Early Music; New London Consort: Ars Subtilior Purcell Room, London

Beginning of article

Complexity has infrequently been a good end in music. Any form of creativity that states its own sophistication to the point where it becomes a theme of the work is righteously nailed for decadence and pointlessness. Think of "Progressive" rock. So Philip Pickett's latest extractions from the codices of late-14th century France and Italy were to be approached nervously.

In its own time, Ars Subtilior (or "the more subtle art") was regarded as work of absolute sophistication. It came billed last weekend on London's South Bank as medieval "avant-garde" music; music purposefully cultivated to advance the formal and notational precepts of the period and, perhaps, to idealise …