CD Review of Rosa das Rosas
Engaging and educational, the rich variety on offer makes this satisfying
By Andrew Druckenbrod
Gramophone, January, 2007
With multiple recordings and 10 years of concerts behind them, the Rose Ensemble are now a veteran group on the early music circuit. Without downplaying their achievements to date, this latest album represents a step forward. The singers not only exhibit a richer timbre and better ensemble, but they phrase with more confidence than past efforts. The disc displays an earthy, naturalistic characteristic to the singing that is a welcome change from the polished sheen of some period groups. Director and founder Jordan Sramek's unhurried tempi and relaxed phrasing complement and enhance this unaffected style.
Sramek's conception for this disc is an intriguing one. On the surface, the theme -- medieval and Renaissance works extolling the Virgin Mary -- doesn't tell this tale. After all, with the surfeit of such extant songs, a project can easily be weighed down by monotony. But Sramek varies the disc marvellously by type, voicing and style, creating contours that pull the listener from track to track. This is not to say The Rose Ensemble is pandering to marketing; it has simply created a disc that engages as much as educates.
The core of the album is Alfonso X's 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of 420 songs about the Virgin. These works are already varied -- hymns, ballads and instrumental works -- and to this Sramek adds some laudae and vocal polyphony from a few centuries later in Spain. Of particular interest is the propagandist Una sañosa porfia by Juan del Encina describing the woe of the Muslims beaten back by Ferdinand and Isabella. The marvellous entrance of the percussion here as the song specifically praises the Catholic monarchs is particularly well timed.
The disc may sound like a grab-bag but the choices are judicious and they make sense musically as much as thematically. A strong effort by this St. Paul-based group.