Viols

At the age of 20, Henry Purcell entered his 14 Fantasias and two In Nomines into an autograph bearing the title ‘The Works of Hen; Purcell, A.D. 1680’. Despite his youth Purcell was already making his mark as a composer, writing music for the London theatres and holding posts at Westminster Abbey and at court. But unlike his works for the theatre and the church, which were intended for specific occasions, very little is known about the impulse behind fantasias.

This disc provides an opportunity to explore the music of the proud Englishman, the devoted friend, the loyal subject, and the faithful servant that was William Byrd, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his death. Through a collection of songs and instrumental works performed by the Chelys Consorts of Viols joined by tenor violist Harry Buckoke and mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, this recording introduces this key figure of the English Renaissance music: both devoutly Catholic and a favourite of the Protestant Queen, a serious character capable of weighty contemplation but also sharp wit and humour, and the loyal friend who wrote so personally and touchingly.

This well-planned Naxos programme is carefully laid out in two parts, each of viol music interspersed with harpsichord and organ pieces and ending with an anthem. It gives collectors an admirable opportunity to sample, very inexpensively, the wider output of Thomas Tomkins, and outstandingly fine Elizabethan musician whose music is still too known. Though he is best known for hid magnificent church music, it is refreshing to discover what he could do with viols, experimenting with different combinations of sizes of instruments, usually writing with the polyphony subservient to expressive harmonic feeling, as in the splendid and touching Fantasia for six viols. Perhaps the most remarkable piece here is the Hexachord fantasia, where the scurrying part-writing ornaments a rising and falling six-note scale (hexachord). The two five-part verse anthems and Above the stars, which is in six parts, are accompanied by five viols, with a fine counter-tenor in Above the stars and a bass in Thou art my King.

Red Byrd is certainly among the most unusual ensembles before the public today: at its core are two singers, a tenor and bass, who typically engage the services of other vocalists or choral groups, and/or employ the accompaniment of various instrumentalists or instrumental ensembles. It has performed much early music repertory both in concert, including festival appearances, and on recordings.

It's always great to encounter the recording that can "crack" a composer open, making his or her music accessible to a general listening public. And it's all the better when such a recording comes from beyond the usual quarters, as, for example, with this American recording of Renaissance polyphony. Nicolas Gombert was a Flemish Renaissance composer, a successor (and possibly a student) of Josquin who entered the service of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. His music, especially in his masses, tends to present itself as a dense, unbroken flow of polyphony. Gombert is one of the composers music history students tend to slog through in hopes of getting to the good stuff. One noted Renaissance scholar used to refer to him, Adrian Willaert, and Giaches de Wert as "the Ert brothers." All that could change with this disc of Gombert motets and chansons. These works are less dense than his masses, but not by much, and they are considerably less limpid than Josquin's pieces in the same genres. But here it is the performances that clarify them. The Massachusetts ensemble Capella Alamire (the name is a pun on an aspect of an old solmization system) under director Peter Urquhart, recording in a church in Portsmouth, NH, slows the motets down slightly and addresses them with a group of eight singers – the black belt of choral singing.

Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XX - Henry Purcell - Fantasias for the Viols 1680 (2002) {Naive-Astree ES 9922 rec 1994}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 277 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 125 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 42 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1994, 2002 Astrée / Naïve | ES 9922
Classical / Baroque / Chamber Music / Viol

Intellectually concentrated, emotionally intense, technically difficult, and spiritually sublime, Henry Purcell's Fantasias for the Viols are exactly the sort of music that Jordi Savall was born to play and play superbly. And with his group Hesperion XX, they play them as superbly Savall does. The depth of tone of the instruments, the brilliance of the technique, the rigor of the interpretations, the soulfulness of the understanding, and the transcendence of compassion are nonpareil and the performances achieve a level unmatched by any other.

Under the single name, Alfonso, lie two composers, father and son. The strongest bond between them must have been composing; there was precious little else, since Ferrabosco the Elder fled England precipitously in the year his son and namesake was born. As viol players they had some influence on developments in their adoptive land. They are well known to viol players today, and what is presented here, with father and son in alternation, is of far more than academic interest.

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) was one of the most complete musicians of the Elizabethan era. He made talented contributions to every genre of vocal and instrumental music. In the domain of the fantasia for viols , he wrote for numerous combinations of between two and six instruments and elaborated endlessly inventive formal structures, in which traces of Italianism are by no means absent. L’Achéron offers us a wide selection from this repertory, which it has recorded on viols based on early seventeenth-century English models.

This is a superb set of 5 CDs, covering works for viols by four 17the century English composers: John Jenkins, William Lawes (on 2 CDs), Matthew Locke, and Henry Purcell. It is a pure bliss for Baroque, especially chamber music lovers. The works recorded vary: fantasy, suite, pavan, consort, etc., but all are superbly performed by Fretwork Ensemble for 6 viols, sometimes accompanied by organ, spinet, and archlute. The quality of the recording is excellent: a 2001 remastering of previous various recordings done between 1986 and 1996.

Rose Consort of Viols - Ah, Dear Heart…: Songs, Dances and Laments from the Age of Elizabeth I (1993) {Woodmansterne}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 348 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 158 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 155 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1993 Woodmansterne | WOODM 002-2
Classical / Early Music / Renaissance

Much care has gone into the production and presentation of this disc from a warm and immediate recorded sound to the quality of the graphic design. The Rose Consort of Viols seem to play confidently in the knowledge that their subtle textural and dynamic contrasts are being keenly captured. And so they are. Their discreet and gentle accompaniments to the soprano soloist, Annabella Tysall, are founded on suppleness of articulation and sustained, luscious blending rather than expressive melodic nuance. This approach provides a pleasing back-cloth for Tysall's pure and bright-toned singing.