Guillaume de Machaut: La Messe de Notre Dame

Guillaume de Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame
Ensemble Organum - Marcel Pérès, dir.
Harmonia mundi HMC 90 1590

Packaged with: Marcel Pérès Portrait as 2 CDs.

Contents:

    Guillaume de Machaut, Reims, BM Ms 264: Messe de Notre Dame
  1. Introït: Suscepimus Deus misericordiam tuum
  2. Kyrie
  3. Gloria
  4. Graduel: Suscepimus Deus misericordiam tuum
  5. Alleluia: Adorabo ad templum sanctum
  6. Credo
  7. Offertoire: Diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis
  8. Préface: Vere dignum et justum est
  9. Sanctus
  10. Agnus Dei
  11. Communion: Responsum accepit Symeon
  12. Ite missa est - Deo gratias

Playing time: 56' 36"

Performers:
Ensemble Organum [Jérôme Casalonga, Jean-Etienne Langianni, François Barbalozi, Jean-Pierre Lanfranchi, Frédéric Richard, Malcolm Bothwell, Marcel Pérès, Antoine Sicot] - Marcel Pérès, dir.

Recording site and date:
Reims Cathedral, France [02/1996]


[1]-[7], [12] Harmonia Mundi "Century" HMX 290 8168 [CD] Une révolution de l'esprit et de la musique (XIVe siècle) / An intellectual revolution in music - Le siècle de l'Ars nova / Ars Nova, A Revolution in the Late Middle Ages

Reviewed in:
Diapason (#-p.): 434-65 (february 1997)
Gramophone (Vol./#-p.): 74/885-88 (february 1997)
Fanfare (Vol./#-p.): 20/4-254 (march/april 1997)

Comments: Information from owned recording. I must admit mixed feelings when comparing this version of Messe Notre-Dame with Vellard's interpretation which was my first choice (and still is). I have a higher sense of mysticism with Vellard. Maybe what sounds less familiar is the degree of ornamentation and some oriental influences. Perhaps two or three listenings may convince me. This Messe Notre Dame is at least the 21st version of this mass and the style appears very unconventional. For a complete discography of this mass see Messe Notre Dame - Discography.

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Pierre-F. Roberge