Customer Reviews

Watkins Ale: Music of the English Renaissance

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A few years ago I had the privilege of seeing the Baltimore Consort perform live. It was an electrifying evening filled with great energy and sound. This CD manages to capture that. It is an excellent recording that definitely does justice to the material.

In addition, the selection of song is varied and allows a lot of the period specific instruments to demonstrate what kind of sound they can make.

Also, I always consider it a bonus when the lyrics to the songs are included. I think its even better (and rarer) when that happens with early Renaissance music. In this case, the CD not only come with the lyrics in English, but in German and French as well.

I have already noted my fondness for The Baltimore Consort, and Custer LaRue in particular, elsewhere...but I still feel compelled to praise this album--"Watkins Ale." It is awesome. "Watkins Ale" is, like most of The Consort's recordings, pure artistic joy-bottled and caught up on a compact disc. LaRue's singing, and the playing of the rest of the crew, is absolutely stunning. "There Were Three Ravens" is a deep, beautifully dark, introspective masterpiece. Some of the instrumentals are worth the price of the disc by themselves. The rendition of Dowland's Lachrimae Pavan is--like the rest of the disc--sheer brilliance! If I've put too many commas in my review, it is because I lack the proper superlatives for the task at hand...I recommend this CD most highly.

The Baltimore Consort are performers in the truest sense -- the energy and sheer brilliance they exude during performances is infectious and heady. Luckily for those of us who rarely or never get to see them perform, all of this comes across in their recordings. This CD makes both an excellent introduction for those uninitiated in the joy that is English Renaissance music, and an important addition to the library of anyone already familiar with such music. The emotion, grace and at times sheer bawdiness of the Baltimore Consort's performances will entertain you and make you smile with glee; "Watkins Ale" is *not* just some sort of alcohol proffered to a young maiden by a strapping young lad -- it may take some careful listening and thinking about the text to realize this! Custer LaRue's flawless vocals, here sounding like a young woman and there like a young lad, are breathtaking. Check your pulse if you don't find yourself dancing along.

The Baltimore Consort will ever be one of my favorite Renaissance recording artists. Nearly everything they have recorded is worth listening to. They combine superb musicianship with period instruments -- the only way to listen to and appreciate this style of music. In "Watkins Ale," the Baltimore Consort plays dance music from the Elizabethan era. Most of the tunes, therefore, are quite upbeat. I have caught myself wanting to dance jigs (OK, OK, so I actually DID dance to this music)while listening! The "low point" for me on this album (only because it's a bit slower) is the classic ballad "There Were Three Ravens." And yet Custer LaRue's exquisite soprano voice -- unpretentious, sonorous, melodic -- certainly will not make you shut the recording off by any stretch of the imagination. I like "Unto the Prophet Jonas I Read," which is a charming musical retelling of the Jonah and the Whale story (again with LaRue's lovely soprano), and which likely will make you want to sing the chorus with her. I could go on praising the album. I've had it for a couple of years now, and still play it over and over!

The first time I heard the first track of this CD at Amazon.com homepage, I had the wish of buying it. The English Renaissance songs are performed in a very happy and different way. The version to the Green Sleeves is unique and joyful. The Baltimore Consort performs Renaissance music with very sensitivity. The sound is so pure and transmits happiness and peace.

The Baltimore Consort is in typical good form for this collection of free fantasy and dance/song accompaniment. More full-bodied and melancholy than most of their repotoire, yet still frothy and spirited - with a few tasty songs by soprano Custer LaRue thrown in - to have you calling for another round.

My eighth grade English teacher taught me and a few friends a dance to go with "The Buffens" for a Renaissance play we put on for my school. I loved the song so much that I went out and bought this cd for myself, and am continuing to enjoy it. I normally don't listen to this type of music, but it is just too good to pass up! :)

I love this CD. The music is soothing, fun and romantic. My suggestion is to play this CD while you are having a lovely dinner with friends or with just one "special" friend. This music in the background during your meal will be awesome!

