Pamela Thorby & Andrew Lawrence-King - The Garden of Early Delights

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A real delight

This is a real gem of a CD. I tried it because of the two performers whose work I have loved for a long time, and I am very glad that I did.

The music presented here is from the 16th and 17th centuries for various types of recorder with continuo - here provided by Andrew-Lawrence King's harp - and there are also some pieces for solo recorder and solo harp. It is a well-chosen, varied and interesting programme; there are vigorous, sparkling pieces allowing Pamela Thorby to display her amazing virtuosity, through to beautiful, melancholy pieces by John Dowland. It is a disc you can listen to straight through because it never becomes same-y, but each piece stands up very well on its own merits.

The musicianship is fantastic. Pamela Thorby already has a wonderful body of work with the Palladian Ensemble and other ensembles, and is well established as one of the world's finest performers on the recorder. Andrew Lawrence-King has played with too many great soloists and ensembles to list and is simply brilliant. His harp sounds like a full chamber ensemble at times and a delicate solo instrument at others. Together they make a wonderful sound, excellently recorded by Linn, and they bring this lovely music to life.

The notes are very good and the presentation is attractive, making this a really cracking disc all round, and I recommend it very warmly.

Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal - The Gents

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very good but slightly marred

This is an interesting and rewarding disc of music by Tudor and Jacobean composers. Some is well-known, some much more obscure and it makes a fascinating and enjoyable programme. Composers like Tallis, Parsons, White and others here have been well-represented in the catalogue for some time now, but the choral music of the Ferraboscos (father and son) was new to me and I am glad to have it - it is quite dark, complex and beautiful.

The performances are generally very good - technically sound with a good blend and solid intonation. The solo songs by the countertenors are excellent, and the viol consort Diapente (who accompany some works and have three instrumental works of their own) are also very good. I have to say that The Gents is not a very well-chosen name for a serious choir, but they transcend this well. An all-male outfit, they sing at the traditionally low pitch of the Low Countries which makes the sound very rich, accentuated by a very resonant acoustic and what sounds to me like quite distant microphone placement. This makes for an attractive but quite blurred sound and at times I missed the clarity of line which groups like The Tallis Scholars and The Cardinall's Musick do so well, and at times this did interfere with my enjoyment of the music. For example, Tallis's exquisite Miserere nostri got a little lost in the fog for me.

Despite my reservations, this is still an enjoyable disc of very lovely music and I can recommend it.

Gesualdo - Sacrae Cantiones Liber Secundus - VocalConsort Berlin/Wood

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent reconstruction

This is a very good disc of some of Gesualdo's sacred works, reconstructed by James Wood from the parts which have survived. It's a fascinating and very lovely disc.

Gesualdo's music is famously idiosyncratic, with liberal use of chromaticism and highly unusual contrapuntal effects. This has made some of his recordings rather a struggle for me; The Tallis Scholars' recording of his Tenebrae Responsories is just about the only disc of theirs which I can't play with unalloyed pleasure, for example. The music here is considerably less extreme and the chromatic effects add a genuine frisson of excitement rather than just make it seem plain bonkers as some of his other music does to me. I am not musician enough to know whether this is intrinsic to Gesualdo's music or due to James Wood's more gentle reconstruction, but he is a very considerable scholar (as is the great Andrew Parrott, whose "very great help and advice" Wood acknowledges) so I am very willing to accept this as a good approximation to Gesualdo himself.

The effect in the recording is very pleasing. The music is adventurous while remaining very beautiful and the performances are excellent throughout. They are very well balanced with a good blend but with every part distinctly audible. Their technical excellence is plain as they make the challenges of this music seem simple, and they bring real meaning to the texts. It is a pleasure to listen to.

The recorded sound is excellent and the booklet is very attractively presented with very interesting notes by James Wood and full texts and translations. This is an excellent disc all round and very warmly recommended.

Gombert - Missa Media Vita etc - The Hilliard Ensemble

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another gem from the Hilliards

This is a truly beautiful disc. It consists of a Mass setting by Nicolas Gombert based upon his own motet Media vita in morte summus, interspersed with other motets and beginning with Media vita itself. Gombert was one of "the forgotten generation" of composers who came between the titanic figures of Josquin and Palestrina and who have been overshadowed by them virtually ever since. Well, not any more. The music presented here is rich, involving and incredibly lovely, and shows why much of Gombert's music has been revived and recorded in the last 20 years or so.

