Customer Reviews

La Rocque 'n' Roll - Popular Music of Renaissance France / The Baltimore Consort

5 star:		(9)
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I've attended Baltimore Consort performances a number of times, and they are just about my favorite early music group. They do an outstanding job of making "old" music come alive. Sometimes early music recordings are dry and academic, and the Baltimore Consort is as far from that as you can get. Finally, they have a great since of humor, which often peaks through in their music.

They specialize in popular secular tunes of the age. Their playing is impeccable, and most of the group are accomplished soloists. La Rocque 'n' Roll is probably my favorite recording of theirs, the songs are fun, interesting, and involving. The best of the best...

The fact that the recording is technically very good is a nice bonus. As a matter of fact, "Jean de Nivelle" (track 26) is the first thing I play when evaluating speakers. It helps that I've heard the performance live (and unamplified), so I have a real life comparison. The recoding clearly captures the nuances of the individual instruments. Although obviously not as loud as modern rock, the recording still gives challenges speaker dynamics. Unlike some gee whiz audiophile recordings, I can listen to these songs again and again.

...and played the lute, they would've played like Ron McFarlane, and sang like Custer LaRue. Wonderful performances of 16th C popular music on historical instruments, with lovely twists of rock'n'roll performance techniques. Check out the jazzy krummhorn glissandos, the sexy lute strumming, the straight-ahead power vocal, and the hip plucked bass viol -- especially on the last track. This is my #1 "Desert Island Disk."

This is my favorite CD of all time. I've had it now for five years, I listen to it all the time, and I never get tired of it. Every track is enormously beautiful, from the bright and sunny tunes through the quieter and more melancholy ones.

This is a CD that sounds perfect in the early morning, late at night, or any other time of day.

I've become a huge fan of the Baltimore Consort (one of the highlights of my life was seeing the group perform the songs on this album live at Synod Hall in Pittsburgh, PA) and "La Rocque 'n' Roll" is their "Sgt. Pepper."

The jaunty, whimsical tone of this CD is set by the opening bars of the first piece, "J'ai vu le loup," which starts out with one of the musicians shouting "Un! Dieux!" Many parallels are subtly drawn between the secular music of Renaissance France and popular music of today. "The appeal of performing 'popular' repertory lies in the opportunity it provides for creative expression," explains the insert booklet. "All of the song and dance arrangements on this CD are the creation of the members of the Baltimore Consort, who sometimes only have an unharmonized melody to start with..." What they may lack in specific direction from the long-dead song writers, they more than make up for with catchy arrangements and spirited improvisations. Soprano Custer LaRue sings her sultry French lyrics with relish and gusto, and the addition of reedy crumhorns and bagpipes played by Chris Norman and Mark Cudek adds to the provincial French flavor. The fun of the music is echoed in the CD's amusing packaging: The album cover, somewhat reminiscent of the Beatles' "Abbey Road", features the ensemble members walking along in single file, with their viol and lute cases in hand. Other interior pictures of the group poke fun at other folk and rock imagery, including one shot of a gentleman in shades licking the neck of his bass viol. Not exactly the norm for early music releases, but refreshing for just that reason. Rocque on!

It is hard to overpraise this wonderful CD. The verve and artistry with which the Baltimore Consort performs these pieces is simply unsurpassed. And there is a huge difference between the concept of today's pop music and pop music of the Renaissance. Today's pop music is a generic product that is manufactured in a mass-production process. In the Renaissance, music was local and was written one piece at a time.

Do not be misled by the use of the word "popular" in the title of this CD. This is beautiful music, masterfully arranged and played.

I am not a scholar of the music being presented here, but it does seem to be well-handled on this fantastic-sounding recording. The Baltimore Consort has an excellent reputation for musicianship and this disk does not besmirch that. Personally I think that attempts to equate musics of the past with rockstardom are essentially silly and simpleminded, but that doesn't matter much if the music is good. And here it is good indeed.

I've been collecting renaissance/medieval music for several years and have finally found something that sounds as though the musicians are actually having FUN with the repertoire. This is a blast, I recommend it to all.

I've long enjoyed this album! La Rocque 'n' Roll is refreshing and easy to work to. I misplaced this CD & recently found their music on Pandora and realized I missed this. I'm purchasing another CD!

These musicians are superb. If you're interested in Renaissance or Medieval music, this is a "must own" CD. My favorite song on the album is "Une m'avoit promis" by the French composer/lutenist Adrian Le Roy (c. 1520-1598). Their music is bright, the vocals are superb, and the recording is near perfection.