COMPOSERS: Aston,Bull &Anon,Byrd,Dowland,Gibbons,Harding,Tomkins
LABELS: Chandos Chaconne
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: English Virginals Music
WORKS: Music by Byrd, Dowland, Harding, Gibbons, Tomkins, Aston, Bull &Anon
PERFORMER: Sophie Yates (virginals)
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 0574 DDD
An Italian-style virginals is used here. It has a full sound but lacks delicacy. Towards the end of Bull’s In nomine, for example, it produces a busy buzz rather than a graded climax. Nonetheless, the player coaxes from it the best ever recording of Tomkins’s fast and furious Barafostus’s Dreame (surpassing even Trevor Pinnock’s on Vanguard). Bright, lively playing is also on display in some of the Byrd pieces, but the sensitive, yielding traceries of his Lachrymae Pavan belong to another world and are lost. Sophie Yates is a dancer rather than a dreamer. Anthony Pryer
Byrd, Dowland, Harding, Gibbons, Tomkins, Aston, Bull &Anon
An Italian-style virginals is used here. It has a full sound but lacks delicacy. Towards the end of Bull’s In nomine, for example, it produces a busy buzz rather than a graded climax. Nonetheless, the player coaxes from it the best ever recording of Tomkins’s fast and furious Barafostus’s Dreame (surpassing even Trevor Pinnock’s on Vanguard). Bright, lively playing is also on display in some of the Byrd pieces, but the sensitive, yielding traceries of his Lachrymae Pavan belong to another world and are lost. Sophie Yates is a dancer rather than a dreamer. Anthony Pryer
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:13 pm