The Hilliard Ensemble - one of the world's finest vocal ensembles - do the music proud. Their apparently effortless skill, careful attention to detail and the relationship between text and music, and the sheer beauty of the sound they make produce a truly memorable disc. It's one that I return to again and again, and it moves and uplifts me every time. The Mass and motets are stunning and as a bonus they finish the disc with Musae Iovis, Gombert's fabulously lovely lament on the death of Josquin.

I don't really know how to convey the full greatness of this disc, but it really is one of my absolute favourites in a fairly extensive collection. At this price you've very little to lose and I recommend it in the warmest possible terms. It's a gem.

Guerrero - Requiem - Orchestra of the Renaissance/Noone

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent disc

I have owned and loved the original issue of this excellent recording for years and I am delighted to see it reissued.

Guerrero worked in the cathedral at Seville from 1554 until his death in 1599, and Michael Noone describes it in his excellent notes as "an attempt to imagine the Requiem Mass and Burial Service that was celebrated in Seville's great Cathedral after the composer's death." Guerrero's music is fabulous, and in my view it is of the same quality as that of Guerrero's contemporary Victoria. It is rich, passionate and very beautiful and the programme as a whole, which includes chant and motets and instrumental pieces by other composers (including Josquin) forms a lovely programme.

The performances are excellent. Noone notes that " One of the remarkable features of Seville Cathedral's music making was the participation of ministriles who played shawms, cornetts, sackbuts and dulcians," and their effect here is wonderful. There is an excellent balance between chant, unaccompanied polyphony and the use of the instruments. It is technically very good, with real engagement with the text and a fine, resonant acoustic (in a London Church rather than Seville Cathedral) which gives genuine atmosphere to the recording.

I think this is an excellent and immensely enjoyable and moving disc, and recommend it very warmly.

Hammer - Sonatas for Viola da Gamba - Eckert/Hamburger Ratsmusik

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good disc

Franz Xavier Hammer was born in 1741 and died in 1817, so the claim that he was the last gambist may well be true (neglecting the modern revival, of course). He was a new composer to me and I was a little sceptical about what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised - this is very enjoyable music. It is somewhat akin to that of Abel (two of whose brief solo pieces appear on the disc); perhaps not quite as musically inventive, but very rewarding nonetheless.

The musicianship is excellent. Simone Eckert is a fine gambist and she and Hamburger Ratsmusik play beautifully together so that these sonatas have real depth and intimacy. The recorded sound is very good, bringing out the full resonance of both the viola da gamba and the continuo instruments, making the disc a pleasure to listen to.

If you have any interest in the viola da gamba or 17th Century chamber music in general, I can recommend this very warmly.

Handel - Il Caro Sassone - Crowe/English Concert/Bicket

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Fabulous Handel

This is a fabulous disc of youthful works by Handel, composed during his stay in Italy between 1706 and 1710. It was an incredibly productive period and a lovely sample of what he wrote is presented here - a setting of Salve Regina, concert arias, extracts from cantatas and operas and some instrumental sonatas. It's a terrific programme, well-balanced, interesting and full of Handel's great tunes and brilliant orchestration.

The performances are excellent. Lucy Crowe has a delightful voice which has matured slightly, giving it a lovely depth of tone. Her technique is superb - the aria Disserratevi, o porte d'Averno from La Resurrezione, for example, shows her singing at times with quiet depth and at others with staggering virtuosity as she breezes through some of Handel's most demanding, word-murdering passages, while the English Concert provide a thrilling orchestral accompaniment - including some fabulous, sparkling trumpet work from Neil Brough and Michael Harrison. It's as good as this all the way through the disc, and I would say it's one of the most enjoyable discs of Handel vocal works that I own - and it's up against some very stiff competition.

The recorded sound is excellent and beautifully balanced, the notes are very good and it is attractively presented. This is an excellent disc all round and very warmly recommended.