BOSTON CAMERATA

Anne Azéma, reader and soprano
Frederick Jodry, countertenor
William Hite, tenor
Christopher Kale, tenor
Daniel McCabe, bass-baritone
Paul Guttry, bass

THE SCHOLA CANTORUM OF BOSTON
Frederick Jodry, conductor

1. Heu! Unus ex vobis me tradet hodie - 3:08
Guillaume Bouzigna (before 1592-after 1641)
Daniel McCabe, bass-baritone

2. Mais qui vous meut, Seigneur* - 1:20
Jean de la Ceppede (1548-1623)
Anne Azéma, reader

3. Vexilla regis - 6:57
Elzéar Genet dit Carpentras (c. 1470-1548)
All singers

4. Première Lamentation pour le Mercredy Saint au Soir - 17:52
Jean Gilles (1668-1705)
Anne Azéma, William Hite, Christopher Kale, Daniel McCabe

5. Comme Trois Forgerons* - 1:14
Zacharie de Vitré (1659-?)
Anne Azéma

6. Ha! Plange - 2:45
Guillaume Bouzignac
Frederick Jodry, William Hite, Christopher Kale, Daniel McCabe,
Paul Guttry

7. Première Lamentation pou le Jeudy Saint au Soir - 11:24
Jean Gilles
Anne Azéma, William Hite, Christopher Kale, Daniel McCabe

8. Sur l'Albre de la Crotz* - 0:52
Pierre Godolin (ca. 1610)
Anne Azéma

9. Ne avertas faciem tuam - 1:38
Gregorian chant (traditional Provençale)
Daniel McCabe

10. Première Lamentation pour le Vendredy Saint au Soir - 9:36
Jean Gilles
Anne Azéma, William Hite, Christopher Kale, Daniel McCabe

*spoken text

 

---

from Diapason (Paris, France), April 1995
rating: *****

Joel Cohen may well be the best precisely where, a priori, you least expect him to be. If anyone is a many-faceted talent, it is surely he, since he undertakes, with the Boston Camerata, seven centuries of music, including, a few years back, a very interesting Gilles Requiem. Joel Cohen proposes the same journey -- with complementary Gregorian chants -- in these Lamentations for Holy Week. Aside from a few details (the three readings are a too-dry punctuation for the musicality of the prayers), this is an inspired recording. First of all, one must acknowledge the maestro's sensitivity to the specific characteristics of Occitan culture...a sensibility that Northerners tend to view, reductionistically, as simply warm and friendly. Through the works examined here, the South's mysticism takes on an austere, almost Jansenist shading, different from the less-abrupt manner of northern French composers. Curiously, this tragic vision of existence also has a theatrical side (in the déploration), different from, but distantly influenced by, Italy. It is this specific [Occitan] identity which inspires the American team. They bring out the sense of the words with great acuity, and reveal, in the distress of Gilles' Ténèbres, a kind of sacred fire that recalls the penitential works of Gesualdo. The most astonishing thing is that this multi-religious group (Jews, Protestants, perhaps even some Catholics) has such an instinctive affinity for the liturgical mysticsm of the composers -- the most precious of these, despite Gilles, being the inspired and unpredictable Bouzignac. His sacred emotion -- in the sense of dramatic gesture, of colorful imagery -- is without equivalent in France...To conclude, the deeply-felt performance of the Camerata in Heu! Unus ex vobis, music describing Jesus' agony on the Mount of Olives, is unsurpassed even by the sublime version of Les Arts Florissants. [That ensemble] plays the card of exacerbated mournfulness...From now on, we must also reckon with Joel Cohen, explorer-archaeologist of the Grand Siècle.

Roger Tellart

from Grammophone:

"If you like French music but long for something different and un-Parisian, this disc could well be for you. All the performances are clean, attractive and sensitive."