Outdone By The Packaging

There would seem to be something wrong when more time is spent talking about the packaging of a disk than about the music and there is a danger of that here with The Rose, The Lily And The Whortleberry - Medieval And Renaissance Gardens In Music by The Orlando Consort. It comes complete with a lavishly illustrated 116 page book in a cd sized hard cover sleeve detailing the place of the garden as a rendezvous for courtly love and the differing ways in which it was treated in France, Spain, England, Italy and the Low Countries. There are learned essays by such as Sir Roy Strong and even a specially created garden design. A lot of the songs featured are anonymous but are definitely courtly in nature, this isn't folk music of any kind. Lyrics range from the sacred to the suggestive but the music doesn't always reflect the change in subject matter. Composers that are listed are pretty obscure with a few exceptions who have some reputation such as Guillaume de Machaut, Guerrero, De Rore and Gombert. So does the music live up to the packaging ? Sadly I must conclude, not quite. The Orlando Consort are a male four piece vocal group augmented on some tracks by a guest bass and as well and as expertly as they sing, they can't avoid a certain sameness to much of the sound which makes over 76 minutes in one sitting a little heavy going. Sampled in smaller doses while reading the book is probably the best way.