Perotin Sacred Choral Works

View record and artist details

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Pérotin, Anonymous

Label: ECM New Series

Magazine Review Date: 2/1990

Media Format: Vinyl

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: ECM1385

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Viderunt omnes V. Notum fecit	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Alleluia, Posui adiutorium	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Dum sigillum summi patris	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Alleluia, Nativitas	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Beata viscera	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Sederunt principes V. Adiuva	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Veni creator spiritus	Anonymous, Composer Anonymous, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
O Maria virginei	Anonymous, Composer Anonymous, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Isias cecinit	Anonymous, Composer Anonymous, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor

Composer or Director: Pérotin, Anonymous

Genre:

Vocal

Label: ECM New Series

Magazine Review Date: 2/1990

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 68

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 837 751-2

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Viderunt omnes V. Notum fecit	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Alleluia, Posui adiutorium	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Dum sigillum summi patris	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Alleluia, Nativitas	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Beata viscera	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Sederunt principes V. Adiuva	Pérotin, Composer Pérotin, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Veni creator spiritus	Anonymous, Composer Anonymous, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
O Maria virginei	Anonymous, Composer Anonymous, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor
Isias cecinit	Anonymous, Composer Anonymous, Composer Hilliard Ensemble Paul Hillier, Conductor

Author: David Fallows

These are heady times for those who like the music of the years around 1200. Hard on the heels of ''Music For The Lion-Hearted King'' from Gothic Voices (Hyperion—10/89), the Hilliard Ensemble's new record of a slightly different part of the repertory offers another superb and original recording. It has that same quality of giving musical individuality to a group of works that have hitherto tended to sound much the same. Moreover, as a special attraction for those wanting to see artistic individuality in early composers, it includes all but one of the identifiable works of Perotinus (if the editor will allow me to use the only name by which he is known in preference to the Frenchification that has no apparent authority).
Inevitably his two grand four-voice organa take up much of the record. At nearly 12 minutes each they may have been the most ambitious polyphonic works composed up to the end of the twelfth century and have both been recorded several times before—including a gruesome old record by the Dessoff Choirs under Paul Boepple (nla), a rather jolly one from Alfred Deller with lots of percussion (nla), and an impressively incisive Viderunt recorded by David Munrow shortly before his death (Archiv Produktion (CD) 415 292-2AH, 8/85). As a contrast, the Hilliard Ensemble adopt a wonderfully suave and supple approach to both Viderunt and Sederunt softening the pervasive rhythms that make the earlier versions a shade oppressive and showing a magnificently clear view of the entire architecture of each piece. They surge irrepressibly from one section to another, creating a musical momentum that belies the admirably slow speeds they generally adopt. They also beautifully underline the musical differences between the two works. In the warm acoustics of Boxgrove Priory they may not put across all the notes with Munrow's clarity, but they produce a sound that—for the first time, in my experience—seems a credible reflection of what one might have heard at Notre Dame in the late twelfth century.
What is particularly exciting here is the way in which the musicians grasp at the individual dynamic of each work: the enormous open spaces they create to project the text of the magical O Maria virginei; the breakneck virtuosity in their swirling performance of Dum sigillum, the ever so gently modulated rhythms in the strophic Veni creator; the harder edge in their tone for Alleluia Nativitas; and so on. With a splendidly judged note by Paul Hillier, this is a record of the highest distinction.'