Home listening - Saint Katherine would approve…

The Guardian 0

Medieval magic from the Binchois Consort, the Doric quartet play Britten and Purcell, and the sound of the future

• The Catherine whose name is associated with the wheel was Saint Catherine (or Katherine) of Alexandria. As part of their ongoing series exploring the link between English alabaster and medieval music (to summarise a quite subtle idea), the Binchois Consort has created a programme of early polyphony – Music for Saint Katherine (Hyperion) – associated with the virgin-martyr, object of a cult in England after 1066. The best-known composer is Dunstaple (c1390-1453), represented by the devotional Gaude virgo salutata, and the more elaborate motet Salve scema sanctitatis. With works by Walter Frye (d.1475) and others, and images in the CD booklet of Katherine’s martyrdom depicted in alabaster, this disc rewards detailed attention. It’s sung with grace and finesse by this ensemble of six male voices, directed by Andrew Kirkman.

• Last October the Doric String Quartet played all Britten’s works for string quartet, together with five Purcell Fantasias, in Snape Maltings, the Suffolk concert hall indelibly associated with the composer. Those enthralling performances are now available on a two-disc Chandos set, as fresh and immediate as they were live. From the Three Divertimenti, a restless appetiser dating from the 1930s, to the middle-period Quartets 1 and 2 and the late, ethereal anguish of No 3, this music spans the full technical and emotional range. The Dorics (with violist Hélène Clément playing Britten’s viola) captures every mood, from steely to poetic to tragic, the structure of each work ever clear. Essential listening.