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This is a pleasing sampler of early music recordings from the Sony vaults, put together by David Fallows, and mainly featuring performances by the Huelgas Ensemble (from the 1990s) and the Munich Capella Antiqua (from the 1970s).Although the album's title is The Renaissance in Music, the musical selections go back to Solage in the late 14th Century, considered medieval by almost anyone. His rondeau Fumeux Fume (Smokey Smoke) is famous to a generation of music history students that used a Norton textbook reprinting its score. It's also justly famous for its remarkable chromaticism, of the sort that wouldn't be approached again until the madrigals of Gesualdo and Marenzio in the late 16th Century). This is an oddly lugubrious performance, at a very slow tempo (taking over seven minutes) and with voices only. It seems incongruous given the humorous, perhaps sarcastic text (kind of a 14th Century "Smoke gets in your eyes"). There is an older, though more uptempo, rendition available in a set from the Early Music Consort of London that you might get as a contrast. A verelai by Matteo da Perugia, in a similarly chromatic vein, is coupled with Fumeux Fume.Even Dufay, working in the early 14th Century, isn't usually classified as a "Renaissance composer", since he still relied on Gothic cadences (with their characteristic double leading tone) and the curious "5-5 octave leap" cadence particular to his time period. Except for the cadences, though, his music does sound basically "Renaissancy". The Munich Capella Antiqua performs his famous ballad "Se la face ay pale", and three of his individual mass movements (a Kyrie, a Gloria and a Credo movement that aren't part of a complete mass setting). Too bad there are no excerpts from "Missa Se la face ay pale"! The German musicians double at least some of the vocal lines with instruments, a technique common when these recordings were made, but held in less favor by current scholarship.With Josquin, the most important composer of the early 16th Century, we are definitely in the realm of the musical Renaissance. Two of his motets are given by the Munich Capella Antiqua. Thomas Tallis is represented by his most famous work, the 40-voice motet "Spem in alium", rendered by the Huelgas Ensemble. This is as clear a recording of this piece as I've heard. Other 16th Century vocal pieces include madrigals by Festa and Verdelot, and an antiphon by Gombert. A couple of instrumental solos (organ and lute) round out this sampler.The presentation does cut some corners. My main gripe: no texts and no translations. And this in an album devoted mainly to vocal music, ugh. Still, the price is right, and the album certainly could have been far worse. The performances and recordings themselves are worthy, so if you don't already have the source recordings for this compilation, and you're interested in Western art music from this time period, then this set will certainly give you your money's worth.
