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Classics TodayApril 2003 |
NIGHTMARE IN VENICEDorian- 90305(CD) Yes, there's really a musical point to the title of this CD: most of the works presented are about or contain references to the weirder and wilder side of night, when creatures such as "phantoms", "witches", and "demons" arise to work their spells and haunt the living, and when nightmares frighten innocent, sleeping souls. And, at least as far as Baroque music goes, there's some scary stuff here, lurking among the pages of scores that you may not have heard before, and certainly haven't heard performed with the diabolical, fanciful zeal we get from the English early-music ensemble Red Priest. And besides the unusual music, the attraction here is the playing of these four virtuosos--Piers Adams (recorders), Julia Bishop (violin), Angela East (cello), and Howard Beach (harpsichord)--who never let a work originally for string orchestra or other larger instrumental configuration stop them from creating their own more-than-serviceable arrangement, nor do they regard the letter of the score to be more than a starting point for setting imaginations loose.
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Red Priest also offers a compilation of English works that fit this uniquely theatrical genre (known in Italy as "fantastic style"), gathered under the title English Fantasy Suite. It includes three pieces by Robert Johnson and one by the aptly named Nicholas LeStrange. Notable are LeStrange's decidedly "strange" The Furies (made delightfully creepy by Adams' improvisational recorder licks) and Johnson's The Witches' Dance, complete with appropriately strident outbursts from the "witches"--done with voice and violin bow.
Performance 9/10 Sound 9/10 David Vernier |