Dufay: Voyage en Italie

La Reverdie

A 317

With this new release, LA REVERDIE, yielding somewhat to my insistence, has crossed another stage: a programme based on the music of a single composer, in this instance, the Franco-Flemish Guillaume Dufay. But, by a kind of challenge, LA REVERDIE, for its first monographic disc, finds its revenge by preserving some of the traits that marked the previous thematic recordings. There is no corpus here, no Masses, no collection of motets, no songs. And you may well suspect that Dufay never composed a work entitled ‘Journey in Italy’. • The idea suggested by this title would be to present what today we might call the ‘environment’ encountered by the composer and in which he conceived part of his oeuvre. This environment is social, professional and, of course, aesthetic. The programme features works written by Dufay during his stay in Italy – some twenty years – in the service of patrons both religious and lay. It also includes pieces by certain musicians prior to Dufay’s arrival in Italy and whose music, preserved in manuscripts in which his works appear, he might have known; there is also an anonymous piece. This music participates in certain events linked to the life of his patrons or events of the time: the plague epidemic, the coronation of the pope, a bishop’s election, the departure of a princess, etc.

CD

15.12.2011

3464858013174

Classica - 'R10'