Rating: 5/5
Review:
A hidden gem
I was absolutely bowled over by this disc on first hearing. Pierre de la Rue was one of "the forgotten generation" of composers who came immediately after Josquin, but why they were forgotten is a puzzle to me - la Rue's music (like that of his contemporary Gombert) is inventive, skilful, and very, very beautiful. This disc is a setting of his mass based on the chanson `Incessament mon povre cueur lamente'. (I think my spellchecker has just gone into meltdown, but its 16th-century French probably isn't all it might be.) The music is utterly lovely and is sung superbly by Amarcord, who were a new ensemble to me. They sing in the Flemish tradition at a low pitch and record in a resonant acoustic which gives the polyphony a magnificent rich sound, and the mass movements are interspersed with plainsong propers which are so well sung and sound so lovely that they simply glow.
This is a thoroughly out-of-the-way disc of rather obscure music, but if anyone should happen upon this page I strongly urge you to buy it. I've loved it since the moment it arrived and play it often and with huge pleasure. It's a real hidden gem.
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