In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Orlando Consort

Male Choral Ensemble from UK, England.

Formed in 1988 by the Early Music Centre of Great Britain, the Orlando Consort has established itself as one of Britain's most important chamber music ensembles, performing to the highest standards and renowned for its imaginative and innovative programming. Working with leading academics on music that has often never been performed in modern times, they have set new standards of performance, particularly with regard to the pronunciation and tuning of this fascinating repertoire. In recent times the Consort has also attracted praise for its bold programmes of contemporary music, jazz and world music, and for their outstanding education projects which are specifically designed to involve amateur musicians of all ages and abilities.

The group has made many commercial recordings with Saydisc, Metronome, Linn, Deutsche Grammophon and Harmonia Mundi USA. The Mystery of Notre Dame (works by Perotin and others) was nominated for an Edison award in the Netherlands, while Loyset Compere, 1445-1518, Popes and Antipopes (Papal music from the 14th and 15th Centuries), Passiontide (15th Century Flemish Easter music), the Missa De plus en plus by Ockeghem, The Saracen and the Dove (Music for the courts of Padua and Pavia), and Motets by Josquin Desprez have all been short-listed for Gramophone Awards. The Works of John Dunstaple was chosen as the 1996 Gramophone Early Music CD of the Year, a feat repeated by The Call of the Phoenix (English 15th century motets) in 2003. Their two CD/book collections, Food, Wine and Song and Medieval Gardens included outstanding feature articles from leading chefs and horticulturalists, including Clarissa Dickson Wright, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Sir Roy Strong. 2008 saw the release of a ground-breaking recording, pairing Machaut'sextraordinary Messe de Notre Dame with Scattered Rhymes, a brilliant new work by the young British composer Tarik O'Regan and featuring the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. In 2010 they released Mantra: Musical conversations across the Indian Ocea on Keda records, a startling and evocative take on the original meeting between Portuguese missionaries and the indigenous musical culture of C.16th Goa.

The Orlando Consort has made frequent appearances on the British and Dutch Early Music Networks. Regular performers at London's Wigmore Hall and the South Bank Centre, the Consort has also sung in festivals in Spain (Santander, Ourense, Seville, Granada, Valencia, Burgos, Segovia, Avila, Barcelona, Huelva, Las Palmas and Madrid), Belgium (Antwerp and Bruges), Germany (Regensburg, Frankfurt, Nurnberg, Heidelberg, Herne, Cologne, Rommersdorf, Leipzig and Berlin), Austria (Vienna, Graz, Feldkirchen and Melk), Greece (Athens and Thessaloniki), Estonia (Tallinn, Parnu and Tartu), France (Amiens, Avignon and Le Thoronnet), Poland (Krakow, Wroclaw, Jaroslaw and Warsaw), the Czech Republic (Plzen and Prague), Russia (St. Petersburg), Italy (Florence, Bologna, Venice, Trent, Rome, Padua and Bolzano), Portugal and Sweden (Skara), as well as the Spitalfields Festival, the Bury St. Edmunds, Aldeburgh, St. David's, Stour, Deal, Brinkburn, Hexham, Cheltenham and Chester Festivals, the Manchester Early Music Series, the City of London Festival, the St. Magnus Festival in Orkney, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Three Choirs Festival and both the Beverley and York Early Music Festivals. The Consort has been featured at many events in North America, notably the American Musicological Society Meetings in Montreal and Toronto and at the Boston Early Music Festival. Even further from home, the Consort has made repeat visits to Japan and has also travelled on a six-concert tour to Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. The Consort made their debut at the BBC Proms in the 1997 season, returning in 2001, and at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1998, returning in 2007. The Consort is currently an Associate Ensemble at Southampton University.

The work of the Orlando Consort extends well beyond conventional early music presentation: they frequently perform with local amateur choirs and with actors of the calibre of Robert Hardy and Prunella Scales. They appear regularly with the brilliant Dutch ensemble, The Calefax Reed Quintet and their Extempore collaborations with the jazz quartet Perfect Houseplants have continued with the release of a second CD, Extempore II. Most recently the Orlando Consort has collaborated with brilliant tabla player Kuljit Bhamra, the sitar player Jonathan Mayer, and the talented young vocalist Shahid Khan on the Mantra project, a radical imagining of the musical dialogue developed in Portuguese Goa in the early 16th century.

Discography

Displaying 1-5 of 5 items.

Orlando Consort : Medieval Christmas

Review: Although Medieval Christmas celebrations primarily consisted of over-eating, flirtation, hunting and drinking, each day began with a mass. Sacred and secular traditions and customs were often intertwined as part of a season of celebration which culminated with the feast of the Epiphany. On this new CD, the Orlando Consort offers an unusual & wide-ranging collection of secular and liturgical music from England, France and the Low Countries. To read the texts of these pieces is to un-knot the various traditions that are otherwise confused by today's pick-and-mix carol concerts. While not strictly chronological, the disc is divided into five sections - Prophecy, New Year's Day, The Carol, Narrative Motets and Noel - which illustrate key themes of the music of this period.

