Isaac: La morra

In June 1993 the three founding members of Sour Cream, the avant-garde recorder trio created originally in 1972, got together again in order to make a new recording: the ensuing double album became the stuff of legend. Frans Brüggen, Kees Boeke and Walter van Hauwe, joined by Isabel Álvarez (voice) and Toyohiko Satoh (lutes), went into the studio with a programme called 'The Passion of Reason' which made a journey through music with a scientific slant to it, influenced by the concept of the mediaeval quadrivium or the convergence of music, arithmetic, astronomy and geometry. With pieces by composers ranging across five centuries, from Guillaume de Machaut to JS Bach, by way of Solage, William Cornysh and Heinrich Isaac, together with the mysterious repertory from the Baldwin manuscript, the members of Sour Cream raised a fascinating and hypnotic edifice in sound, taking the listener back to the speculative world of Hermetic philosophy and alchemy. Initially released on the Attacca label by Sieuwert Verster (the co-founder of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and inseparable colleague of Frans Brüggen), 'The Passion of Reason' was reissued by Glossa in 1997. After several years of the album being out of stock, we are pleased now to be able to bring this recording, timeless like so few others, back into our catalogue.

Isabella d’Este was brought up in the midst of an extremely active musical court. After her marriage in 1490 to Francesco Gonzaga Duke of Mantua she began to remodel the Duke's relatively modest musical establishment in imitation of that of her father, Hercule. She was herself a gifted musician and favoured above all the viol. Not only was the viol the favourite vehicle for aristocratic instrumental performance, but it was the ideal accompaniment to the voice.

Under Isabella’s patronage the tradition of improvised song accompanied by the singer on a lira da braccio developed into the frottola, shared between two, three or even four viols. In employing Italian composers, and herself performing their music, Isabella played a key role in the development of this new music, and of the consort of viole which developed alongside it.

This disc presents a selection of music from the circle of Isabella. The repertoire is centred around the Milliare Songbook - a hand written songbook compiled in 1502 by, or for, one Ludovico Milliare. This contains a wonderfully rich cross section of the vocal and instrumental repertoire loved by the d’Este family of Mantua. An attractive feature of the collection is the inclusion of sacred pieces, mostly non-liturgical and apparently intended for private devotional use.

The instruments used for this recording have been thoroughly researched by examining documented and iconographic evidence - for example contemporary paintings of the period. The custom-made viols are cannot be called "copies"; they are recreations using the best information and scholarship available. This CD offers a rare opportunity to hear the very different sound these instruments make - rather different from their more modern counterparts from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.