Tag: Heidi Gröger

Leading Lights Before The English Civil War, Phantasm, Wigmore Hall, 14 May 2018

When Janie said, “viols again?”, even I had to admit that I’d gone a bit crazy booking mid 17th century viol music this season.

“But this is rarely-heard English viol consort music from just before the Civil War”, I protested.

While Janie announced afterwards that she couldn’t honestly tell the difference between English style and European styles…

…and I had to admit that I’d struggle to pinpoint time and location in a “blind tasting”…

…we both agreed that, as usual, we thoroughly enjoyed hearing this type of viol consort music.

Phantasm are supremely professional, masters of their instruments and seasoned at coping with the complexities of this multi-voiced music.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall stub for this concert.

I don’t think I’d knowingly heard any William Lawes before – certainly not his  viol music.

William Lawes with autograph
He looks like a quintessential cavalier of the period, which sums up his career and untimely death (reportedly “casually shot”) soon after entering the theatre of war for the first and last time.

There’s not a lot of Lawes viol music played by Phantasm to be found on the web, but here is the paven from the consort set in F, which we heard on the evening:

…we didn’t have the organ accompaniment, but we did have a sixth viol player in the second half for those pieces that demand six viols.

Likewise, I was not familiar with the work John Jenkins – his viol music was a little lighter in tone, although all such viol consort music is, by its nature, pretty moody.

Even harder to find on line, here are some other dudes playing a John Jenkins Fantasy a6 other than the ones we heard. You’ll get the idea and it is still lovely:

Something about this sort of music heard live touches the soul – I think it is the close proximity to the vibrations of all of those viols.

We both felt so calm and tranquil after the concert we could hardly get our act together to eat when we got home, but somehow we managed it. A very pleasurable end to a Monday off work.

Christopher Tye and Claude Le Jeune: 16th-century musical radicals, Wigmore Hall, 22 October 2017

I got several e-mails from the Wig slightly changing this concert; at one point swapping an artiste, at another tweaking the programme. At no point undermining my purpose, which was to hear viol music by two Renaissance composers whose viol music I had never heard before.

Here is the Wigmore Hall page on the gig we finally saw.

We really enjoyed our evening.

It was more or less exactly a year ago that we saw and heard Phantasm do a wonderful job of Orlando Gibbons – click here.

In truth, I think Gibbons is the better gig – or at least more to our taste.

The Tye is rather relentlessly somber. But he must  have been a spunky chap. Word on the street is that Queen Elizabeth did not like his playing and sent a verger to tell Tye that he was playing out of tune. Tye sent back the message that it was her ears that were out of tune. I’ll remember that riposte for my baroq-ulele playing and singing.

Still, we preferred the Le Jeune, who was new to both of us as a composer and far more upbeat.

Janie was a little disappointed that the lute was such a bit part for these pieces. We had recently seen Paul O’Dette’s superb solo concert – click here – but of course when the lute was part of an ensemble it tended to have a continuo role in those days.

We always get a warm feeling with Phantasm. Laurence Dreyfus comes across so nicely and explains things without the slightest note of condescension.

Yes we enjoyed very much indeed. If you have never seen Phantasm live, seek them out. If you live in a remote place, I would recommend the Gibbons as a place to start listening,ahead of Tye or Le Jeune,  but for sure do listen to some…

…and if it is the Tye you fancy, you can click the image below and Amazon it: