William Lawes - Consort Music

22 tracks - MP3 192 Kbps - RAR 91Mb


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Laurence Dreyfus and his viol consort Phantasm explore the extraordinary expressive puissance of 17th-century English composer William Lawes, in a disc featuring some of his four- and five-part consort music. Here are pieces of subtlety, full of passionate gesture and often deeply introspective. Individuality abounds, and I cannot readily call to mind an English composer during the 1620s and 1630s who had as rich a musical vocabulary as this composer whose life was cut short fighting for the royalist cause at the Siege of Chester in 1645. What I like about Dreyfus’s approach is an absence of preciosity and rigid orthodoxy. Neither serves the cause of honest expression, and Dreyfus’s involvement in the details which adorn the composite structure of the music – very often far from straightforward – draws the listener into a world of sound which Dreyfus himself describes as ‘inscrutable, bizarre and anarchic’. For too long, English consort music has had a specialist image, seen as the preserve of the enlightened few, or an indulgence by rarified amateur gatherings in north Oxford. Phantasm’s spirited playing blows all these cobwebs away, and readers will find that they need no multi-syllable password to the wholehearted enjoyment of this wonderful music.

Nicholas Anderson 

contents:


Consort Setts in Five Parts

Set a5 in a
1 Fantazy
2 Fantazy
3 Aire

Set a5 in F
4 Fantazy
5 Paven
6 Aire

Set a5 in c
7 Fantazy
8 Aire
9 Paven
10 Aire

Set a5 in C
11 Fantazy
12 Paven
13 Aire

Set a5 in g
14 Fantazy
15 On the Playnsong
16 Aire

For the Violls a4
17 Fantazy in c (VdGS #108)
18 Aire [Fantazy] in C (VdGS #111)
19 Aire in c (VdGS #109)
20 Aire in C (VdGS #112)
21 Aire in c (VdGS #110)
22 Aire in C (VdGS #113)



Phantasm

Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and director
Wendy Gillespie, treble and tenor viols
Jonathan Manson, tenor viol
Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, bass viol

were joined by:
Sarah Cunningham, bass viol



-O-




18 tracks - MP3 192 Kbps - RAR 87Mb


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William Lawes was one of the greatest composer's during the first half of the 17th century. His consort of 6 parts was his last major work before he was tragically killed in 1645 fighting for his patron King Charles I. It robbed the musical world of a creative genius and one only wonders what more lavish compositions would have flowed from his pen. Lawes 5 part consort is good but it's in his 6 part consort that he shines the brightest, which the superb ensemble Phantasm take full advantage of. Their playing is immaculate,which is exactly what this music demands and they are recorded with great care. Lawes consort music is more experimental than his distinguished contemporary John Jenkins. English 17th century consort music continued to flourish after Lawes and Jenkins with Matthew Locke's 4 part consort before reaching it's peak with Henry Purcell's trio sonatas. 

contents:


Set a6 in g
1 Paven
2 Fantazy
3 Aire

Set a6 in C
4 Fantazy
5 Fantazy
6 Aire

Set a6 in F
7 Aire
8 Fantazy
9 Aire
10 Fantazy

Set a6 in B flat
11 Fantazy
12 Inominy
13 Aire

Set a6 in c
14 Fantazy
15 Fantazy
16 Inomine
17 Aire
18 Fantazy a6 in F (early version of Fantazy, Track 8)



Phantasm

Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and director
Wendy Gillespie, treble and tenor viols
Jonathan Manson, tenor viol
Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, bass viol

were joined by:
Varpu Haavisto, tenor viol
Susanne Braumann, bass viol