"On this Signum release we are entertained by late fifteenth century music from the personal songbook of Isabella d’Este, the daughter of the Duke of Ferrara and wife of the Duke of Mantua. Isabella’s songbook has survived in the Bibliothèque National in Paris and contains mainly accompanied songs both sacred and secular plus some instrumental works. These are composed in the Burgundian tradition by leading Flemish composers of the day including Josquin, Isaac and Ockeghem, who were plying their trade in Isabella’s Italy.

Isabella had learned to sing and proficiently play the viol, lute and harpsichord, all instruments deemed appropriate for a young Lady of aristocratic status. In 1499 the Duchess succumbed to the new fashion and developed the use of the consort of viols in the court of Ferrara. The consort of viols can sound most impressive too, as heard in Isaac’s La mi a 4 (01:12 track 16) and Absque verbis a 3 (01:02 track 24). The songbook contains a marvellously rich cross-section of vocal and instrumental music which utilises the voice and various combinations of four viols, four recorders, three crumhorns, lutes and guitar. It should be noted that several dances or lute solos, works not from the songbook, have been added to the disc from contemporary sources....

Signum records are to be congratulated for yet another release of late-renaissance music which certainly help to fill gaps in the catalogue of this rare repertoire. Clearly not every one will be able to take seventy five minutes of late-fifteenth century music at one sitting however pleasurable and abundant discoveries await the more adventurous listener."

Michael Cookson
 

 

"This anthology grows on you as it unfolds. The players are skilled instrumentalists, but the feeling is of friends at home, picking up different instruments as the mood takes them. The same music is repeated in several versions, and there are many real gems. At first the singing is cool, Clare Wilkinson’s voice almost an additional instrumental line. There is often a disconcerting lack of apparent connection between the delightfully fresh words and the music, often in many verses with little or no word setting by our expectations from later generations of composers. But Clare Wilkinson allows herself to become more animated and involved in a number of the items, and the variations of instrumentation (indicated by the letterings in the listings above) are a help. La mi la solla mi gia vol is a jolly song about rejection worthy of Wolf’s Italian Songbook. Ne la digna stalla is a cheerful Nativity celebration, In te, Domine, speravi a bleak acceptance that after all the praying "very little is provided for my pain". The full texts and translations enhance enjoyment enormously.

A generously filled CD, impeccably recorded. The presentation is exemplary and Philip Thorby’s notes, with an account of Isabella’s musical tastes, comprehensive and interesting for the non-specialist. As you can see above, the information is compendious, though (a very tiny cavill) it would have helped if the "Instrumentarium" had been placed on page 3 opposite the tracklist (nothing would have been lost thereby) so that one did not have to have so many fingers keeping place in different pages. Against that, praise to Jan Hart for the meticulous alignment of the translations. All in all, a very satisfying compilation combining scholarship with sensuous pleasure."

Peter Grahame Woolf