Hollywood may indeed have something to learn from Jordi Savall. He has dressed up ''Captaine Humes Poeticall Musicke'' in musical finery beyond the wildest imagination of the composer. Recorded in 1983 and remastered in 1988, this disc may not represent his latest thinking on how to popularize a little-known repertory. Opulently orchestrated (with renaissance recorder, curtal, cornett, trombone, two tenor viols and one bass viol and two lutes), reminiscent of recordings of Monteverdi's Orfeo of the same date, The Lady of Sussex delight inaugurates the CD theatrically with a strummed crescendo. The Earle of Pembrokes Galiard, and A Masque apparently merit similar treatment. The remaining selections form a kaleidoscope of instrumental combinations, together with the two vocalists, Figueras (whose English is precise but not idiomatic) and Hillier.
Some arrangements are more successful than others. Framing an ensemble of 'outdoor-ish' instruments—curtal, cornett and trombone—with the delicate timbre of renaissance recorder and lute in The Lady Canes delight creates a strange effect, while the more balanced juxtaposition of cornett and trombone with treble and bass viol and lute in The Duke of Holstones delight creates a pleasing effect. Bearing in mind that Hume most probably envisaged his music being performed by small chamber ensembles, it comes as little surprise that the most successful pieces are those performed by a handful of musicians. Hume the soldier viol player is presented most sympathetically in his autobiographical bass duets (The Souldiers Song, Alas poore men and Tobacco, performed by Hillier and Savall), together with the bass viol duets and trio (The Duke of Lenox delight, The Earle of Arundels favoret and A Jigg for Ladies which serves as a finale are taken by Savall, Christophe Coin and Paolo Pandolfo). Hume would have delighted in the polished viol consort versions of The Queens delight and The Pashion of Musicke, as well as Figueras's performance of Fain would I change that note, which Savall accompanies so masterfully. The consort bass, played by Pandolfo, adds a delicate resonance to the texture of The Duke of Lenox delight and The Earle of Arundels favoret, yet unduly polarizes that of The Earle of Salisburies favoret, being performed by the lutenists Hopkinson Smith and Robert Clancy. Their lute duet, The King of Denmarks delight, gives a rather uncharacteristically precious impression of the earthy Hume.
The occasional lapse apart, Savall has skilfully minimized the impression of slightness one usually retains of Hume's music by creating an illusion of colour and drama which any composer would envy. Whether Hume would recognize his music is probably irrelevant.'