Gothic Voices' latest recording of French songs and motets from 1340 to 1440 is as challenging in its title, ''The Medieval Romantics'', as in its execution. Both the music and the recording reveal a repertoire of captivating interest and beauty— not 'wayward', as some would suggest, but astonishingly creative and adventurous. A listener unacquainted with this music should enjoy Christopher Page's illuminating and detailed introduction.
The programme includes pieces by such familiar names as Machaut and Dufay, others by less well-known names, and others—by no means the least impressive—by unknown composers. The flowing momentum of the descending sequential figures in the opening rondeau Quiconques veut d'amors joir sets the pace and indicates the character of the whole recital: it is elegant, but also glowing and vigorous. The singers settle for a pleasantly reedy tone, which is never mannered or excessive. Its warmth and vitality are matched by the kind of vocalization they have invented to interpret the textless or partially texted lines. They vocalize endlessly—perhaps rather too much so—on the French 'u' sound with its rich ingredients of upper partials. Such a relaxed and ingenious manner of vocalization, whether authentic or not, has the effect of surrounding the actual lines of the song with a quasi-instrumental texture, one that contrasts well with the gentle plucking of harp and lute in other items, notably Mais qu'il vous viengne a plaisance.
Further variety is achieved in more obvious ways, by the different vocal groupings, for example. Two of Machaut's virelais are sung by a solo unaccompanied voice: C'est force, faire le weil, by a tenor, and the haunting Comment qu'a moy lonteinne, by an alto. One of the loveliest and at the same time the most intriguingly experimental pieces is another virelai, Joieux de cuer en seumellant estoye, by Solage. A wide-ranging tenor voice sings the only texted line, and an alto and two tenors vocalize the other parts with amazing freedom and delicacy. For this piece alone, with its matchless musical originality, I would want to buy this disc.'