Customer Reviews

The Ladyes Delight

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you love the music of early England (perhaps you own a copy of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book), you will certainly love this recording. And even if you are not a connoisseur of this type of music, but are a fan of classical music in general, you are sure to find this music historically accurate and catchy. One of my favorites on the disc is "O Mistress Mine", a piece that I have also enjoyed playing on the keyboard.

This is a delightful cd, with masterful performances of popular Elizabethan tunes. The vocals are excellent. The selection is varied, containing lively instrumentals, baudy songs, and ballads. The lyrics are a reminder that themes like single motherhood and unrestrained lust are timeless, and are shockingly frank at times.

This is not a typical cd of chamber music by the greats - these are catchy dance tunes from long ago. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Another great production of the Baltimore Consort, consisting of such famous musicians as Mary Anne Ballard (treble and bass viols); Mark Cudek (cittern, bass viol); Custer LaRue (soprano); Larry Lipkis (bass viol, soprano recorder); Ronn McFarlane (lute); Chris Norman (Renaissance flutes), and William Simms as guest artist (bandora).
In particular two pieces impressed me especially and it was worth to me to buy this CD by them alone and to give a strong 5 star rating:
1) "Yonder Comes A Courteous Knight": It is breathtaking how wonderful and sensitive soprano Custer LaRue performs this ballad. This lady has the perfect voice. It is the highest delight to enjoy each second of its 6 minutes duration. In a historically very credible way it transports you back to Elizabethan England of the end of the 16th century. A time which created a noble, romantic and frank music, determined by timeless beauty and often also pure melancholy.
2) "Robin Is To The Greenwood Gone": An outstandingly beautiful and moving ballad melody, in its time equally well-known and popular as "Greensleeves", but often ignored by today's interpreters. It is a melody which incorporates timeless beauty and also bittersweet melancholy to the highest degree. The Baltimore Consort performed it in a most perfect way, impossible to be improved in any respect. A true jewel piece!
A note on the often melancholic music of the Renaissance era: Melancholy and sadness was understood as a very aesthetic way of approaching life, and was in no way negatively attributed as it is today. I you like the romantic and melancholic music of Elizabethan's England, you will feel especially impressed by these two pieces which will deeply touch your heart and soul each time you hear them.
But there are also many funny and danceable pieces on this CD, as "The Ladyes Delight/Jumpe At My Cozen".
Thank you Baltimore Consort for performing this great CD! I consider it as a strong buy.
I am sure, Queen Elizabeth I. would be delighted.

The Ladyes Delight. Entertainment Music of Elizabethan England. Performed by the Baltimore Consort (Custer LaRue, soprano; Mary Anne Ballard, viols; Mark Cudek, cittern and bass viol; Larry Lipkis, bass viol and recorder; Ronn McFarlane, lute; Chris Norman, renaissance flutes; William Simms, bandora). Recorded at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, N.Y., in April, May and December 1997. Published in 1998 as Dorian DOR-90252. Total playing time: 63'18".

Anybody who is under the impression that Elizabethan consorts are boring old museum pieces for Early Music freaks ought to listen to this CD as soon as possible in order to correct that false impression! From Richard Reades Jigge ye Firste onwards, the whole album is absolutely infectious, with the Baltimore Consort interpreting these pieces with a fire and a verve that puts them on a par with many a modern folk group. Chris Norman's flute with its daring and fascinating trills and ornaments seems to be an additional motor giving the whole production a great dynamic. And Custer LaRue's soprano is as flexible as ever: she can sing with maidenly innocence (The Darke Is My Delight), but she can also add vocal slithers that clearly underline the slippery, ambiguous aspects of more bawdy material (Yonder Comes a Courteous Knight). This is truly entertainment music of the finest sort. All this, coupled with the amazingly natural Dorian sound (forget listening to this on a computer or car radio, this is a disc for your best hifi equipment!), makes me wax thoroughly enthusiastic: Great stuff! Why on earth has it been allowed to go out of print?

In the words of the insert booklet, "the `exquisite consort' of instrumentalists which entertained Queen Elizabeth upon her visit to the Earl of Hertford in September 1591 was, in respect to the specific instruments employed, the exact equivalent of the Baltimore Consort. Combining the sultry viols, the ethereal flute, the `sprightly and cheerful' cittern, the `deep' bandora and the `noble' lute, the ensemble is capable of many moods, from the joyful to the melancholy." Quite true. The emphasis on this recording, which is subtitled "Entertainment Music of Elizabethan England", is the joyful, as each musician in this talented sextet gets his or her turn to embellish both grandly and subtly on their parts. Unlike many of the Baltimore Consort's other releases, this one focuses on part music specifically written for an ensemble such as theirs to play, like that found in Thomas Morley's "First Book of Consort Lessons", published in 1599, and Matthew Holmes' 16th century manuscript of broken consort music. The Baltimore Consort's gentle yet lively sound will ease your tensions when you're stressed, and perk you up when you're tired. This CD is sure to delight "ladyes" and gentlemen alike.

I really like this CD. My favorite tracks are those with the singing of Custer La Rue, like Balow and Yonder Comes a Courteous Knight... unfortunately most of the CD is instrumental. Still good though.

Anyway I'm writing this review because since buying this CD, which was the first album I bought with music performed by the Baltimore Consort, I've since bought several more. Like Watkins Ale, On the Banks of the Helicon, La Rocque and Roll, etc. And it is very obvious that the Baltimore Consort is the performing group on each CD. They have a very distinctive sound, with high pitched flutes and Italian sounding stringed instruments (I'm really no expert on the instruments here!). And very similar tunes.

The part that bothers me is that on all of these CDs, the sound can get very, very, repetative. Some of the tunes and songs are the same on different CD's, and some just sound totally alike. Now, this may not bother many people, but when I buy a new CD I like it to actually be NEW material.

So this CD, the first one I bought, is actually my least favorite of all the group. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fantastic CD. But if you already own a number of the Baltimore Consort's CD's and you're looking for a new sound, I hardly think you'll find it here. If you are new to the performers altogether, I'd recommend "Watkins Ale" and "La Rocque and Roll" over this, for sure.