The Nightingale & The Sparrow - John Bull / Derek Adlam

John Bull (Composer), Giles Farnaby (Composer), Derek Adlam (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Derek Adlam
• Composer: John Bull, Giles Farnaby
• Audio CD (January 17, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Guild
• ASIN: B0000669QW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #622,213 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant music played by the President ...., December 16, 2010

By 

Y.P. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nightingale & The Sparrow - John Bull / Derek Adlam (Audio CD)

of the British Clavichord Society, Derek Adlam. This CD is one of the only 2 available recordings of John Bull's brilliant composition Walsingham, and is easily recommended above the other CD English Virginalists, which is a bit dated in many ways. One may wonder, why is music so good so rarely heard?

The title of the CD comes from Derek Adlam's own reading of the 2 composers recorded in this CD. 'John Bull represents the nightingale on this recording: elegant, technically brilliant, learned, polished and haunting. The sparrow singing in the shadow of this great master is Giles Farnaby. His voice is cheerful, charming, instinctively clever, original and witty.'

And that's what you get in this CD, with 9 pieces by Bull taking up more than 51 minutes of the 78:21 (!) recording time. Bull's Walsingham, almost 20 minutes itself, is a brilliant collection of 30 variations which opens the famous Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. It was thought by music historians to be a response to Byrd's setting 'As I was going to Walsingham' of the same popular tune. Byrd's setting can be heard in a "must-buy"(*) collection Byrd: Complete Keyboard Music played by Davitt Moroney, a professor of musicology at UC Berkeley and a life-long devotee of Byrd's music.

Walsingham itself is remarkably brilliant, in every sense of the word. At the Elizabethan time the instrumental music has grown out of its previous phase of intabulations of vocal music and has developed its own vocabulary -- though it's still quite fluid at this time and waiting for Byrd and Bull to advance it further. Bull creates whole new textures and techniques that are as original as they are acrobatic. At times, it sounds almost like 19th Century etudes.(**) Derek Adlam plays this piece on a 1982 harpsichord, whose construction was based on a 1638 Ioannes Ruckers transposing double in the Russell Collection. (Other instruments used in this recording are portative organ and muselar.) As for the performance, what immediately caught my ears was the abundance of ornamentations in the beginning of Walsingham, which opens the CD. Some might consider it a little overwhelming. For me, it suits the brilliant and improvisatory spirit of the music. In general, Adlam has masterful control of all runs and spins, and his phrasing is impeccable. All in all, a very enjoyable album.

For anyone who enjoys the Elizabethan music, this is very highly recommended.

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(*) I just found out that this set is now reissued (linked above) at a very reasonable price. I bought the full price line product a few years ago Byrd: The Complete Keyboard Music and thought it was a bargain. In fact, it's a bargain at ANY price!

(**) If you are an (amateur) keyboard player, it can be really fun to play the piece for yourself, esp. if you are not as lousy a player as I am.