La Reverdie

Italian early music ensemble La Reverdie is a well-traveled European period instrument group. Taking its name after medieval verses composed to celebrate the onset of spring -- ergo, "reverdies" -- La Reverdie was founded in 1986 by two pairs of sisters, Livia Caffagni, Claudia Caffagni, Ella de Mircovich, and Elisabetta de Mircovich. In 1989, La Reverdie added its first and only male member, American-born cornetto player Doron David Sherwin, who gained entry when he married Livia Caffagni. La Reverdie often works with musicians outside the group, and each member maintains separate -- and busy -- careers; Livia Caffagni teaches recorder at the University of Trento, Claudia Caffagni at the Tartini Conservatory in Trieste, and Elisabetta de Mircovich is also a member of Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca and has worked with the English group Sequentia. La Reverdie has made many recordings, mostly for the Italian label Arcana, and each one has consistently won awards and critical acclaim. La Reverdie specializes in the neglected repertoire of the monophonic medieval mystery play or liturgical drama; recordings such as Historia Sancti Eadmundi and Il Festo Sancti Nicholai are representative of this trend. Nearly all of the group's other programs are themed in some way -- Bestiaria deals with the treatment of animals in medieval music, O tu Chiara scientia with philosophy, Insula Feminarum with femininity in early Celtic culture, and so on. In 2006, La Reverdie celebrated its 20th anniversary with its first exploration of a long-form work by a known composer in interpreting Guillaume Dufay's Missa Sancti Jacobi. With the turn of the twenty-first century, some of La Reverdie's earlier Arcana releases began to appear in reissued form on the Cantus label.