The Rose, the Lily & the Whortleberry
Harmonia Mundi
Probably the first CD to include instructions for designing a neo-medieval garden. But that’s just the iceberg’s tip: the music matches the ideas in floral imagery and artful design, with courtly love lyrics, bawdy chansons, and Song of Songs settings from composers such as Machaut, Gombert and the excellent Anonymous. The Consort’s five male voices (unaccompanied) inflect text and line with precision and passion.
GEOFF BROWN