Not since a previous recording by Dominique Vellard’s ensemble (Harmonic, 6/91 – nla) have Binchois’s songs appeared in any quantity on CD. On that older recording, he shared a double-bill with Dufay; yet the booklet-notes to this timely offering set out an objective case for considering Binchois a more significant song composer than his now more famous contemporary. If one turns to the music, the reasons for Dufay’s greater popularity are equally obvious: Binchois’s songs yield their secrets more slowly, and operate within a more limited expressive ambit. They demand repeated listening, whereas Dufay’s songs tend to make their impact at first hearing. True, Binchois’s surface charm is most beguiling, broken as it is by the occasional disconcerting dissonance or quirk of line; but so too is the sense of extreme stylization, suggestive perhaps of the conventional atmosphere of the Burgundian ducal court. Some characteristic turns of phrase recur between pieces. It is all the more important for recordings of his music to bear repeated listening as well. This one certainly fulfils that requirement, and there is sufficient variety of scoring to sustain interest from song to song.
Perhaps the crux of interpreting Binchois is whether to match his fabled restraint in performance, or to coax the songs’ expressivity to the surface. Dominique Vellard seems to prefer the former approach, which relies for its effectiveness on the innate vocal qualities of his singers. For the most part, they respond admirably. I especially admire Vellard’s sopranos: the special artistry of Lena Susanne Norin, whose increasing involvement in this repertory (as here, in Adieu, adieu and especially Je vous salue) is a cause for celebration; Anne-Marie Lablaude’s contributions (such as Pour prison) are lighter in tone, but graceful and supple. A few years ago I would have welcomed this reserved approach wholeheartedly, but now at times I find myself wondering whether a more impassioned delivery of the text might not be appropriate – particularly in Dueil angoisseus, surely one of the finest poems set to music in the fifteenth century. And it continues to puzzle me that certain stanzas are shorn of their text to allow for instrumental participation (especially with texts of this quality). For this piece, I will always return to the Gothic Voices’ hieratic, supra-personal interpretation. The Binchois discography makes up in quality for what it lacks in quantity, and notwithstanding these reservations, this disc sits comfortably in a distinguished niche of the repertory.'