Viol Consort

In this new recording Phantasm make no excuses for arranging some of Bach’s remarkable keyboard music for a consort of viols. Led by director Laurence Dreyfus they go on a conscious mission to uncover the hidden riches concealed behind the more neutral resources of the harpsichord and organ so as to liberate the fascinating characters lurking in the shadows and behind the scenes within Bach’s individual polyphonic lines. In the process of fugal confrontation among three to six musicians, they come face to face with the astounding psychological insights of Bach’s most radical inventions.

Forgive the repetition: old classical music, played by a former old classical …

Countertenor Iestyn Davies and the viol consort Fretwork present a new recording of works for viol consort and voice, drawn from 17th Century Germany, following their critically praised 2019 album of works by Michael Nyman and Henry Purcell.

English composer Thomas Tallis witnessed dramatic changes of religion under four monarchs, and his career accordingly represents the development of polyphonic church music in Renaissance England. Along with his student and fellow Roman Catholic, William Byrd, Tallis was one of the earliest composers to publish music under royal patent in England, and his works demonstrated the shifting doctrines and styles of liturgy in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. This 2017 Obsidian release features one piece with a text by Henry VIII's sixth and last wife, Katherine Parr, which gives the album its title, though the mix of Roman Catholic and Anglican pieces on the program suggests that "songs of Reformation" may be seen as one-sided. In any case, the performances by the vocal ensemble Alamire and the viol consort Fretwork put the emphasis on Tallis and his varied output, rather than on the theological preferences of royalty. The result is a well-balanced portrait of Tallis, and his choral music is given transparent textures and clear diction by the 14-voice choir, which maintains independence of parts while offering an evenly blended tone.

Stile Antico (joined by Fretwork) explore long-neglected repertory: the wealth of Tudor and Jacobean sacred music written for domestic devotion, rather than for church worship. Culled from collections intended for use in private homes, these pieces by Tomkins, Campion, Byrd, Tallis, Dowland, Gibbons and others, offer a unique insight into the turbulent religious climate of the time and the thriving musical culture at its heart.

This disc could top the early music charts in any of several categories: outstanding viol consort; best programming; superior engineering. And for sheer aesthetic beauty, it would be hard to find a recording that would score higher on the greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts scale. Jordi Savall and his Hespèrion XX ensemble pretty much own the viol repertoire, but usually we find them plumbing the works of continental composers from Spain, France, and Italy. Here we find them across the channel in Reformation England in what must have been the very satisfying task of bringing to light the seriously neglected instrumental music of Christopher Tye. Many observers would justifiably argue that although only 31 pieces exist, Tye's music for viol consort represents a summation of the genre–which in its complexities of texture and interdependence of the respective parts is the direct ancestor of the string quartet and other forms of chamber music. Savall and his five colleagues perform all 31 works, most of which are between two and three minutes long and primarily in a contrapuntal form known as In Nomine–a uniquely English creation, popular with many composers, in which a particular section from a John Taverner mass was used as a basis for the whole piece.