DE RORE Doulce Mémoire
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Cipriano de Rore
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Sona Musica
Magazine Review Date: 09/2015
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 54
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: SONA1504
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Missa Doulce mémoire |
Cipriano de Rore, Composer
Cipriano de Rore, Composer Guy Janssens, Conductor Laudantes Consort |
Parce mihi Domine |
Cipriano de Rore, Composer
Cipriano de Rore, Composer Guy Janssens, Conductor Laudantes Consort |
Agimus tibi gratias |
Cipriano de Rore, Composer
Cipriano de Rore, Composer Guy Janssens, Conductor Laudantes Consort |
Infelix ego - Ad te igitur |
Cipriano de Rore, Composer
Cipriano de Rore, Composer Guy Janssens, Conductor Laudantes Consort |
Author: Fabrice Fitch
Doulce mémoire was one of the best-known chansons of its day, its pedigree no doubt enhanced by the fact that the text’s author was King Francis I himself. Rore’s choice of it as a model may have been motivated by that royal connection, for it seems quite far removed from his own style. The slightly deeper timbre of the Laudantes Consort gives it the edge over the Brabants, although their take on the Flemish sound is still comparatively light. Markedly slower tempi allow them to linger more broodingly over details, especially in the longer movements; this too seems to me a distinct advantage.
Laudantes’ willingness sensitively to inflect the musical text in the Mass is well taken (though a shade overdone in the chordal passages); if anything, one could have done with even more of the same in the motets. Thus, the stand-out moment near the end of Parce mihi is a cadence on ‘dormiam’ (for ‘sleep’, read ‘death’), and at the end of Infelix ego the ‘miserere’ ostinato, hitherto confined to one voice, overtakes the texture in a magnificent stretto. Though acknowledged here, these key moments might have been rendered still more expressively. That said, Laudantes’ restraint compares favourably with the technically unimpeachable but opaque accounts from The Tallis Scholars. Less than an hour’s music is a bit skimpy nowadays, but these new accounts justify their place in the catalogue.
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