BREMF – La Contenance Angloise – Sollazzo Ensemble

Brighton Early Music Festival 2018 opened in great style. Perrine Devillers (soprano) began with a heart-felt lament from a newly discovered Medieval Belgian songbook. Her voice blended perfectly with tenor Vivien Simon and the vielles of Sophia and Anna Danilevskaia alongside the harp of Vincent Kibildis. Plangent, jolly, seductive and thoroughly musical, they drew us ever deeper into their world of 15th century song in ‘The English Manner’. The complex, courtly works of Dunstaple, Binchois, Dufay and Ockeghem, European super-stars of their day, can often sound just academic and technical, but they dazzle with virtuosity and charm when performed with such delicate phrasing, precise tuning and elegant characterisation. Look out for the Radio 3 broadcast of this concert next week.

St George’s Church, 26 October 2018

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