Search - Italian Anonymous, Vienna Ensemble Unicorn :: Chominciamento di gioia: Virtuoso dance-music from the time of Boccaccio's Decamerone

Inventive, enjoyable interpretations by Ensemble Unicorn!

Brianna Neal | USA | 11/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These wonderful Italian dances are from the British Library's 14th century manuscript #29987. Though melodically and structurally complex, they are monophonic--only one line of music. The challenge for groups of instrumentalists is to find appropriate ways for all their members to contribute. The European musicians of Ensemble Unicorn certainly rise to the challenge, and in a creative and rousing manner. Director and recorder player Michael Posch, fiddler and shawm player Marco Ambrosini, lutenist Thomas Wimmer, percussionist Wolfgang Reithofer, and hurdy-gurdy/harp/bagpipe player Riccardo Delfino have a spirited, good time romping through the up-tempo numbers, while reflecting meditatively on the gentler ones. The quality of this and the many other Ensemble Unicorn releases for Naxos is superb without qualification, but even moreso considering that the purchase prices are less than half of what most other CDs cost. I bought every Ensemble Unicorn recording I could get my hands on, and enjoy them all--varying styles of medieval and early Renaissance music from different ages and regions, but all very well done by this talented and innovative group! Look them up by searching for "Ensemble Unicorn"--the titles are too long and numerous to cite here. If you like this particular recording and these 14th century Italian dances, you might also want to check out "Istanpitta!: A Medieval Dance Band" and "Istanpitta II: Medieval Dances" by New York's Ensemble for Early Music."

Plays to the strengths of this band

S. Gustafson | New Albany, IN USA | 02/22/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The choice of the material again plays to the strengths of Ensemble Unicorn, and makes for a very enjoyable presentation of this mostly familiar material.

These monophonic mediaeval dance and instrumental compositions are chestnuts of early music performances. There just wasn't that much of this very early secular dance music preserved, so you have a choice of performances. Unicorn's take on them gives a good variety of instrumentation, and the extensive improvisation needed to make a whole record's worth of this familiar stuff interesting.

It's worth comparing this record to another set of recordings covering similar territory, the also enjoyable -Istanpitta- and Istanpitta II- collections. By contrast, Unicorn does not resort so much to the thundering shawms, bagpipes, and percussion that certain -Istanpitta- tracks resort to. By contrast, though, their reading of the -Tre Fontane- estampie is upbeat, recalling the classic performance by David Munrow on -The Art of Courtly Love-, as compared to -Istanpitta's- somewhat too mellow take on that number. You don't get the big swings between loud and soft here that you do from -Istanpitta-, which makes it somewhat easier to listen to.

Some of the instrumental combinations seem to evidence a sense of humour here. This record is not quite as good as -The Black Madonna- or -Songs of the Troubadors-, but it is an excellent introduction to these mediaeval dances."

EARLY work for this ensemble

S. Gustafson | 08/10/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"With later releases -- especially Codex Faenza and The Black Madonna -- Unicorn proves itself the no-holds-barred best instrumental ensemble in medieval music. This is their first mass-market CD, and their musicianship is...iffy. For instance, the later-incomparable Thomas Wimmer saws monotonously through Lamento di Tristano, and the later-virtuosic Marco Ambrosini is just plain jittery. Even Michael Posch, later the only medieval musician who approaches the level of the Indian masters, is at this stage unformed. Their performance style here is very mannered, opting often for "weird" or unusual effects and approaches."