Songlist: Christe redemptor, Alleluia V. Dies sanctificatus, Lux refulget, Annus renascitur, De quan qu'on peut, Tout mon desir, Ce jour de l'an, Ave rex angelorum, Eya, martyr Stephane, Vox in Rama, Lullay, lullow: I saw a swete semely sight, O admirabile commercium, Pastores loquebantur, Noel, noel, noel, Noe, noe, noe, Nato canunt omnia, Quem lohannes, O primus homo corruit, Clangat tuba

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Orlando Consort : The Toledo Summit

Review: An encounter between two powerful dynasties. The Orlando Consort revisits a fascinating meeting between two musical cultures. During his 1502 ceremonial visit to Toledo (Spain), Philip the Fair of Burgundy, and his Royal hosts, Ferdinand and Isabella, vied to display the artistic achievements of their respective realms. Music was central to all the festivities: solemn celebrations, worship, courtly banquets, dances and chivalric entertainments. "Immaculate tuning, rhythmic concision and clear articulation of the text." - BBC Music Magazine

Songlist: Ave rex noster, Gaude virgo, Libera me, Domine, Versa est in luctum, Adoramoste, Senor, Je n'ay dueil, Si dedero, Missa Nunca Fue Pena Mayor: Kyrie, Ora baila tu, Autant en emporte le vent, Justa fue mi perdicion, Andad, pasiones, andad, O desolatorum consolator, Mater patris, Oyan todos mi tormento, Secretz regretz, A la caca, In te, Domine, speravi, Ave sanctissimum, Ave festiva ferculis, Missa L'homme arme: credo

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Orlando Consort : Alleluia Nativitas

Review: Music & Carols for a Medieval Christmas. The music on this recording goes back to the very origins of musical composition. The centerpiece, Perotin's Viderunt omnes, can also be said to mark the beginning of the concept of musical history, since it is one of the first pieces whose precise details of performance (place, date and context) are known, carefully recorded and preserved for the information of future generations.

Songlist: Novus Annus Hodie, Ut Iam Cessit, Fulget Dies Celebris, Vetus Abit Littera, Procedenti Puero, Mater Dei Salus Rei, In Sompnis Mira, Huic Et Placuit, Viderunt Omnes, Angelus ad Virginem, Flos Regalis, Beata Viscera, Orientis Partibus, Salve Sancta Parens, Virgo Maria, Edi Beo Thu, Super Te Jerusalem, O Nobilis Nativitas, There Is No Rose, St Thomas Honour We, Nowell, Nowell: The Boare's Head

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Orlando Consort : Busnois

Review: The music of Antoine Busnois has inspired intense interest in recent times. With this survey of the different genres - sacred and secular - in which Busnois excelled, the Orlando Consort demonstrates the composer's supreme technical mastery, his melodic flair, and his rhythmic vitality. A comprehensive portrait of an early-Renaissance genius.

Songlist: Motet: Gaude caelestis Domina, Aune damme j'ay fait veu, Amours nous traitte honnestement/Je m'en voy, Resjois-toy, terre de France/Rex pacificus, Conditor alme siderum, Missa O Crux lignum, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, Ja que li ne s'I attende, Vostre beaute'/Vous marches du bout du pie', Est-il merchy de quoy on puet finer?, Incomprehensibilia/ Praeter rerum ordinem

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Orlando Consort : The Rose, The Lily & the Whortleberry

Review: In celebration of the floral imagery used by many of Europe's greatest composers over a span of 300 years to depict both earthly and heavenly love, the Orlando Consort sings poetic texts ranging from the sacred to the downright suggestive. Includes essays by Sir Roy Strong, Susan Hitch; and a garden design created by Christopher Bradley-Hole. Also included is a handsomely illustrated book full of beautiful medieval paintings and photographs of surviving gardens. Additional notes are contributed by Sir Roy Strong, President of the Garden History Society of England; Susan Hitch, an expert in medieval literature and a BBC Radio 3 presenter; and Christopher Bradley-Hole, one of the world's top garden designers, who contributes a plan for your very own neo-medieval garden.

Songlist: Rose, liz, rondeau, El mois de mai - De se debent - Kyrie, He marotele / En praerie / Aptat, motet, Passerose de beaute, Flos regalis virginalis, Missa Flos Regalis, Quam pulchra es, Soubz les branches / En la rousee / Jolis mois de may, chanson, Royne des flours, Dindirin, dindirin, En la fuente del Rosel, Hortus Conclusus, Aquella Mora Garrida, Quasi cedrus, Changeons propos, Sicut Lilium Inter Spinas, Vidi speciosam, Haec est illa dulcis rosa / Salve, Da le belle contrade d'oriente, I vaghi fiori e l'amorose fronde, Ecce tu pulcher es, Des herbes ai asses, Au ioly bocquet croist la violette, O flos campi

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