Lassus [Chanson] Chansons and Moresche. Clement Janequin Ensemble

Harmonia Mundi (Full price) (Cassette) HMC40 1391; (CD) HMC90 1391 (54 minutes: DDD). Texts and translations included.

Libro de villanelle, moresche, et altre canzoni—Allala la pia calia; Canta Giorgia canta; Cathalina apra finestra; Chi chilichi; Hai Lucia buona cosa; Lucia celu. Las me fault-il. Quand mon mary vient. Si du malheur. Une puce j'ay dedans l'oreill'. La nuict froide et sombre. Vignon vignon vignette. Fuyons tous d'amour. Un triste coeur rempli. Un jeune moine. O foible esprit. En un chasteau, madame. Elle s'en va de moy. Lucescit jam o socii. Je l'ayme bien. Mais qui pourroit. O Lucia miau. Solo lute—Le tems peut bien. J'ay un mary. Quand mon mary vient (Eric Belloq, lte).

You have to have composed a lot of music for 150 chansons to seem like a small part of your oeuvre, but the prolific Lassus actually wrote fewer part-songs in his mother-tongue French than he did in Italian, and both outputs are dwarfed by his sacred works. Lassus did write chansons throughout his career, however, and the 15 examples on this disc divide broadly into two categories, the first consisting of movingly eloquent settings of melancholy love or nature poetry (for respective instance, Je l'ayme bien and La nuict froide et sombre), and the second of rather more lighthearted and suggestively euphemistic texts (Un jeune moine hinges on the desire of its protagonist to "brinbaler", here translated as "jiggle"). In addition to the chansons, the disc also offers six works from the Libro de villanelle, moresche et altre canzoni, a set published in 1581 whose unashamedly plainspoken and inconsequential Italian texts may explain why Lassus's preface strikes a slightly apologetic tone for such a Rabelaisian outburst from a man approaching 50. Silly or serious, however, all these pieces reveal a composer of irrepressible character, as well as one capable of unfailing inventiveness in response to his chosen texts.

The Clement Janequin Ensemble numbers for this recording six male singers and three instrumentalists, the latter consisting of an organist/harpsichordist, a lutenist and a gamba player used sparingly in differing combinations and for the most part unobtrusively. Although no one member of the group is put forward as a leader, countertenor Dominique Visse was given a prominent billing at a performance of this repertoire at last year's Beaune Festival. He is also the only singer to appear in all the vocal numbers on this disc, and to describe these performances as "Visse-like" would be as quick a way as any to convey their character to anyone familiar with that singer's distinctive vocal timbre and lively interpretative personality. It means that the jokey numbers are played for all they're worth (with plenty of camp tomfoolery when deemed appropriate), while the more serious pieces are delivered with all the simple dignity of feeling they so clearly demand. The group has a hard-edged, rather nasal timbre, but blends well and demonstrates a rhythmic agility and precision of ensemble that is in the virtuoso class. Three chansons are tastefully played in lute arrangements by Eric Belloq, his instrument proving gentle but pleasingly resonant, but it's a pity that the generally unhelpful insert-notes don't say whose arrangements they are. Fine performances and an enjoyable disc, then, but only if the horseplay doesn't get on your nerves too much.

LK