Taking its title from one of the most famous of all Elizabethan ballads, this recording showcases a representative selection of pieces for the renowned 'broken consort' which was popular in England at the turn of the 17th century. The Baltimore Consort's playing is generally of a high standard, and there are some attractive moments: Ronn McFarlane's lute playing is outstanding, as ever, and there are notable solo contributions from Webb Wiggins (on virginals [track 10]), Mark Cudek (on cittern [track 18]) and Howard Bass (on bandora, an instrument rarely heard in its own right [tracks 13 and 14]). The ensemble is joined in 3 pieces by soprano Custer LaRue (tracks 4, 9 and 20), whose pure vocal timbre seems ideally suited to the simplicity of the ballads.

However, from a purely musicological perspective, several aspects of this recording are implausible and whilst this may well be of little concern to some, such liberties will certainly be disturbing for more discerning listeners. Why, for example, use flutes in C and E-flat (?= a flute in D in 466Hz?), and worse still, a piccolo (as out of place in Elizabethan music as a fortepiano or a classical cello)...? Similarly, the flute's alternation between written pitch and sounding an octave higher within the same piece (e.g. track 6) is very strange, and it serves no obvious musical purpose. Even more dubious is the addition of a keyboard instrument (virginals/muselar) to the consort. Although this has been partially justified on the basis of a Praetorius quote, this is unconvincing given that, a) Praetorius's description relates to performing traditions in Germany (not England), b) his definition of an 'English Consort' (in 'Syntagma Musicum', 1619) also includes theorboes, a trombone and even a rackett, and c) this contrasts markedly with all English sources (see below *1), where the only slight variation in the ensemble concerns the two top parts (flute/recorder and treble viol/violin). As it happens, the addition of the keyboard to two of the ballads (tracks 9 and 20) merely exaggerates this problem, since songs with keyboard accompaniment (rather than lute/theorbo) do not actually appear in England until the end of the 17th century (see below *2). Aside from matters of instrumentation, issues also arise from the use/lack of ficta (notably tracks 3 and 4), the doubling of divisions on two instruments (as in track 4), and some of the ornaments, especially the frequent use of pizzicato in the bass (see below *3).

As already mentioned, I'm sure that there are listeners for whom historical concerns are utterly irrelevant. Yet whilst this recording is generally aesthetic enough to be commended in itself, I personally believe that the following releases - which combine high musicianship alongside much better musicology - are, in the end, rather more satisfying:
i) Swanne Alley's classic recording entitled In the Streets and Theatres of London, recently reissued at budget price in a 2-CD set with their release devoted to Thomas Morley ['Joyne Hands']
ii) Nutmeg and Ginger: Spicy Ballads from Shakespeare's London, performed by The Musicians of the Globe (directed by Philip Pickett).


*1 - such sources encompass visual depictions (such as the Henry Unton memorial picture, 1596), descriptions (e.g. relating to the entertainment offered by the Duke of Hertford to Elizabeth I at Elvetham, 1591) and even the music itself (e.g. Morley's parts/title page for his 1599 publication).
*2 - one of the earliest is Playford's publication of 1688 entitled 'Banquet of music...with a thorough-bass for the theorbo-lute, bass-viol, harpsichord or organ'. Other sources (notably cavalier poetry from the 1630s and 40s) also confirm that songs were still accompanied by lute/theorbo in the first half of the 17th century rather than by harpsichord/virginals.
*3 - although pizzicato does begin to make its first appearance around this time, it does so rarely, mostly in solo music (such as Carlo Farina's 'Capriccio stravagante' [1627]), and almost always just for a specific effect.

Miss LaRue is excellent singing Watkins ale, a funny tale about the effects of some alcoholic drink on a young woman. I am writing this to stress that Americans are at times also able to produce excellent performances of "older music". Have an open mind!