A MARRIAGE OF ENGLAND AND BURGUNDY The Binchois Consort Andrew Kirkman Hyperion CDA67129 £££ Walter Frye: Missa Summe trinitati/Walter Frye(?): Missa Sine nomine/ motets by, or here attributed to, Antoine Busnois; recorded 1999/2000; TPT 74' 48

The inspiration here is the lavishly celebrated marriage in 1468 of Charles the Bold to Margaret of York, prompting an imaginatively constructed programme of sacred music which allies two mass settings in the consonant English style so admired on the Continent with rather more complex works in the Franco-Flemish tradition. It is the latter which emerge more favourably. There are two settings of Regina coeli, incontestably by Busnois, the first beautifully paced, its considerable rhythmical challenges surmounted by the Binchois Consort seemingly without effort. The second, far shorter yet also stylistically less homogenous, throws up further rhythmic complexities and, rather disturbingly, some uneasy conflicts of major and minor mode. Much of the best singing appears in the final tracks, two motets, O pulcherrima mulierum/Girum coeli circuivi and Incomprehensibilia firme/Praeter rerum ordinem, whose attribution to Busnois is rehearsed by the group’s director in the course of a detailed and eloquently-argued liner essay. O pulcherrima mulierum is a superb piece: whoever wrote it was clearly inspired by the Song of Songs text on which it partly draws to produce an expressive, wide-ranging work whose later sections become increasingly colourful. The combination of a rich texture, complex rhythms (again!) and sequences in Incomprehensibilia firme pre-echo the powerful energy of a composer of the next generation, Heinrich Isaac.

This particular marriage then, just as much one of committed singing with impeccable scholarship, can be recommended. Kirkman has clearly developed a particular affinity with the music of Walter Frye...

Alongside such riches, the masses appear frankly less interesting, and neither is as attractive as Frye’s more widely performed and recorded setting, the four-voice Missa Flos regalis. The three-voice Mass, for example, proves a restless affair in which syncopation is probably overworked. The cycle does improve as it gets into its stride, although the best movement may be the Sanctus. But reduced-voice sections here, sung by two solo voices, reveal slight insecurity and a bumpy ride when compared with the technical assurance which is elsewhere so impressive. Recording quality is well up to what one expects of Hyperion, though it is a shade close for my taste, offering little ambient warmth. This particular marriage then, just as much one of committed singing with impeccable scholarship, can be recommended. Kirkman has clearly developed a particular affinity with the music of Walter Frye, but if I am unable to share quite his enthusiasm for the music in these masses it is only because they fall short of Regina coeli I and O pulcherrima mulierum, two exhilarating and memorable works, in themselves alone worth the price of the disc.

Peter Syrus