COMPOSERS: Beatriz de Dia,Bernart de Ventadorn,Etienne de Meaux,Frauenlob,Gace Brulé,Giraut de Bornelh
LABELS: Teldec Das Alte Werk
WORKS: Works by Giraut de Bornelh, Beatriz de Dia, Bernart de Ventadorn, Etienne de Meaux, Frauenlob, Gace Brulé,
PERFORMER: Studio der Frühen Musik/ Thomas Binkley
CATALOGUE NO: 4509-97938-2 ADD (1966-74)
These discs are a tribute to the late Thomas Binkley. In the twenty or thirty years since the recordings were made, scholarship has questioned whether troubadour and trouvère songs – notated simply as melodic skeins – were performed with instrumental accompaniments at all.
Still, there is much to enjoy in these lively improvisations, often inspired by Arab-Andalusian music, though they sound at odds with the more rigid, now dated singing, and Andrea von Ramm’s unconvincing accent. A disc for devotees of the Studio, but others may prefer more recent recordings of this repertoire by Gothic Voices and Sequentia. Kate Bolton