Come Viole

Andreas Scholl's singing has been developing year by year. In this more recent release, his singing style moved more and more towards pure art with no traces of pretenses or technical showmanship, no excessive vibrato or wild coloraturas. He did not even need to target at 'perfect vocal production'. All these have become secondary stuff when you reach this level of artistry. The other-wordliness of this album has to be heard to be catched.

The successful film Tous les matins du monde had the undisputed merit of bringing the world’s attention to the figure of Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe and to the viola da gamba in general, since Sainte-Colombe provided substantial contributions to the repertoire of this instrument. Still, the film’s plot was explicitly (and fully legitimately) grounded on a fictional work, a novel telling the history of Sainte-Colombe with references to what was, by then, known about him. Fortunately, a virtuous circle was ignited by the film, prompting new and meticulous research on his figure and effectively bringing to light some hard facts about his life.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Alfonso Ferrabosco - Consort Music To The Viols In 4, 5 & 6 Parts (2003) {Alia Vox AV9832}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 365 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 158 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 44 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2003 Alia Vox | AV9832
Classical / Renaissance / Baroque / Chamber Music

Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger (b. Greenwich, c. 1575; bur. Greenwich, March 11, 1628) was an English composer and viol player of Italian descent. Although he gained access to the royal court as early as 1592, it took him almost 10 years to come to the attention of the queen, but in 1601 he became a member of the royal consort of viols. Ferrabosco marks the true beginning of the English Baroque. When Elizabeth I died in 1603, her successor James IV appointed Ferrabosco as music teacher to Henry, Prince of Wales and Ferrabosco continued to work in the king's service, becoming Composer of the King's Music in 1625, in 1626 succeeding John Coprario in the post of official court musician. The respect shown for him by his contemporaries proves that Ferrabosco was the court musician of his day, borne out by the fact that he was also the most copied.

It is always a thrill to hear a performance of newly discovered music by a favourite composer, especially when it includes previously unknown versions of much loved works like Marin Marais’ La Folie The music on this disc is a selection taken from a manuscript in the Scottish National Library of 150 pieces for solo viola da gamba.

Purcell’s fifteen Fantazias have come down to us as a manuscript kept at the British Museum, most of whose pieces are dated. As they would not have aroused any interest at the time, the young composer did not even attempt to have them published, and they only appeared in print, edited by Peter Warlock, in 1927! This unique collection of pieces of from three to seven parts, a true “sum” of polyphonic thinking, to which only Bach’s Musical Offering and Art of Fugue may be compared, are the product, incredible as it may seem, of a very young composer of twenty-one at the beginning of his all too-short career. Written during the summer of 1680, they bring two centuries of uninterrupted instrumental tradition in England to a crowning conclusion.

Marin Marais’s music apparently still has a few more secrets tucked away up its sleeve… Proof of this is to be found in the Panmure manuscript, which is conserved in Edinburgh and contains forty-five pieces for viola da gamba which are not to be found anywhere else. Noémie Lenhof has chosen to highlight them on her first album as a soloist. Thanks to some major reconstruction work, a number of unpublished couplets from the Folies d’Espagne, a grande chaconne and a whole suite of dances are brought back to life by the young gambist’s bow.