Early music lovers?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've never been particularly excited about early music, but Frau Alpensinfonie bought me a beautiful Mollenhauer palisander treble recorder. Purists might object as it's a modern design, giving it a slightly stronger sound than baroque instruments, but it was bought from the Early Music Shop in Saltaire, Bradford. I must admit I was surprised to find such a superb array of early musical instruments in an old mill in the industrial Aire valley.

[doversoul1]

This was an interesting programme. Is this the time when art songs and popular songs began to go separate ways?

Catherine Bott celebrates the delights of the Air de Cour or Renaissance French court song

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vkp1r

How much does HIP come into the music of this period?

Anna
I have Thomas Tomkins by Rose Consort from Naxos. I bought the disc after hearing them on the Early Music Show. What I heard on the programme was very good but the performance on the CD is, I think, somewhat uneven. It may be the works. I found my attention drifted a lot when I played the disc (it may be me, of course).

I’ve just realised that this was recorded in 1992. No wonder they sound rather quaint. Sorry, this is not very helpful.

[freegoat]

Hello Anna. Here is a link to some recordings of the Lawes consort sets: http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/vir59021.htm

I have the 5- and 6-part sets performed by Hesperion XXI and am very happy with it. The 6-part sets feature violins on the top line, which brightens the sound somewhat, but overall I am convinced by these performances (for what it's worth).

The Phantasm recording of the 4- and 5-part sets appeared at about the same time and I vaguely remember it being compared to the Savall recording on CDR, with the reviewers favouring Phantasm.

freegoat