Rating: 5/5
Review:
A wonderful recording
Unsurprisingly, this is absolutely brilliant. Phantasm have yet to make a recording which
is anything other than excellent and this disc of Christopher Tye's complete consort music is a
wonderful achievement which sits alongside their best.
I knew Tye as a Tudor composer of choral polyphony, but I
had no idea that he wrote consort music, too – and it is extraordinary. Almost always original, sometimes quirky and
occasionally just plain odd, I find it fascinating and rewarding to listen
to. It's anything but an anodyne musical
experience, but the fabulous sound of the viol consort makes it a lovely disc to
listen to and means that there is no sense of it being forbidding.
Phantasm are simply superb.
Technically, they are flawless and their consort sound is magnificent:
rich and beautiful while having the slight edginess at times which this music
demands. They bring out all the
character of the music while melding it into a coherent, listenable whole and
for me this exemplary playing from a truly great ensemble.
With Linn's outstanding recorded sound, fascinating and
readable notes from Laurence Dreyfuss and very attractive presentation, this is
an outstanding disc all round. I would
expect it to feature strongly in Awards lists next year, and I can recommend it
very warmly.
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