Ensemble Gilles Binchois
As with so many of the best early music ensembles performing today, the performances of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois have been inextricably linked with profound musical scholarship and the leadership of a single powerful personality. For the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, this personality remains its founder and director, Dominique Vellard. While also presenting around 30 concerts a year, the group has continued a steady recording pace into the mid-2020s. Adding to its catalog of more than 40 recordings, it issued the album Timor Mortis in 2024.
Vellard and some of his close colleagues founded the Ensemble Gilles Binchois in 1978, taking clear positions from the outset that it would perform from original notation and make every effort through its performances to foster a more profound understanding of the structure and function of its music. The ensemble changes its personnel depending upon the repertory: from a handful of male voices for plainchant or early polyphony to a few mixed singers for chansons to adding festive instruments for splashier works. One of the most distinctive features of the group's performing style is its thoughtful consideration of, and experimentation with, the ways that indigenous oral traditions might have impacted a more "formal" singing style. Though the Ensemble Gilles Binchois began its career focusing on French music and has most frequently brought out earlier French repertory, the expansion of its personnel to include specialists from other countries has helped it branch out geographically. It regularly performs all over Europe and has toured throughout the Americas and Asia.
The Ensemble Gilles Binchois has been rewarded with the support of a large number of French governmental institutions, including the enthusiastic support of the Musical Affairs Department of the French Ministry of Culture. It retains a relationship with the Center for Medieval Music in Paris, as many of the group's performers have taught or studied there. In addition, the ensemble has profited from close collaboration with some of Europe's leading musicologists: Marie-Noël Colette in Paris and Karen Smith and Wulf Arlt in Basel, Switzerland.
The Ensemble Gilles Binchois has released more than 40 recordings across labels such as Virgin Classics, Ambroisie, and Evidence, where the majority of its releases have been issued since 2015. These include Messes de Barcelone et d'Apt (2019), Dufay: Le prince d'amours (2021), and Timor Mortis (2024).
© Timothy Dickey & Keith Finke /TiVo
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Dufay: Le Prince d'amours
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Music by vocal ensembles - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 20 Aug 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Timor Mortis (D'Argentil, Sermisy, Barra)
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Music by vocal ensembles - Released by Evidence Classics on 26 Apr 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Fons luminis: Codex Las Huelgas (Sacred Vocal Music from the 13th Century)
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 1 Jun 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Polyphonies oubliées. Faux-bourdons (XVIe-XIXe s.)
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, La Maîtrise de Toulouse, Dominique Vellard
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by Aparté on 1 Dec 2014
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Septem Sacramenta
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard, Chœur Altitude
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 29 Apr 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Isaac: Missa Virgo Prudentissima
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 1 Apr 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Voix du Ciel: Polyphonies médiévales et chants sacrés
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Music by vocal ensembles - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 6 Dec 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Messes de Barcelone et d'Apt
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 24 May 2019
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Claude Le Jeune: Le Printemps
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Music by vocal ensembles - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 24 Apr 2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
1160-1245 Pérotin et l'école de Notre Dame
Classical - Released by Ambroisie on 15 Mar 2004
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le chant des cathédrales
Ensemble Gilles Binchois|Dominique Vellard
Classical - Released by Cantus Records on 21 Oct 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame
Ensemble Gilles Binchois|Dominique Vellard
Classical - Released by Cantus Records on 16 Oct 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nicolas de Grigny, Nicolas Lebègue: Écrire le temps
Nicolas Bucher, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Classical - Released by HORTUS on 20 Mar 2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn, Vellard: The Seven Last Words
Quatuor Debussy, Ensemble Gilles Binchois
Quartets - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 9 Jul 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Music and Poetry in St Gallen: Sequences and Tropes (9th Century) (Anonymous - Notker)
Classical - Released by Glossa on 1 Jul 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vellard: Cantica Sacra
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Music by vocal ensembles - Released by Evidence (LTR) on 10 Mar 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Songs of the Renaissance: France/Spain
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 7 Feb 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Canto gregoriano, les tons de la musique
Ensemble Gilles Binchois|Dominique Vellard
Classical - Released by Cantus Records on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gilles Binchois - Chansons
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 2 Feb 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Machaut: Le vray remède d'amour
Ensemble Gilles Binchois|Dominique Vellard
Classical - Released by Cantus Records on 1 Oct 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Early French Polyphony
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 6 Aug 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo