(The) Spirite of Musicke
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Tobias Hume, Alfonso II Ferrabosco, Christopher Simpson, John Coprario, John Jenkins
Label: ATMA
Magazine Review Date: 6/1999
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ACD22136
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Songs of Mourning, Movement: To the World |
John Coprario, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines John Coprario, Composer Suzie Le Blanc, Soprano |
Songs of Mourning, Movement: Tis now dead night (To the most sacred Queen Anne) |
John Coprario, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines John Coprario, Composer Suzie Le Blanc, Soprano |
(The) First Part of Ayres, French, Pollish and oth, Movement: Touch me lightly (lyra viol) |
Tobias Hume, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines Tobias Hume, Composer |
(The) First Part of Ayres, French, Pollish and oth, Movement: (The) Spirite of Musicke |
Tobias Hume, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines Tobias Hume, Composer |
Suite |
John Jenkins, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines John Jenkins, Composer |
So beauty on the waters stood |
Alfonso II Ferrabosco, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines Alfonso II Ferrabosco, Composer Suzie Le Blanc, Soprano |
Division on a Ground |
Christopher Simpson, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines Christopher Simpson, Composer |
Captaine Humes Poeticall Musicke, Movement: What greater grief (song) |
Tobias Hume, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines Suzie Le Blanc, Soprano Tobias Hume, Composer |
Captaine Humes Poeticall Musicke, Movement: Sweet Ayre The Earl of Arundels favoret |
Tobias Hume, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines Suzie Le Blanc, Soprano Tobias Hume, Composer |
Captaine Humes Poeticall Musicke, Movement: The Queens New-yeeres gift |
Tobias Hume, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines Suzie Le Blanc, Soprano Tobias Hume, Composer |
Like Hermit Poore |
Alfonso II Ferrabosco, Composer
(Les) Voix Humaines Alfonso II Ferrabosco, Composer Suzie Le Blanc, Soprano |
Author:
This is an appealing recording you will want to return to again and again. Over the years they have been playing together as Les Voix Humaines, the bass viol players Susie Napper and Margaret Little have developed a command of their repertory and a rapport that few other ensembles have approached. They express themselves very clearly as individuals but play together with perfect precision. In Tobias Hume’s flirtatious Touch me sweetly they banter playfully, their control of articulation and dynamics superb; so too in Hume’s evocation of a bandora by two bass viols in The Spirite of Musicke. To Simpson’s divisions for two bass viols they bring a depth of expression not often heard, but they seem especially in their element in John Jenkins’s sublimely crafted Suite in A minor.
Not content with the existing music for their instruments, they have taken inspiration from Hume, who composed the deeply affecting Cease leaden slumber and What greater grief for voice and two bass viols, and arranged the lute accompaniment of songs by the Jacobean violists Giovanni Coprario and Alfonso Ferrabosco II for two viols. The result is most often ravishing – the viol has after all been called a ‘bowed lute’ – although I find the melancholic simplicity of the vocal line of Coprario’s Tis now dead night overpowered by busy viols. Elsewhere, in Coprario’s To the World and Ferrabosco’s So Beautie on the waters stood, their arrangements are more successful.
They are joined on this recording by Suzie Le Blanc whose clear, bell-like upper register, excellent diction and formidable breath control suit the music ideally. She seems completely at one with the texts and their settings, investing just the right emotional weight to her readings. My only regret is the occasional scooped note, which I believe she has very consciously included (it is repeated in subsequent stanzas of several of the songs), which stands out too brightly in her reading and seems at odds with her otherwise faultless intonation. The viol players rely perhaps too much for this repertory on a swelled bow stroke which can add too much colour to a delicate accompaniment or unsteady a dance.'
Not content with the existing music for their instruments, they have taken inspiration from Hume, who composed the deeply affecting Cease leaden slumber and What greater grief for voice and two bass viols, and arranged the lute accompaniment of songs by the Jacobean violists Giovanni Coprario and Alfonso Ferrabosco II for two viols. The result is most often ravishing – the viol has after all been called a ‘bowed lute’ – although I find the melancholic simplicity of the vocal line of Coprario’s Tis now dead night overpowered by busy viols. Elsewhere, in Coprario’s To the World and Ferrabosco’s So Beautie on the waters stood, their arrangements are more successful.
They are joined on this recording by Suzie Le Blanc whose clear, bell-like upper register, excellent diction and formidable breath control suit the music ideally. She seems completely at one with the texts and their settings, investing just the right emotional weight to her readings. My only regret is the occasional scooped note, which I believe she has very consciously included (it is repeated in subsequent stanzas of several of the songs), which stands out too brightly in her reading and seems at odds with her otherwise faultless intonation. The viol players rely perhaps too much for this repertory on a swelled bow stroke which can add too much colour to a delicate accompaniment or unsteady a dance.'
Explore the world’s largest classical music catalogue on Apple Music Classical.
Included with an Apple Music subscription. Download now.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Events & Offers
From £9.20 / month
SubscribeGramophone Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Events & Offers
From £11.45 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.