Early Music (February 2007)

Similarly challenging repertory is the subject of La Morra's collection Flour de Beaulté (Ramée RAM 0602, rec 2005, 69'). The music is all from Turin J.II.9, a manuscript containing a wide variety of material written for the French court in Cyprus, probably for Janus I Lusignan (1397-1432). It is clearly something of a personal crusade from Michal Gondko and Corina Marti, the group's artistic directors — "To expect 166 masterpieces would be rather naïve", writes Gondko, "but to dismiss the Torino J.II.9 songs-as is occasionally done-as altogether "uninspired music" is definitely unjust" — and there is also a detailed defense of the instrumental performance of certain of the pieces, but I feel that with performances of this calibre there is little need for special pleading. The members of La Morra, vocalist Els Janssens and the four instrumentalists, sound as though they have lived with this music for a long time, so fluid are their performances.

Ivan Moody