (counter-tenor), Gianluca Ferrarini (tenor), Amandine Beyer (fiddle), Jane Achtman (fiddle), Kees Boeke (fiddle), Mara Galassi (harp), Arianna Savall (harp), Edin Karamazov (chitarrino), Pedro Memelsdorff (recorder)] - Pedro Memelsdorff, dir.

Recording site and date:
Collegara, Italy [12/1998], rel. 2000

Compilation reissue: Erato 84925 Italie Gothique (3 CDs)

Reviewed in:
Diapason (#-p.): 471-81 (june 2000)
Gramophone (Vol./#-p.):
Fanfare (Vol./#-p.):
Goldberg (#-p.):

Comments:
Information from owned CD. This CD won a Diapason d'Or.

Pierre-F. Roberge

Matteo de Perugia (or Perusio) was closely involved in the compilation of the famous Modena manuscript which serves as one of the finest sources of Ars Subtilior music. The one clear detail of his life, besides the manuscript which is his legacy, is that he took up a leading musical post in Milan in 1402. Here Memelsdorff takes the position that he was fully worthy of status as a leading composer in the style, and not someone whose retrospective position came largely from having been close to the copyist. Both positions have certainly been advocated over the years. In any case, Perugia's approach to music was fairly unique, representing something of an (unfollowed) transition between the "Ars Subtilior" and the generation of Dufay.

Other, rather different, dedicated programs:

Perusio: Virelais, Ballades, Caccia
Huelgas Ensemble - Paul Van Nevel
Sony Vivarte 62928
Matteo da Perugia: Chansons
Tetraktys - Kees Boeke
Etcetera "O-live Music" 1918
Matteo da Perugia: Secular Works
Medieval Ensemble of London - Peter & Timothy Davies
L'Oiseau Lyre "Florilegium" 577 (LP)

And a recording by the present ensemble devoted to a more obscure contemporary, Paolo da Firenze:

Narcisso Speculando
Madrigaux de Paolo da Firenze
Mala Punica - Pedro Memelsdorff
Harmonia Mundi 901732

Finally, an improvisatory survey of some sort:

Tal per sonar
Mala Punica - Pedro Memelsdorff
Erato 17876

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Todd M. McComb