Katarina Livljanic´’s work with her ensemble Dialogos has been consistently impressive, musically and musicologically, and this new disc, containing both monophony and polyphony imaginatively connecting the liturgical traditions of Fleury and Winchester, is no exception. It is of historical significance too, not only for its reconstructional work of music and words related to Abbot Abbo of Fleury, murdered in 1004 by the guards of the Bishop of Orléans, but also because it was the last recording begun with the late Michel Bernstein, and it would, had he lived, have appeared on his Arcana label.

Musically there are revelations, such as the magnificently reconstructed acrostic poem Otto valens Caesar, the epitaph on the death of Abbo and the remarkable composite prayer against fever De febribus quartanis, beginning with the triple acclamation “Christus natus, Christus passus, Christus resurrexit” and including the the Trisagion in both Greek and Latin and triple amens. All these really display the fine qualities of Dialogos, which for me include their close attention to text and their full, rich sound. I have no doubt that Michel Bernstein would have been delighted at such an outstanding tribute.