Psaumes et Chansons de la Réforme

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The French Reformation yielded a large, distinguished and (most of all) varied body of music to suit the new requirements of the Protestant faith, ranging from simple, chorale-like Psalm settings (in Clement Marot’s beautiful translations into the vernacular) to more complex polyphony setting moralising texts. It also takes in well-known secular songs whose texts have been suitably adapted to suit a sacred purpose. (The juxtaposition of the old and new versions is particularly amusing, since the ensemble has already recorded most of those chosen here using original texts: so, for instance, Lassus’s Quant mon mari vient de dehors becomes Quant mon mari s’en va dehors, and the unhappily married young woman is transformed into a devoted and devout housewife.)

It is good that an ensemble of this calibre takes up the cause of this music, so much of it very fine, but which is all too often identified solely with its provenance. The Janequins sing with a fervour and seriousness that may surprise those who associate them with their more theatrical or scurrilous repertories; and it goes without saying that enacting the text remains a central concern. As so often on the group’s most recent recordings, the contribution of the instrumentalists (though more understated than on their previous, Gramophone Award-winning disc of Spanish secular music – Harmonia Mundi, 4/98) is telling and effective, their solo interventions cleansing the ear with welcome regularity.

That brings me to another striking aspect of this disc, the effectiveness of its programming: clearly sectionalised yet varied, generous yet well balanced, it seldom allows the attention to flag (though a couple of the settings of the humourless, heavy-handed Octonaires de la vanite du monde seem to lack the impetus so richly in evidence elsewhere). One gets the impression that only lack of space prevented Visse from mining the repertory further still: at 79 minutes, this is indeed a generous offering, and not to be missed.

contents:

1. Paschal de Lestocart - Reveillez Vous Chacun Fidele

2. Claude Le Jeune - Du Fond De Ma Pensee

3. Nicolas Vallet - Onse Vader Ins Hemelryck

4. Claude Goudimel - Apres Avoir Constamment Attendu

5. Paschal de Lestocart - Estans Assis Aux Rives Aquatiques

6. Clément Janequin - Dont Vient Cela

7. Clément Janequin - Mon Dieu Me Paist

8. Clément Janequin - Jusques A Quand

9. Clément Janequin - Veu Que Du Tout

10. Pierre Certon - O Bienheureux Celuy

11. Loys Bourgeois - Las, En Ta Fureur Aigue

12. Claude Goudimel - Estans Assis Aux Rives Aquatiques

13. Roland de Lassus - Quand Mon Mar S'en Va Dehors

14. Roland de Lassus - J'ayme Mon Diue

15. Roland de Lassus - Fuyons Des Vices Le Jeu

16. Claudin De Sermisy - Tant Que Vivray En Aege Florisant

17. Eustache du Caurroy - Dix-Huictieme Fantaisie

18. Benedictus Appenzeller - Du Fons De Ma Pensee

19. Claude Le Jeune - O Dieu, Je N'ay Dieu Fors Que Toy

20. Claude Le Jeune - Helas Mon Dieu

21. Eustache du Caurroy - Vingtieme Fantaisie Sur Le Ps.

22. Nicolas Vallet - A Ton Bras Droit

23. Eustache du Caurroy - Dix-Septieme Fantasie

24. Eustache du Caurroy - Octonaires De La Vanite Et Inconstance Du Monde

25. Paschal de Lestocart - Je Vis Un Jour

26. Paschal de Lestocart - Celuy Qui Pense Pouvoir

27. Paschal de Lestocart - Ou Est La Mort? 

Ensemble Clement Janequin