Customer Reviews

Worcester Ladymass

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Perhaps as a result of his recasting of medieval Lauds for the 2005 "Oi Me Lasso" -- performed by Anna Maria Friman of Trio Mediaeval -- Gavin Bryars was asked to complete this Ladymass by composing two missing pieces, the 5:14 "Credo" and the 1:19 closing "Benedicamus Domino". Like his work for "Oi Me Lasso", Bryars takes the basic polyphonic material and style of the period and gently lifts it into greater harmonic complexity. The contrast this creates within the Worcester Ladymass is both subtle and profoundly moving, shading the understated beauty of 13th Century sacred music with a hovering, shimmering 21st century harmonic depth left untouched -- or simply not understood -- by these anonymous precursors. The story of where and how these pieces were found and restored is fascinating, and again gives us pause concerning the many points in history during which religious zeal lead to the destruction and often complete elimination of remarkable and rare works of art and understanding. As for the recording itself, my ears find this performance to be more spare and focused than much of the A4 catalog. The Propstei St. Gerold soundstage as presented in this recording seems much drier and consequently more specific than many other spaces. The smaller scale space seems wholly appropriate to the compositional period, offering an authentic sense of austerity and beauty that is more completely reliant on the performance itself.

Trio Medieval sounds very much like Anonymous 4. If you like the one, you will like the other. This CD is very well recorded. The sound is full and fabulous without any harshness. The voices roll out of the speakers like the waves on the album cover and the listener easily becomes submerged in the sound and the beauty.