English Consort Music

"A curate's egg - with caviar! Bowman was past his best in 1998, though his disc of Byrd and contemporaries is rich and fascinating; even better is the CD of English-born Ferrabosco, one of our unsung greats." BBC Music Magazine, April 2008 ****

"Apt for Viols and Voices". That's how the fusion of voices and viols in mentioned in several documents of the English renaissance. This CD is devoted to two of the most important composers of that period who've bequeathed us an important body of "consorts" for 4 and 6 part viols as well as some very moving "consort songs". Both were employed at the royal court. The former by Elisabeth the 1st, the latter by James the 1st. The elder remains faithful to the basic principles of polyphony acquired with his master Thomas Tallis for whom he writes the poignant elegy Ye Sacred Muses. The second musician, on the other hand, a viola virtuoso, leads his instrument into new avenues and develops his polyphony through audacious experiments.