Fruit of love

Description

In 1599, Anthony Holborne published an important collection of five-part pieces for viols and other instruments, in fact the first collection of dances published in England. A virtuoso of the lute, he had also distinguished himself through his mastery of other instruments such as the pandora and the cittern. The dances are mainly Pavanes, Gaillardes and Allemandes, but the distinctive feature of these pieces is that they are almost all given titles suggesting very obvious characters (The Funerals, The image of Melancholy, ) or more enigmatic ones, some of which are stated in Spanish (Hermoza) or Latin (Ecce quam bonum). Following the recording of Johannes Schenck’s Nymphe di Rheno, made with Wieland Kuijken, François Joubert-Caillet here makes the first recording with his ensemble l'Achéron. For this recording, the viol players of l'Achéron took care to use copies of early 17th-century English viols, characterized by long string lengths that give these instruments a highly remarkable “gravity.” Some of these viols were in fact specially built for this recording. With the support of lutes, the cittern, the pandora, the virginal and the ottavino (a small spinet sounding an octave higher), this consort of viols brings an exceptional and new sonority to this recording.