Lionheart - Paris 1200: Perotin & Leonin - Chant & Polyphony from 12th Century France (1998)

Lionheart are a kind of thinking (wo)man's The Priests, with the added asset of being able to sing beautifully. This was their second and last recording for Nimbus, first released in 1998 and again in 2003 with identical covers. This was before the group hit the big-time, relatively speaking, and moved on to the Koch International label, subsequently adding a number of 21st century works to their repertory. Their first CD was reviewed here. Nowadays Michael Wenger has replaced Stephen Rosser, but otherwise the line-up is unchanged.

Lionheart's programme here consists of organum, motets and conductus associated with the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris around 1200. Léonin and his successor Pérotin, the two musical giants of this time and place, may or may not be behind some of the music - their names in the album subtitle could be construed with some justification as a little misleading.

Though there are one or two relatively 'upbeat' moments, as with 'Veris ad imperia' and 'Mors vite propitia', the music itself is, not unexpectedly, serene and reflective, even and slow-paced - a CD to listen to for mental relaxation or spiritual or metaphysical rumination, in other words.

Lionheart's six male voices make a fine a cappella ensemble, with attentive articulation, clarity of tone, and above all a splendid team ethic - doubtless born of many years of practice, touring and recording together - providing an appealing vocal blend and blue-ribbon rhythmic awareness. Latin purists need not get excited, though: Lionheart's vowel lengths and consonant articulations are all determinedly Church Latin.

Someone had a bad day when 'Olim sudor Herculis' was recorded - here some of the solo singing is ropy enough to ring the changes - but on the whole, Lionheart, for all the cheesiness of some of their group photos, deserve their plaudits even in this early-days recording. Towards the end of the final track, 'Mors vite propitia', the ensemble quietly exit whilst still singing - a cute, inspired way to round off their impressive performance.

Audio quality is generally very good, though there are one or two minor distortions, sounding like tracing paper buzzing against a comb. The CD booklet is neat and informative, with a slightly pleonastic contextualising essay from Lionheart Jeffrey Johnson and better-written notes on the tracks incorporating an explanation of plainchant-related terminology by another Lionheart, Richard Porterfield. Full Latin texts are thoughtfully provided by Nimbus, with English translations by Porterfield, although an unfortunate side-effect of this generosity is a booklet that is almost too thick to fit under the plastic tabs of the CD case cover - it certainly does not slide in very freely.

Review by Byzantion, MusicWeb International

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 18. August 2015, 22:36

Lionheart / Paris 1200

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GU70N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 2:44.00 | 0 | 12299
2 | 2:44.00 | 2:31.00 | 12300 | 23624
3 | 5:15.00 | 3:44.00 | 23625 | 40424
4 | 8:59.00 | 8:36.00 | 40425 | 79124
5 | 17:35.00 | 1:28.00 | 79125 | 85724
6 | 19:03.00 | 2:29.00 | 85725 | 96899
7 | 21:32.00 | 7:55.00 | 96900 | 132524
8 | 29:27.00 | 5:36.00 | 132525 | 157724
9 | 35:03.00 | 2:00.00 | 157725 | 166724
10 | 37:03.00 | 2:42.00 | 166725 | 178874
11 | 39:45.00 | 5:39.00 | 178875 | 204299
12 | 45:24.00 | 9:13.00 | 204300 | 245774
13 | 54:37.00 | 1:31.00 | 245775 | 252599
14 | 56:08.00 | 5:12.00 | 252600 | 275999
15 | 61:20.00 | 2:04.00 | 276000 | 285299
16 | 63:24.00 | 4:48.00 | 285300 | 306899
17 | 68:12.00 | 3:08.00 | 306900 | 320999
18 | 71:20.00 | 2:32.00 | 321000 | 332399


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\temp\Paris 1200 - Lionheart\Paris 1200.wav

Peak level 38.7 %
Extraction speed 2.3 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1D4ED0A7
Copy CRC 1D4ED0A7
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [DB259E7E], AccurateRip returned [33A3BDD3] (AR v2)
Track 2 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [922FD181], AccurateRip returned [1126FDE4] (AR v2)
Track 3 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [41BD5714], AccurateRip returned [36CF8CDA] (AR v2)
Track 4 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [AA9371B2], AccurateRip returned [83B6FD03] (AR v2)
Track 5 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [7C97C650], AccurateRip returned [BFCDB6C5] (AR v2)
Track 6 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [9B05017F], AccurateRip returned [8B86143B] (AR v2)
Track 7 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [CB5525E2], AccurateRip returned [B347EA2F] (AR v2)
Track 8 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [B7631B24], AccurateRip returned [D8A6C8E5] (AR v2)
Track 9 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [1832C3A1], AccurateRip returned [06D73AAD] (AR v2)
Track 10 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [D5B153E5], AccurateRip returned [3EA3D187] (AR v2)
Track 11 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [141662FE], AccurateRip returned [9746C25C] (AR v2)
Track 12 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [BCE71BEB], AccurateRip returned [04739BC1] (AR v2)
Track 13 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [919A401B], AccurateRip returned [C9DD44E8] (AR v2)
Track 14 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [11A871AC], AccurateRip returned [FF62E0F2] (AR v2)
Track 15 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [D91F359A], AccurateRip returned [341D48C9] (AR v2)
Track 16 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 3) [9F8B32AF], AccurateRip returned [D6DA75D8] (AR v2)
Track 17 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [97D80BA8], AccurateRip returned [47194218] (AR v2)
Track 18 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [DB824A84], AccurateRip returned [6AFEB293] (AR v2)

No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

End of status report

==== Log checksum CB44232450DD86EE301C2A14D7CC0745D3ADB67140AC93C1A6097C12908C8E32 ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2016-05-25 15:10:15

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Lionheart / Paris 1200
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR14 -8.55 dB -27.43 dB 2:44 01-Breves dies hominis
DR12 -10.62 dB -27.65 dB 2:31 02-Virtutum thronus frangitur
DR12 -14.92 dB -31.99 dB 3:44 03-Pange melos lacrimosum
DR14 -10.82 dB -30.16 dB 8:36 04-Te sanctum dominum
DR11 -16.37 dB -33.37 dB 1:28 05-Ave Maria fons letitie
DR12 -12.84 dB -28.47 dB 2:29 06-Aver virgo virginum
DR14 -12.31 dB -30.93 dB 7:55 07-Olim sudor Herculis
DR13 -12.26 dB -29.58 dB 5:36 08-Condimentum nostre spei
DR13 -10.66 dB -31.44 dB 2:00 09-Sic mea fata
DR12 -8.23 dB -24.36 dB 2:42 10-Mundus vergens
DR13 -10.59 dB -28.36 dB 5:39 11-Mens fidem - Encontre - In odorem
DR13 -10.17 dB -28.51 dB 9:13 12-Gaude Maria virgo
DR12 -11.54 dB -27.32 dB 1:31 13-Veris ad imperia
DR14 -8.24 dB -29.44 dB 5:12 14-O curas hominum
DR13 -9.92 dB -26.71 dB 2:04 15-Procurans odium
DR12 -13.78 dB -29.85 dB 4:48 16-Diffusa est gratia
DR15 -14.96 dB -35.37 dB 3:08 17-Veste nuptiali
DR11 -10.70 dB -30.21 dB 2:32 18-Mors vite propitia
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 18
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 533 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================