William Lawes (1602-1645) - Richard Boothby - Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol (2016) {Harmonia Mundi Digital Downloads}
William Lawes (1602-1645) - Richard Boothby - Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol (2016) {Harmonia Mundi Digital Downloads}
FLAC (tracks) - 44kHz/16 bit - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 272 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 139 Mb
Artwork (pdf+jpg) -> 11 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Harmonia Mundi | HMU907625
Classical / Baroque / Early Baroque
Lock the doors, close the curtains and turn the lights down before putting this disc on. Here is music for an intimate space: solo music for solitary souls. This is a rare opportunity to hear solo lyra viol music from the early 1630s played on a beautiful period instrument by one of today’s foremost exponents of the Jacobean repertoire. Richard Boothby has been playing English consort music (some of it by Lawes) with Fretwork for over 30 years, so is as well placed as anyone today to interpret this body of solo music, most of it recorded here for the first time.
Samuel Pepys apparently played lyra viol music on whatever viol he had to hand, but in fact the lyra differs from the slightly larger bass viol in several respects: the strings are lighter and closer to the fingerboard, the bridge more rounded to accommodate the execution of chordal passages and, in addition, some instruments were strung below the fingerboard with sympathetic strings that could be plucked by the left hand. Unlike other viols – and members of the violin family – the lyra was variably tuned, and its music notated in tablature. Boothby plays on an exquisite lyra viol by Richard Meares from the Royal College of Music Collection.
Lawes’s music is in general jolly and introspective by turns. Boothby plays in a charmingly gentle, often elegant yet spare way that suggests he is enjoying a private pleasure which we are nonetheless invited to savour. The 35 pieces included here are mostly dances, none lasting longer than three minutes, characterised by syncopated rhythmic patterns, delicate implied harmony and chordal accompaniments, conversational textures (the Corantos in particular) and occasional hints of folksong. The delicacy with which Boothby phrases and ornaments the music is sublime. A great night in, then.
William Lawes (1602-1645) - Richard Boothby - Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol (2016) {Harmonia Mundi Digital Downloads}
qobuz INFO
Personnel: Richard Boothby - lyra viol
tracklist:
01 - Prelude, VdGS 435
02 - Country Coll, VdGS 421
03 - A Jigge, VdGS 422
04 - Almain, VdGS 491
05 - Coranto, VdGS 512
06 - Almain, VdGS 461
07 - Coranto, VdGS 423
08 - Air, VdGS 596
09 - Almain, VdGS 462
10 - Coranto, VdGS 424
11 - Almaine, VdGS 511
12 - Coranto, VdGS 513
13 - Saraband, VdGS 514
14 - Almain, VdGS 463
15 - Coranto, VdGS 465
16 - Saraband, VdGS 467
17 - Almain, VdGS 543
18 - Coranto, VdGS 541
19 - Almaine, VdGS 464
20 - Corrant, VdGS 425
21 - Saraband, VdGS 434
22 - Almain (Pavan), VdGS 542
23 - Coranto, VdGS 544
24 - Almain, VdGS 430
25 - Corant, VdGS 426
26 - Sarabrand, VdGS 433
27 - Corant, VdGS 427
28 - Saraband, VdGS 591
29 - Corant, VdGS 428
30 - Saraband, VdGS 466
31 - Coranto, VdGS 545
32 - Coranto, VdGS 546
33 - Corant, VdGS 429
34 - Corant, VdGS 431
35 - Sarabrand, VdGS 432
William Lawes (1602-1645) - Richard Boothby - Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol (2016) {Harmonia Mundi Digital Downloads}
