The Mad Lover
$35.00
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ECCLES / PURCELL / DUNFORD / MATTEIS the Younger & Elder
The Mad Lover
Théotime Langlois de Swarte (violin), Thomas Dunford (lute)
[ Harmonia Mundi / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 20 November 2020
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
Sonatas, Suites, Grounds & various bizzarie from the 17th-Century England
A violin and a lute: with this choice line-up, our pair of instrumentalists - and frequent partners on the current Baroque music scene - illuminates some aspects of an elusive amalgam that constitutes the 17th-century English notion of melancholy. The inconsolable 'Mad Lover' of the album title is reimagined by Théotime Langlois de Swarte and Thomas Dunford as a character from the reign of Charles II: a tale told through music from the pen of such violin virtuosos as the prodigiously gifted Nicola Matteis. Heightened by the exuberance and abandon common to those musicians transplanted from Italy, the beguiling nuances of this language of yearning and loss continue to echo in the popular music of our time.
"The duo swerve between daydreaming optimism (has the tonic major ever sounded so wonderful?) to bruised turmoil. The opening track, the Ground from which the album draws its theme, is a masterclass in love-swept changeability...The performances from both are imaginative, quick in colour, corporeal, sexy." Gramophone
'Approaching the repertoire with a shared musical vision, they produce ravishingly expressive accounts from curtain up to lights down...De Swarte plays a noble Jacob Stainer violin from 1665 (formerly Reinhard Goebel's), wielding its bow with chivalric flair in the elaborate Fantasia by the younger Nicola Matteis...Harmonia Mundi's resonant recording and expert balance contribute to a truly outstanding disc.'
BBC Music Chamber Choice of the Month. January 2021
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2022 Shortlisted - Chamber
"Welcomed for the first time by Harmonia Mundi, this unique duo represents two of the most talented musicians of the young generation. The slow movements are immensely touching, in a language close to improvisation. In the variations, both musicians lead us into a whirlwind of perfectly mastered virtuosity. Very great art!" International Classical Music Awards 2022
