Machaut: Sanz cuer m'en vois/Amis, dolens/Dame, par vous, B17

"The work of Guillaume de Machaut dominates the French 14th Century. It was bequeathed to us thanks to 6 illuminated manuscripts kept in the French National Library in Paris.Those manuscripts assemble the full poetical and musical works of the composer, structured as a very precisely organised entity.The musical part is composed of motets, virelais, ballads, lais, rondeaux and the famous Messe de Notre Dame. Thanks to the research of 20th century musicologists, we can now assess the full importance of this work enabling performers to read his music directly from manuscript sources and make us more and more familiar with this ancient media.This proximity with Guillaume de Machaut is an essential component of our work as a polyphonic ensemble. In this new recording devoted to the canon of Reims, we invite you to follow our poet-musician in the fantastic and experimental world of his ballads." Lucien Kandel

The eccentric Percy Grainger was well-known for his musical arrangements which ranged from works by other composers as well as arrangements of his own original and folk music settings. These arrangements form a body of

work which is perhaps unique in musical history.

Most of the works on this CD are taken from a series Grainger named Chosen Gems for Winds. Grainger had a musical mind of unusual breadth and vision, with interests spanning the ages from mediaeval music to the latest twentieth century developments and had the vision to see this context of the wind orchestra setting. It is likely that enlisting in the American Army as a bandsman at the outbreak of World War I, cemented his interest in wind band music, along with an awareness of Stokowski’s Bach transcriptions.