early music review

Dialogue Viols (Peter Wendland, Jacqui Robertson-Wade)
71:23
First Hand Records FHR159

The pardessus de viole, a viol smaller and pitched a fourth higher than the treble viol, enjoyed something of a vogue in France in the first half of the 18th century, and amongst its champions was the prolific French composer Bodin de Boismortier, who wrote much repertoire for the instrument as well as later in life a tutor for it. The present set of six sonatas for a pair of pardessus de viole was considered lost until rediscovered a few years ago, and it is receiving its premiere recording here. The combination of two instruments at the same pitch poses challenges for a composer, as does the relatively high pitch of these viols. The resulting music often relies upon close dialogue over the same material at the same pitch, with the concomitant threat of predictability and, dare one say, ennui. Boismortier’s endless inventiveness and the expressive playing of Peter Wendland and Jacqui Robertson-Wade (Dialogue Viols) avoid this very successfully, and I found myself comprehensively drawn into the reduced world of this diminutive instrument. Such was the persuasiveness of their accounts of Boismortier’s op 63 duos that their arrangements for pardessus of duets by Marais and Couperin sounded entirely natural. The CD notes point out that while the pardessus is mentioned as an optional instrumentation in over 250 pieces in the 18th century, music written specifically for a matched pair of pardessus is vanishingly rare. This makes these charming sonatas by Boismortier a rare and valuable find.

D. James Ross

Johan Hemlich Roman: Assaggi a violon solo
Anaëlle Blanc-Verdin
73:27
seulétoile SE 13

Well, it turns out a ‘hattar’ is a nickname for those 18th-century Swedes in favour of an alliance with Louis XV’s France, while a ‘fancy’ one tended to put his international perspective into practice by travelling. But while the 18th-century composer Roman Helmich Roman qualified as a ‘fancy hattar’, travelling throughout Europe sampling musical styles and collecting actual music, the main influence on his own compositions was the émigré Hanoverian and adoptive Englishman G F Handel. Most famous perhaps for his orchestral suite Drottningholm Music composed for the 1744 wedding of Crown Prince Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, Roman composed in a wide range of genres, including choral church music. These delightful Assaggi for solo violin (literally ‘tastes’) suggest a composer of extensive musical imagination, but with a light, witty and spontaneous side. Himself an oboist and violinist, it seems likely that these fresh and vivid pieces reflect Roman’s famous ability to improvise, and may amount to written-down versions of music he may have made up virtually on the spot. Regarded by many as the founder of Swedish music, after his death in 1758, his reputation lived on in his native land, although he has remained relatively unknown elsewhere. These beautifully tasteful and eloquent accounts of his Assaggi, described in the programme notes as a ‘dialogue between the violinist and the philosopher’, by Anaëlle Blanc-Verdin, are constantly involving and entertaining – clearly this ‘fancy hattar’ had more under his hat than is at first apparent! The comprehensive French programme notes are available in English translation online.

D. James Ross

Flore Seube
119:55 (2CDs in a card triptych)
Les Belles Ecouteuses LBE 82

This complete account by Flore Seube of the surviving viol music of Sieur Demachy, eight suites in all on two CDs, is a world premiere of this evocative repertoire from the reign of Louis XIV. Demachy, a contemporary of Sainte-Colombe and Marais, has left us only this single collection of music, although its authoritative voice and unerring creativity suggest that much else has been lost. Ms Seube plays a wonderfully resonant seven-string bass viol by Pierre Jacquier in the generous acoustic of the Gîte de Lavaud Blanche, which enhances the instrument’s rich timbres without any loss of clarity. She treads a fine line between affectation and expression to produce eloquent readings of this rich repertoire. Each Suite comprises exactly seven movements, generally following the standard form of Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Gavotte and Minuet, with one Suite only replacing the final Minuet with a quirky Chaconne. Sieur Demachy is at his most imaginative in the slightly freer Preludes, and Flore Seube adopts a suitably more exploratory approach in these, following the composer’s imaginative musical journey. However, this is consistently engaging repertoire deserving of wider attention, and Flore Seube has done both Sieur Demachy and her listeners a valuable service in providing these fine performances. A translation of the French programme notes printed in the booklet is available on the Belles Ecouteuses website.

D. James Ross

Henrik Persson
72:44
Barn Cottage Records BCR 028

This venerable bass viol by the London maker Edward Lewis, which has been through a number of manifestations since it was built, including a spell as a cello, has been restored in 2020 to its original form. The remarkable survival of an original label dates it to 1703, while its elegant decorations undoubtedly ensured the survival of the instrument itself. Violist Henrik Persson has selected a programme of music which could plausibly have been played on the viol, including a couple of the now familiar Telemann Fantasias, music by that flamoboyant violist/composer Tobias Hume and less familiar repertoire by Benjamin Hely, Thomas Brown and Richard Sumarte as well as anonymous music from the Williamsburg Musick Song Book, attesting to the fact that some of the early American colonists from England brought music and their beloved viols with them. While Henrik Persson plays with complete technical assurance and a wonderful musical expressiveness, the star of the show has to be the Lewis viol, which, in its restored state, has an absolutely beautiful, rich voice and a freshness which it must have had when it was first made. Clearly, from its lavish adornment and its stunning sound, this was a prestige instrument, but just think how many such fine instruments fell victim to changing tastes and musical demands. It is a testimony to the art of restorer John Topham that this remarkable instrument was saved from adaptation and dilapidation, and to the art of Henrik Persson that it has been allowed so eloquently to play the sort of repertoire so perfectly suited to it.

D. James Ross