Reviewer:
Julie Anne Sadie
Excerpt:
"Hollywood may indeed have something to
learn from Jordi Savall. He has dressed up "Captaine Humes Poeticall
Musicke" in musical finery beyond the wildest imagination of the
composer. Recorded in 1983 and remastered in 1988, this disc may not
represent his latest thinking on how to popularize a little-known
repertory. Opulently orchestrated (with renaissance recorder, curtal,
cornett, trombone, two tenor viols and one bass viol and two lutes),
reminiscent of recordings of Monteverdi's Orfeo of the same date,
The Lady of Sussex delight inaugurates the CD theatrically with a
strummed crescendo. The Earle of Pembrokes Galiard, and A Masque
apparently merit similar treatment. The remaining selections form a
kaleidoscope of instrumental combinations, together with the two
vocalists, Figueras (whose English is precise but not idiomatic) and
Hillier".
Some arrangements are more successful than
others. Framing an ensemble of 'outdoor-ish' instruments--curtal,
cornett .and trombone-with the delicate timbre of renaissance
recorder and lute in The Lady Canes delight creates a strange
effect, while the more balanced juxtaposition of cornett and
trombone with treble and bass viol and lute in The Duke oj Holstones
delight creates a pleasing effect. Bearing in mind that Hume most
probably envisaged his music being performed by small chamber
ensembles, it comes as little surprise that the most successful
pieces are those performed by a handful of musicians. Hume the
soldier viol player is presented most sympathetically in his
autobiographical bass duets (The Souldiers Song, Alas poore men and
Tobacco, performed by Hillier and Savall), together with the bass
viol duets and trio (The Duke oj Lenox delight, The Earle oj
Arundels Javoret and A Jigg Jor Ladies which serves as a finale are
taken by Sa vall, Christophe Coin and Paolo Pandolfo). Hume would
have delighted in the polished viol consort versions of The Queens
delight and The Pashion ojMusicke, as well as Figueras's performance
of Fain would I change that note, which Savall accompanies so
masterfully. The consort bass, played by Pandolfo, adds a delicate
resonance to the texture of The Duke oj Lenox delight and The Earle
oj Arundels Javoret, yet unduly polarizes that of The Earle oj
SalisburiesJavoret, being performed by the lutenists Hopkinson Smith
and Robert Clancy. Their lute duet, The King oj Denmarks delight,
gives a rather uncharacteristically precious impression of the
earthy Hume.
The occasional lapse apart, Savall has skilfully
minimized the impression of slightness one usually retains of Hume's
music by creating an illusion of colour and drama which any composer
would envy. Whether Hume would recognize his music is probably
irrelevant.
