As lovely a program of the secular songs of the great French Renaissance composer Guillaume Dufay as there has ever been, this 2007 disc by the delightfully named
Diabolus in Musica gives first-time listeners an attractive introduction to his art and long-time listeners a wonderfully new set of performances to cherish. Of Dufay's 80 songs, the French ensemble led by
Antoine Guerber has chosen 19 and grouped them according to topic: Songs of Sorrow and Grief, Songs in Praise of Noblemen, Love Songs, and Songs of Joy and Celebration. Within each set,
Guerber mixes various song types from rondeau to bergerette, various groups of singers from solo to trio, and even interpolates the occasional instrumental solo. Balanced between four singers -- a soprano, two altos, and a tenor -- and four instrumentalists -- a guitar, two violins, and a clavicytherium (a sort of vertical harpsichord) --
Diabolus in Musica performs these songs as if the musicians had been born performing them. One never senses artificiality or superficiality, but rather a naturalness and authenticity that defy time and space. While the seeming austerity of the music may at first dissuade fans of later songs by, say, Schubert or
Gershwin, the intrinsic beauty of the music and the universality of the emotions may ultimately win over even the most recalcitrant.
Recorded in La Ferme de Villefavard en Limousin -- a fine-sounding name for a converted barn with surprisingly splendid acoustics -- the sound here is clear and true.