La Passion De La Raison

   in Early Music Today (Sep, 2013)
The Passion of Reason is an anthology of recorder and vocal music performed by Frans Bruggen’s ensemble Sour Cream. The recordings were made 20 years ago and feature Kees Boeke and Walter van Hauwe (recorders) as well as Bruggen himself, with Isabel Alvarez (voice) and Toyohiko Satoh (lutes). In his interesting essay, Kees Boeke discusses the age-old dilemma of the conflict between reason and passion. Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato, but above all Boethius, are called to account providing pegs upon which to hang an imaginative and on occasion controversial programme. The music takes us on a four-and-a-half-century journey from Guillaume de Machaut to Bach via much unfamiliar repertoire by seldom encountered composers. …