Parle qui veut - Moralising Songs of the Middle Ages

The Guardian 80

Sollazzo Ensemble
(Linn)

As early music groups move towards big-time baroque or niche classical repertory, there are all too few new recordings of medieval music. This imaginative debut album from the prize-winning six-member young Sollazzo Ensemble is a landmark: a wholly original approach to the secular music of the 14th century, done with energy and flair. The high voices decorate the polyphonic lines with almost whooping abandon; intonation is incisively pure and rhythms are buoyant. The music, by Perugia, Landini, Solage and others, ranges from serious moralising to witty satire, very knowing about human frailty. Whatever scholars may say about the result, this is a hugely enjoyable and accomplished performance.