Record Reviews

adopt and adapt what they those ubiquitous best-of-the-year lists cee$ te_Prai4in au ea iA heard to their own purposes. and asure-fire hit for your home CD ad MOMi t it e 4N: ea Mena i,bia lice For musicologists and more library. -David Vernier ENSEMBLE CLÉMENT JANEQUINI seriously analytical listeners, DOMINIQUE VISSE these songs by some of the VAUGHAN WILLIAMS greatest of the A London Symphony (Symphony 2) time — Clemens non Papa, Pierre Certon, Claudin de With: Butterworth: The Banks of Green Willow Hickox/London Symphony Orchestra Sermisy, Nicolas Gombert, Chandos CHAN 9902 (CD). 2001. Brian Couzens, Tylman Susato, and the ever- prod.; Ralph Couzens, Christopher Brooke, engs. DDD. Tr: 67:39 present Anonymous — will Performance **** provide plenty of material for Sonics ***** scholarly investigation. For eldom has the world been given the rest of us, the fun comes such arevealing peek into the simply from the listening — Screative workings of Ralph Vaug- besides its strictly musical/ han Williams as in this recording of the academic virtues, this program original, 1913 version of his second sym- offers one of the more enter- phony, A London Symphony. One could taining hours of argue that seldom has the public wanted you'll find anywhere in the catalog. The one —Vaughan Williams is hardly an pleasure doesn't actually come from the enigmatic or even complicated musical classical texts, which you won't understand personality, particularly in this affectionate unless you're extremely fluent in musical portrait of pre-WWI London. ENSEMBLE French or closely follow the transla- Or so it seemed until now. The com- CLÉMENT JANEQUIN tions, but from the rich textures and poser cut some 20 minutes of music colorful sonorities, the lively, catchy from the piece between 1913 and 1920, Les Plaisirs du Palais rhythms of the happier songs, and the aperiod during which he had to recon- Drinking Songs of the occasional and very surprising outbursts struct the symphony from parts after the by Clemens non Papa, Pierre Certon, Claudin de Sermisy, Nicolas Gombert, Tylman of vocal sound effects. score had been lost. The differences are Susato, others The latter appear most notably in at first abit elusive, partly because of Ensemble Clément Janequin; Dominique Visse, ; Eric Bellocq, , guitar Gombert's "La chasse au lievre" (The the kind of listening habits Vaughan Harmonia Mundi HMC 901729 (CD). 2001. Nicolas hunt of the hare), a7'/2-minute tour de Williams tends to inspire. His sym- Bartholomée, prod., eng. DDD. Tr: 61:17 Performance force that vividly describes ahunt, com- phonies flow over one so effortlessly, Sonics ..... plete with animal-sound imitations. never seeming to require the analytic lthough this disc's subtitle is Odd vocal effects appear in adifferent attention of, say, Alban Berg. Though Drinking Songs of the Renaissance, and highly compelling way in Dam- there's more to discover in subsequent Athese very sophisticated if occa- beres bizarre "Secouez moy," in which listenings to his works, it's hard to walk sionally quite graphic vocal ensemble the song's subject demands, "Shake me, away from Vaughan Williams' placid works would be better described as sec- Iam all teary-eyed." Other highlights nature studies feeling as though you've ular songs of love, life, and (of course) include some fine examples of the most missed anything important— his music lust. But they certainly are not "tavern" melancholy of love songs —by Certon says what it means. However, as this songs —no one who's had afew too (sung by solo voice with viol accompa- recording suggests, there was aperiod many would be capable of singing these niment), Appenzeller, and Sermisy, when all was not so straightforward. often complex pieces —and only afew among others —and the opening chan- In the 1913 version of A London are actually about drinking. In fact, the son by Clemens, asensuous, sonorous Symphony there are more expansive val- vocal ensemble Clement Janequin has a masterpiece ideally interpreted by these leys amid the peaks in the second move- "higher" purpose in their choice of five outstanding male voices. ment, the third-movement scherzo has a repertoire, and even in the order in Instrumental fans will certainly be which the songs arc programmed: to ex- impressed by Eric Bellocq's dazzling solo plore the differences, similarities, and performances on lute and guitar, which CHANDOS points of significant overlap between appear in the middle of the program. styles of French and Netherlandish sec- There's also plenty of variety in the per- ular music of the 16th century. forming configurations among the 21 Most obviously, these points of selections, from acappella ensemble and comparison are reflected in the more solo singing to viol and/or guitar and elaborately polyphonic, sonorous lute accompaniments. The superior

Flemish works vs the more homo- engineering ensures that we don't miss WORI PRI M I I RF RICOREN N6--- phonic, text-conscious French pieces. the inner detail of the vocal lines or the VAUGHAN WILLIAMS But throughout Les Plaisirs du Palais, extraordinarily vibrant ensemble quality A LONDON SYMPHONY these stylistic lines of demarcation are produced by the cumulative effects of the original 1913 vrybion of Symphony No. 2 constantly being blurred by com- warm, reedy vocal timbres and absolute- posers whose originality led them ly dead-on intonation. outside any prescribed framework, This outstanding recording captures and who, through exposure to music the best of all aspects of early vocal LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA RICHARD HICKOX from other parts of Europe, tended to music. It's a deserving candidate for

Stereophite, August 2001