Medieval Romantics:French Songs/Motet

There are a few ensembles that you can count on consistently to deliver performances of the highest quality. Gothic Voices fit that description, and their many recordings of medieval music are invariably among the finest in the catalog. This disc, with its seemingly oxymoronic title, reveals aspects of 14th-century French music that suggest the term romantic is absolutely correct. Director Christopher Page's lucid liner notes explain,"if Romanticism implies a taste for beauty touched by strangeness, and if it is associated with a desire to expand the resources of musical language (especially harmony) . . . then the second half of the 14th century in France was truly a period of Romantic composition." You won't disagree, whether you're listening to the anonymous, harmonically ravishing rondeau that begins the disc or to a delightful virelai by Machaut. --David Vernier