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You could write a whole treatise--quite a few actually--on the music featured on this fine disc from the early music ensemble La Reverdie. But, if you're interested in that, perhaps you should just read Blake Wilson's book Music and Merchants--the Laudesi Companies of Republican Florence (Oxford, 1992). The music here, religious songs of praise (laudes) from the 13th and 14th centuries, was written to accompany texts drawn from or inspired by one of the most famous and widely read (and heard) "books" of the Middle Ages--the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend). This was a collection of stories that told the complete history of the lives of the saints, and together with the Old and New Testaments comprised a kind of holy trilogy of Christian knowledge and teaching. Originating in Italy, the songs formed the repertoire of groups known as Laudesi, especially popular in Florence and reaching their peak at the beginning of the 15th century.

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Orlando (HWV 31) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel written for the Royal Academy of Music (1719). The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's L'Orlando after Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which was also the source of Handel's operas Alcina and Ariodante.
Orlando (Roland), a great soldier in Charlemagne's army, falls desperately in love with the pagan princess Angelica, who is in turn in love with another man, Medoro. Orlando cannot accept this and he is driven to madness, prevented only from causing absolute carnage by the magician Zoroastro (who eventually restores his sanity).

Orlando est un opéra en trois actes du compositeur anglais Georg Friedrich Haendel créé le 27 janvier 1733 à Londres, inspiré de l'Orlando furioso de l'Arioste. Cette œuvre est considérée comme l'un des sommets de l'art lyrique du compositeur, avec Alcina. Le thème de la magie et de l'enchantement y joue un rôle important et l'orchestration en est particulièrement soignée.
Zoroastre, appuyé contre un rocher, contemple les constellations dont la signification, obscure pour le commun des mortels, lui apprend qu'Orlando renouvellera un de ses exploits. Orlando en personne apparaît, tiraillé entre ses désirs contradictoires d'amour et de gloire. Zoroastre lui reproche son penchant pour l'amour, et fait un signe avec sa baguette magique. Les Génies le transportent sur la montagne, et, à sa place, apparaît la Cour d'amour, où l'on voit des héros de l'Antiquité endormis aux pieds de Cupidon. Zoroastre exhorte Orlando d'abandonner l'amour et de suivre Mars, le dieu de la guerre...

Word premiere recording

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This four-CD set presents a definitive mid-century showcase for Amsterdam's renowned Concertgebouw Orchestra, featuring beloved conductor Eduard van Beinum and a glittering array of legendary soloists. Principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1945 to 1959, Van Beinum was acclaimed as a musician's musician, an artist of unassuming integrity who advanced the composer's vision above all. Recorded by Dutch Radio, the repertoire shows off the full range of the Concertgebouw's fabled warmth and richness, from Debussy's La Mer and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé to Schubert, Schoenberg and great pieces by Dutch moderns Hendrik Andriessen and Rudolf Escher.

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From liner notes:
Mimi no Ho - The 17 pipes of shô (Japanese mouth organ) are not ordered in pitch. The performer senses the positions of his index finger while playing. It is possible to build movement patterns based upon the proprioception and the kinesthetic feeling. Viola has no frets. It is possible to slide not only a single pitch but also the whole melody line on the fingerboard. This piece is composed with the above observations of the playing methods.