C 9625 GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT: LE VRAY REMÈDE [11,99 Euro]

Designed and produced in order to be a companion disc to the universally acclaimed previous release of Ensemble Gilles Binchois in Cantus (C 9626 Machaut: Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre, described by American magazine Schwann-Opus as “the modern equivalent of an illuminated book of hours: beautiful to hold, read and hear, it is an effort worthy of the universal praise it has received”), this new release, Le Vray Remède d’Amour (“the true remedy of love”) explores once again the fascinating experience of combining Machaut’s read poetry and music. The

Ensemble Gilles Binchois has selected a number of textes dits (this is, read), putting them together with the composer’s ballades, rondeaux, motets and virelais. It seems that during the 16th century it was very common to intersperse poetical readings with musical performances. The powerful had at their service all sorts of artists, including poets that would produce texts that were read by themselves or by actors and narrators in meetings, which would very possibly alternate music and poetry. It was not infrequent that a musical work especially dedicated to a prominent protector of the arts was performed preceded by a poetical laudatory piece.

The intention then was to reinforce the dramatic impact of the poetical text associating its “performance” to the music, making a whole of both pieces. This is has been the performers’ proposal both in this recording and in Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (C 9626): the poems, all of them of moving beauty, are admirably read (“performed”, we should say) by Jean-Paul Racodon, an outstanding actor and reader specialised in medieval French poetry, and after each of them the Ensemble Gilles Binchois recreates with their voices and instruments a musical piece that underlines and amplifies the meaning of the poem. The listening results in dramatic, passionate and extraordinary musical experience, as critics have unanimously remarked.