BaL 6.10.18 - The works of Orlando Gibbons

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

09.30
Building a Library: Alexandra Coghlan surveys the recordings of music by Orlando Gibbons and makes a recommendation.

Orlando Gibbons was a leading English composer in the early 17th century. He wrote a large number of keyboard works, fantasias for viols, anthems and madrigals (of which the best-known is "The Silver Swan"). His best-known verse anthem is "This is the Record of John".

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Don't even think about it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Don't even think about it.

Looking forward to this one - I have only one of the discs on your non-list, a NAXOS release, which I've always enjoyed and frequently meant to add to, without ever yet getting round to it.

[ardcarp]

Looking forward to it...but isn't it a somewhat catch-all title? I mean comparing his viol fantisias with his keyboard works and his sacred vocal music and his secular....need I go on? I wouldn't like the reviewer's job, least of all making a recommendation.

[vinteuil]

Don't even think about it.

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I know : you just can't get the staff these days....



I wouldn't want to be without John Toll's CD of the keyboard music - and Red Byrd's magical "This is the record of Jaaahn"



[Actually I'm a bit surprized how few CDs of Gibbons I seem to have : this may need further investigating... ]

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[doversoul1]

Looking forward to it...but isn't it a somewhat catch-all title? I mean comparing his viol fantisias with his keyboard works and his sacred vocal music and his secular....need I go on? I wouldn't like the reviewer's job, least of all making a recommendation.

Just a few (4 out of 34 pages from Presto Classical website)

Orlando Gibbons: Fancies for the Viols
Francois Joubert-Caillet (viol)
L’Achéron
Orlando Gibbons: Music for Harpsichord and Virginals
James Johnstone (virginal & harpsichord)
Orlando Gibbons - Harpsichord Works
Richard Egarr (harpsichord)
Orlando Gibbons - Complete Keyboard Works
Daniel-Ben Piennaar (piano)
Orlando Gibbons: Tudor Church Music
Philip Ledger (organ)
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, London Early Music Group
Orlando Gibbons - With a Merrie Noyse
Sacred Music
Orlando Gibbons: Tudor Church Music (Anthems & Voluntaries)
Hugh Maclean (organ)
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Boris Ord
Orlando Gibbons: Royal Fantasies Of III Parts
Jordi Savall
Orlando Gibbons - Fantasias and Cries
Paul Nicholson (organ), Red Byrd/Fretwork
Fretwork
Gibbons: Choral and Organ Music
Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summerly
Gibbons: Church Music
The Choir of King's College Cambridge, Sir David Willcocks & Boris Ord
Gibbons - Hymns and Songs of the Church
The complete Orlando Gibbons melodies as published in 1623, with new realizations and original settings by L’Estrange and Pitts
Tonus Peregrinus
Gibbons: Anthems & Instrumental Music
Jeffrey Thomas (tenor), John Butt (organ)
University of California Chamber Chorus, Berkeley Festival Consort of Viols
Gibbons - Anthems & Complete Organ Works
Robert Woolley (organ)
Choir of St John's College Cambridge, Christopher Robinson
Gibbons: Consort And Keyboard Music, Songs And Anthems
Timothy Roberts (organ)
Gibbons: Keyboard Music from Musica Britannica
Christopher Hogwood (harpsichord), Christopher Hogwood (organ), Christopher Hogwood (spinet)

[LeMartinPecheur]

Looking forward to this one - I have only one of the discs on your non-list, a NAXOS release, which I've always enjoyed and frequently meant to add to, without ever yet getting round to it.

fhg: raise you one NAXOS and three other CDs! Which Naxos do you have? - mine are choral/ organ music from Oxford Camerata/ Summerly, and consort/ keyboard/ songs/ anthems from Red Byrd.

No duplications except possibly a ~90-second prelude/ praeludium in G, if this matters

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

consort/ keyboard/ songs/ anthems from Red Byrd.

I was sure that I had the OC/Summerly disc as well - but it's not on the shelf!

[ardcarp]

Well done Dovers!!! Someone mentioned the Red Byrd CD. If you really want to hear The Record of John done in Mummerset, that's the one. The Byrd Lullaby OTOH (Caroline Trevor, I think) is truly soul-wrenching, and on the same disc.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Looking forward to it...but isn't it a somewhat catch-all title? I mean comparing his viol fantisias with his keyboard works and his sacred vocal music and his secular....need I go on? I wouldn't like the reviewer's job, least of all making a recommendation.

Yes - they do these "basic/beginners' collection" programmes from time-to-time, focussing on an important composer who either wrote mainly collections of shorter works, and/or for whom there isn't a huge number of available recordings of a single, longer work. (Hildegard of Bingen, Barbara Strozzi were others treated in this way.) A "shortlist" of about half-a-dozen recordings of a variety of genres is arrived at. Done well, it can be a refreshing change from the regular type of BaL.

I "fear" this programme will make considerable demands on my bank balance.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well done Dovers!!!

Someone mentioned the Red Byrd CD. If you really want to hear The Record of John done in Mummerset, that's the one. The Byrd Lullaby OTOH (Caroline Trevor, I think) is truly soul-wrenching) and on the same disc.

I think the NAXOS Red Byrd disc must be a different one - these pieces aren't on my copy. The divine voice of the greatly-missed Tessa Bonner, does feature, I'm delighted to report.

[vinteuil]

... Someone mentioned the Red Byrd CD. If you really want to hear The Record of John done in Mummerset, that's the one. The Byrd Lullaby OTOH (Caroline Trevor, I think) is truly soul-wrenching) and on the same disc.

... I think the Red Byrd Record of John appears on two different discs -

http://amzn.eu/d/a6wG65h

(which I have)

and

http://amzn.eu/d/ej4diJe

(which I shall be getting)

.

The Byrd Lullaby is on the latter.



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[Pulcinella]

Naxos OC/Summerly (recorded in my old college chapel; a boost to the college coffers/scholarship funds, I hope!) and a Decca Kings/Willcocks + Ord choral collection the only ones on the shelves here as single-composer CDs.

[vinteuil]

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... this one's good, too :

http://amzn.eu/d/a2XoIoi

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[verismissimo]

My sole offering is the Choir of St John's College Cambridge under George Guest on a 45rpm (!) LP from Meridian in 1985. Possibly not auditioned since that date!