COMPOSERS: Byrd
LABELS: Virgin Veritas
WORKS: Consort songs and music for viols
PERFORMER: Gérard Lesne (alto)Ensemble Orlando Gibbons
CATALOGUE NO: VC 5 45264 2
Gérard Lesne’s exquisitely refined, ethereal alto voice is the perfect vehicle for Byrd’s understated but intense elegies and laments. Although the recorded balance makes it hard to distinguish his words, these are deeply affecting accounts, beautifully supported by the sonorous and fluid consort playing of the Ensemble Orlando Gibbons. Kate Bolton
Byrd: Consort songs and music for viols
Gérard Lesne’s exquisitely refined, ethereal alto voice is the perfect vehicle for Byrd’s understated but intense elegies and laments. Although the recorded balance makes it hard to distinguish his words, these are deeply affecting accounts, beautifully supported by the sonorous and fluid consort playing of the Ensemble Orlando Gibbons. Kate Bolton
Our rating
5