Year: 2016

L’Achéron, François Joubert-Caillet
68:09
Ricercar RIC360

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]cheidt published these dances in two volumes in 1621, and in the title to one of the volumes recommends that they be played with viols and continuo. They are in four and five parts, resembling the collection from about the same time of J. H. Schein, also in four or five parts, and also suitable for viols, published a few years earlier. Polyphonic textures, dance rhythms, the opening Canzon super Cantionem Gallicam Italianate in style, reminiscent of the expatriate Englishman William Brade, whose volume of dances was also published in Germany at this time.

The playing is sonorous and articulate, expressive, the texture enriched by the continuo team of harp, theorbo (who also doubles on lute and cittern) and two keyboard players who play organ, virginals and ottavino. The viols, copies of Jaye, are beautifully matched. Their consort bass imparts a richness and depth to the sound. I think it has a bottom GG string, which would imply quite a big instrument.

Scheidt’s music is brilliantly inventive, the four-part pavan which follows the opening canzon treats its themes sequentially, building to an impressive climactic dotted rhythm in the final section. They vary the instrumental texture from time to time, introducing the Courant just for treble viol and lute, repeated by the full four-part consort. Each dance type is characterised in the music, and supported by the playing, particularly in the a minor pavan, in the second ‘suite’, a gorgeous piece with lovely melodies, some sections in triple time, sequential with dialogue-like interchanges between tenor and treble. The Galliard of this suite is particularly attractive, brief but quite dense in its ideas. Contrasting sections call for very smooth, lineal playing followed by vigorous dotted figures, beautifully expressed by the consort. The suite concludes with a Canzon ad imitationem Bergamasca Anglica à 5, virtuoso exchanges between equal instruments, contrasting sections, an enchanting piece, brilliantly played. I’m mystified by the title – I found it more Italian than English.

I would have liked a bit more information about the instruments – particularly about the ‘consort bass’, its string length and tuning, maybe pictures would have been enough. The booklet notes however are excellent, and the illustrations from Praetorius give an appropriate context, being exactly contemporaneous with the music. This is a minor point, the recording is very enjoyable, the music continuously gripping, often moving, and the playing is terrific. Highly recommended.

Robert Oliver

Sit Fast viol consort
66:46
Eloquentia EL1549
Unfinished Fantazia, three Fantazias a3, nine Fantazias a4, Fantazie Upon one note, In Nomines I & II

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here are many recordings of these pieces from which one can choose. All six of those that I have heard to date are excellent in their own way: techniques more than adequate to the demands on the players, well-thought out renditions, lovingly played. What sets this one apart is the intensity generated by restraint – every choice dictated by the music itself.

Sit Fast play with exquisite poise, no exaggerated mannerisms, few added ornaments and only a very occasional use of vibrato. They vary the tempo within sections, following Purcell’s directions (‘Quick’, ‘Drag’) despite his writing the tempo changes into the note values. This is particularly effective in Fantazia 6 with its very chromatic ‘Slow’ which they take very slowly but with beautifully controlled soft playing, as, within the space of 17 bars, it migrates from C major through B flat minor to a cadence in F major, rapidly building an intensity of melancholy for which the poignant sound of the consort of viols is so appropriate.

The balance favours the bass viol, perhaps because the player, Josh Cheetham, is a strong player anyway, but not to the extent of masking the tenors in the 4-part pieces. The treble viol (Atushi Sakaï) displays controlled restraint, which lets the intensity of the inner parts through the texture, always unexpected, making you sit up and pay attention. Purcell’s youthful imagination seems to respond to an inner ‘dare’ – to question what might be possible, then pushes boundaries of chromaticism and dissonance as far as he can and then further. No wonder Handel found his music so striking.

The disc opens with a completion of the unfinished 4-part fantazia no 13, and then plays the rest in the order in which they occur in the autograph manuscript – the sole surviving source for these amazing works. The last of the 4-part fantazias, composed on 31st August 1680, despite, presumably, the heat of the summer, is on the surface, the most restrained. Its stately opening, the parts enter in normal polyphonic succession, no abrupt changes of tempo, just cunningly disguised morphing from flat to sharp keys and back again, no macho youthful showing off, just a subtle and sublimely expressive taming of the harmonic questions he had be asking all along.

Then we come to the coup de grace – the Fantazie Upon one note – did he have someone in mind for this, an incompetent but eager Royal perhaps? Or is it another ‘dare?’ Whatever the impetus, a masterpiece resulted. That leaves the two In Nomine settings, in six and seven parts respectively, leaving this listener at a loss for words – an advantage in a reviewer, no doubt. Highly recommended, even if you already have Fretwork and Phantasm and all.

Robert Oliver