Purcell: Fantazias
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Composer: Henry PurcellPerformer: Rose Consort of Viols
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-10-06
Music Label: Naxos
Soundtracks:
- Four-part Fantazia No. 5 in B flat major, Z. 736
- Four-part Fantazia No. 8 in D minor, Z. 739
- Four-part Fantazia No. 4 in G minor, Z. 735
- Fantazia in F major Upon One Note, Z. 745
- Four-part Fantazia No. 7 in C minor, Z. 738
- Four-part Fantazia No. 6 in F major, Z. 737
- Four-part Fantazia No. 12 in D minor, Z. 743
- Three-Part Fantazia No. 3 in G minor, Z. 734
- Three-Part Fantazia No. 2 in F major, Z. 733
- Three-Part Fantazia No. 1 in D minor, Z. 732
- Six-part In Nomine in G minor, Z. 746
- Four-part Fantazia No. 9 in A minor, Z. 740
- Four-part Fantazia No. 10 in E minor, Z. 741
- Four-part Fantazia No. 11 in G major, Z. 742
- Seven-part In Nomine "Dorian", Z. 747
Music reviews of Purcell: Fantazias
Music Review: Forget What Your 'Music Appreciation' Teacher Said
Rating: 5 Stars
Most music histories would have us believe that the genre of the 'string quartet' sprang full-grown from the forehead of Joseph Haydn, was nurtured to maturity by Wolfgang Mozart, and achieved apotheosis in the works of Beethoven and Schubert. Certainly it is possible to follow the development of the form in Haydn's works, from his earliest quartets, which are little more than violin sonatas with lower strings rather than harpsichord, to his later masterpieces, in which the four instruments function as equals.
Nevertheless the string quartet had evolved before, and reached a degree of sophistication that even Mozart never exceeded, not as a suite of movements but rather as a 'set' of fantasies to be played on the "closed consort" of violas da gamba, which were built in various sizes from the viola-sized treble to the extended cello-sized bass. Pieces for gamba consorts were composed in all the musical countries of Europe in the 16th Century. It was in England, however, where the repertoire for gambas evolved most independently and achieved the most complexity. Composers like Tye, Byrd, Gibbons, and Lawes wrote polyphonic consort music of astonishing subtlety and abstract beauty, with each voice sharing in emotional expressivity.
The apotheosis of the gamba consort tradition was reached in the Fantazias and 'In Nomines' of Henry Purcell (1659-1695). Listening to this CD of such 'Other String' quartets makes me think of the evolution of winged flight, which has occurred convergently in reptiles, birds, and mammals, with roughly the same genetic architecture building different skeletal solutions. Words can scarcely evoke the evanescent emotional variety of these fantasies, or the modernity of their harmonic resources.
The Rose Consort of Viols, on this CD at least, reaches the same elite status as the gamba consorts Fretwork and Phantasm. Though these pieces could no doubt be played on violins and cellos - or saxophones, if you want to push the argument - the Roses leave no doubt for the ears that the gamba is not just a fiddle with frets. The timbre of these gambas is unmistakably different. It's often described as 'silvery', though I don't find it metallic in any way. Gamba overtones just seem to make space for tonal complexities to be heard. Emerging from the 'tenor-structured' musical theory of the late Renaissance, gamba consort music is naturally generous to the bass; the typical quartet 'chest' of gambas used one treble, one tenor and two basses, a formula that Purcell also preferred. Thus the gamba quartet has a dark, meditative, slightly melancholy affect, though Purcell is also capable of lightening the texture with sprightly gigues.
If the whole 16th & 17th C repertoire of the closed consort (music for instruments of the same family) is new to you, you couldn't do better than to introduce yourself to it with this CD by the English Roses.
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