Viol Consort

This is the second instalment in Phantasm’s series of recordings dedicated to the keyboard music of J. S. Bach. The first was named a Chamber Choice by BBC Music Magazine and Prise de son d’exception by Diapason. This new recording explores further riches from both volumes of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier arranged by director Laurence Dreyfus for viol consort. Reimaging Bach’s keyboard polyphony as consort music has the dual benefits of expanding Bach’s chamber oeuvre whilst also presenting these highly-cherished works as seemingly new, never before heard gems, ripe for discovery. Despite its pedagogical inception Bach’s musical imagination imbues the Well-Tempered Clavier with intellectually complex fugues and preludes bursting with dancing melodies. Phantasm offers a wealth of insights into these highly artistic works revealing sonorities and colours that are both dynamically expressive and revelatory.

Over the years I have heard many recordings of music written for the Imperial court in Vienna. That’s no wonder: Vienna was a centre of music-making in Europe. During the 17th and 18th centuries some of the best musicians and composers were in the service of the Habsburg emperors. Most of the recordings concentrate on music for violins or voice. This disc is different in that it presents music for viol consort. That’s all the more interesting, as it is often thought that in the 17th century consort music was only written in France and England. It is quite surprising that this kind of music was also written in Austria. Most musicians in the service of the Imperial court were from Italy, where the viol consort had gone out of fashion since the first quarter of the 17th century. The fact that Italian composers wrote music for viol consort was due to the personal preferences of the emperors, Ferdinand III and Leopold I, who also wrote some music for this kind of ensemble themselves.

The name of the Spirit of Gambo viol consort comes from an old manuscript referring to the viola da gamba as a "Gambo Violl." It is interesting that absolutely nothing in the packaging of this release, at least in its U.S. version, identifies the ensemble as being from Chicago, or America at all. Be that as it may, the group delivers strong performances of some pieces that have been somewhat neglected within the viol consort repertoire.

The music of William Byrd has been something of an obsession for the members of Phantasm, featuring on their early recordings Still Music of the Spheres (1996) and Byrd Song (1998), as well as their 2004 collection The Four Temperaments. Here they return again to the Elizabethan composer with the benefit of nearly two decades’ performing experience, to gather together his complete output for viol consort, bar the fragmentary or spurious works. Spanning some 40 years of Byrd’s life, this is a condense but subtly varied album of styles: courtly dances interleave with cryptic spiritual and devotional works – fleeting expressions of the recusant Catholic’s unwavering faith – and variations on popular Tudor songs, like the magnificent tour de force, Browning. Among the finest works are the Fantasias, which range from lush-textured six-part tapestries to the laconic three-part pieces, haiku-like in their poetic expressivity. Throughout them Byrd retains the ‘Angelicall and Divine’ qualities that his contemporaries remarked upon – qualities that Phantasm captures perfectly in this collection.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XX - Elizabethan Consort Music, 1558 - 1603 (1998) {Alia Vox AV 9804}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 343 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 153 Mb
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© 1998 Alia Vox | AV 9804
Classical / Renaissance / Baroque / Chamber Music

Although the first full consort of viols did not arrive in England until 1540, there were actually several intriguing examples of what are now called "consort" music from before that time. Of course, the homogenous viol consort became supreme, and the present program (also featuring some 2-lute arrangements) focuses on the first part of that repertory. This developed at Elizabeth's court in the 1570s & 1580s, among professional musicians, but based on relatively restrictive models. Some pieces in the present program are composed freely, heralding the next step in consort development which, along with the small output of Byrd, allowed the English consort idiom to fully flower. Of course that was followed closely by the even larger and more famous repertory of consort music by composers such as Gibbons which was eventually geared more toward amateur players.

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.