Works by Vois, Palestrina, Praetorius, Bennet, Lassus et al
Lux Musicae London
FHR FHR137 57:34 mins
Vestiva explores how the art of embellishment revolutionised instrumental music in the 16th and 17th centuries, allowing performers to openly flaunt both their virtuosic and improvisatory
skills alike.
The album takes its name from Palestrina’s madrigal ‘Vestiva i colli’ and two versions of Vestiva show how popular vocal works were appropriated, transformed and adorned by instrumentalists. We also hear contrasted versions of Lassus’s madrigal Susanne un jour, a lute intabulation played with quiet eloquence by Toby Carr and an arrangement for recorder, lute and harp with ‘diminutions’ – that is, breaking up slow, sustained notes with fast garlands of notes. Here, recorder soloist Miryam-Luise Münzel provides her own stylish diminutions. The players are sensitive to the wistful air of Susanne un jour, a quality that also pervades Verdelot’s madrigal O dolce nocte and Cipriano de Rore’s Anche che col partire.
Lux Musicae London show how embellishment continued into the Baroque period. One of Frescobaldi’s keyboard Toccatas – arranged for solo harp – is expressively realised by Aileen Henry, and we’re also treated to two works by Nicola Matteis: a Prelude, despatched with terrific improvisatory freedom, and the zesty dance rhythms of Diverse bizarrie. This is an album of pleasing variety.