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I love reviewing classical releases under the Harmonia Mundi label (www.harmoniamundi.com). Their artists are consummate professionals, and the CD presentation is always impressive: great graphics and voluminous liner notes packed with helpful information. You just cannot go wrong with Harmonia Mundi (if you love classical music, that is).

The group's name here is Orlando Consort, and you may imagine that these fellows hail from the vicinity of DisneyWorld in Florida. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Formed by the Early Music Centre of Great Britain nearly 20 years ago, these lads are based on the other side of the pond, so to speak, and they are phenomenal. Performing repertoire from the years 1050-1500, the four men (Robert Harre-Jones, countertenor; Mark Dobell, tenor; Angus Smith, tenor; Donald Greig, baritone) plus Robert MacDonald (bass) do the vocal equivalent of walking a tightrope on Medieval Christmas. Singing challenging ancient texts all a cappella, the five voices present the songs note-by-note with no safety net in numbers. In other words, when a 50-voice choir attempts the most sophisticated works, the sheer number creates a helpful wall of sound that conceals small flaws. Here, in contrast, the Orlando Consort lets it all hang out. In the silence, the excellent production values underlying this recording make the note-against-note polyphonies hang like stars against a black sky, and every tone, pitch, and pronunciation is immediate and apparent and flawless. It is a risky endeavor, but the Orlando Consort prevails. Bravo! This is "goose-bumps territory" for those who adore great choral presentations.

OK, not everyone is gonzo for medieval music, and I can appreciate that. As you move through the chronological continuum, from the more atonal early polyphonies to the carols, narrative motets, and beyond, the music becomes increasingly accessible, I suppose. For me, the earliest chants have their own stark, haunting beauty, and the music is all good. The offering climaxes in the Noel pieces that close the anthology, with the word "Noel" embracing a simple expression joy. The harmonies throughout are hypnotic and spot-on.

Medieval Christmas contains not one moment of recognizable Christmas fare, but the underlying musicality is definitely a holiday gift. Take a break from the mundane and experience the Orlando Consort!

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2007)

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From the liner notes:

The Orlando Consort:
Robert Harre-Jones: countertenor
Mark Dobell: tenor
Angus Smith: tenor
Donald Greig: baritone
with Robert MacDonald: bass

Medieval Christmas celebrations encompassed several feasts, including Circumcision & Ephiphany. The Orlando Consort offers an unusual collection of carols ranging from devotional to boisterous, drawn from a 500-year span of secular and liturgical music from England, France and the Low Countries.

The music collected here comes from secular celebrations and liturgical music of England, France (as it now is) and the Low Countries. To read the texts of these pieces is to un-knot the various traditions that are otherwise confused by today's pick-and-mix carol concerts. We also discover the importance of key themes which we illustrate in five sections which also trace a broad musical chronology....


From the Website:

About the Album:
Medieval Christmas celebrations encompassed several feasts, including Circumcision & Epiphany. The Orlando Consort offers an unusual collection of carols ranging from devotional to boisterous, drawn from a 500-year span of secular and liturgical music from England, France and the Low Countries.

About the Orlando Consort:
Formed in 1988 by the Early Music Centre of Great Britain, the Orlando Consort has rapidly achieved a reputation as one of the most expert and consistently challenging groups performing repertoire from the years 1050 to 1500. While all four singers in the group are established soloists, they also contribute enormous experience and expertise in the field of early music gained through working with groups such as the Tallis Scholars and the Gabrieli and Taverner Consorts. Working with leading academics on music that has often never been performed in modern times, they have set new standards of performance, particularly with regard to the pronunciation and tuning of this fascinating repertoire. For their work on the extraordinary techniques of 12th Century Aquitanian polyphony they were awarded the 1996 Noah Greenberg Award by the American Musicological Society. In recent times the Consort has also attracted considerable attention for their imaginative programming of contemporary music and jazz.

The Orlando Consort

Medieval Christmas

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Track List