Search - Henry DuMont, Philippe Herreweghe, Howard Crook :: Du Mont: Motets pour la chapelle du roy / Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale

A valuable CD

hcf | 12/20/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a very important recording because Du Mont is not well represented on disc. The performances on this recording are very good, yet I hesitate to give them five stars because I've heard better. Specifically, I'm referring to the wonderful disc of Du Mont's vocal and instrumental pieces recorded by Christophe Rousset (Virgin Veritas 5 61531 2). Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), Rousset's selection of pieces is very different from the pieces collected on this disc (only Dialogus de Anima is present on both recordings) - that's why, if you're interested in French baroque, it's important to own both the Rousset and the Herreweghe. The most noticeable, although not necessarily the most important, difference between the two approaches is their treatment of the haute-contre line. People continue to disagree about what haute-contre means, and there may be more than one way to do it, but French baroque specialists such as William Christie seem to have concluded that hautes-contre were high tenors rather than falsettists. Accordingly, Rousset gives the alto line to English tenor Mark Padmore, while Herreweghe uses the late Henri Ledroit who was more of a contralto than a high tenor. Whether you find this significant or not is up to you. Based on the Dialogus, I also find Rousset's tempi to be more appropriate, plus his recording benefits from a very generous acoustics of a real church loft. But, like I said, since only one piece overlaps on both recordings, any more comparisons between them would be unwarranted. Both are very valuable."

Uitstekend!

hcf | 01/19/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I do not easily write reviews, but.... this CD is a must for everybody who likes classical vocal music. It's my very special CD, the one I like most in my collection of vocal music. It's so superb, I cannot imagine the human voice can be more pure!!"