Dunstable - Musician to the Plantagenets

John Dunstaple
Musician to the Plantagenets
Orlando Consort
Metronome 1009

Dunstaple wrote some very significant music, and this program illustrates all of the major genres. As such, it is extremely valuable, and contains a good variety of very interesting music. There is an architectural solidity about this music, combined with graceful melodic motion, that makes it quite affecting.

The performance is committed & well-conceived. The articulation is relatively clear and the formal schemes are digested and laid out with insight, although they tend to be lax on cadential motion. There is also a degree of "stutter" effect which seems to plague the Orlando Consort, and keeps this recording from flowing as smoothly as it could.

This disc was named my EM Record of the Year for 1995. It seems rather dated at this point, but is still the best dedicated Dunstaple program available.

To medieval sacred list.

Todd M. McComb
Updated: 14 April 2017