Compere: Magnificat, Motets & Chansons – Orlando Consort Hyperion

‘The Orlando Consort take the brave step of focusing almost exclusively on [Compère’s] songs [which] are … very exposing of a singer’s technique: there really is nowhere to hide … this project is a confident affirmation that all-vocal recordings of 15th-century songs are well worth making’ (Gramophone)

‘We owe a debt of gratitude to The Orlando Consort for bringing us this pleasing, interesting and innovative music’ (BBC Music Magazine)

1
Magnificat primi toni[12’49]
2
Tant ay d’ennuy / O vos omnes[8’17]
3
Dictes moy toutes voz pensées[4’35]
4
Une plaisant fillette ung matin se leva[2’43]
5
Vous me faites morir d’envie[6’17]
6
Ung franc archier Ung franc taulpin qui sur les champs alloit[7’08]
7
Ne doibt on prendre quant on donne[5’03]
8
Au travail suis sans espoir de confort[6’24]
9
Mes pensées ne me lessent une heure[11’41]
10
O bone Jesu[3’23]

The Orlando Consort’s third recording for Hyperion turns to the music of Loyset Compère, a composer the group first investigated some twenty years ago. In the intervening decades musicological goal-post shifting has elevated our composer from also-ran outsider to something of a trailblazer, the wonderfully complex Magnificat recorded here, for example, now being thought to predate the masterworks of Josquin by some fifteen years. A gorgeous selection of motets and chansons further charts this period of radical musical experimentation.