THEN: Renaissance Airs and Dances - Stockholm Chamber Brass (Hybrid SACD)

Music Web International, June 2013: ”The brass ensemble plays marvelously throughout, especially in slower, more introspective selections. […] This is a highly polished modern brass quintet playing Renaissance arrangements with solemn precision and occasional dancing exuberance. The recorded sound’s terrific and the project is well-documented.”

The brass quintet as we know it is a modern constellation, but ensembles of wind instruments, involving shawms and sackbuts, were a staple before the Renaissance had even begun. Every princely court had its players, and soon every decent-sized town across Europe would follow.
The music that such groups played would have varied from the ceremonial to more lightweight material, such as popular dances and settings of chansons. Arrangements of music of this kind still form an important part of the repertoire of most brass ensembles, including Stockholm Chamber Brass. Having earned international recognition for their several recordings of resolutely contemporary works, the five members here return to their roots, in a varied programme which mixes dances from Tielman Susato's famous Danserye collection, lute pieces by John Dowland, five-part madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo and excerpts from operas by Monteverdi.
The disc opens with a fiery version of Francisco de la Torre's Danza alta sobre La Spagna, with trumpets that seem to announcing the start of a joust – the same trumpets that in Pur ti miro, the closing love duet from Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione de Poppea, express the most tender feelings for each other. A set of French chansons includes the drinking-song Tourdion, a perennial favourite, while the melancholy of Dowland's Lachrimae is clothed in the mellowest sounds imaginable.
The arrangements are by present and former members of the Stockholm Chamber Brass as well as by musicians with whom they have collaborated closely, including the trombone virtuoso Christian Lindberg.

Francisco de la Torre
01 Danza Alta sobre La Spagna 2'24


Tielman Susato
02 Basse danse ‘Mon Desir’ 1'59


Tielman Susato
03 Gaillarde II – Allemaigne VIII / Recoupe / Recoupe aliud 2'21


Carlo Gesualdo
04 Tu m’uccidi, o crudele 3'26


John Dowland
05 The Earl of Essex Galiard 1'22


John Dowland
06 Semper Dowland semper Dolens 2'43


Tielman Susato
07 Danse du Roy 2'13


Tielman Susato
08 Pavane ‘Mille Regretz’ 1'34


Tielman Susato
09 Bergerette ‘Sans Roch’ 2'16


John Dowland
10 Lachrimæ 3'54


John Dowland
11 The Frog Galiard 1'32


Carlo Gesualdo
12 T’amo, mia vita 2'19


Anonymous
13 Tourdion 1'59


Orlando di Lasso
14 Je l’ayme bien 1'29


Claude Gervaise
15 Branle double, La Vielle 0'50


Anonymous, Jacques Mauduit
16 Vous me tuez si doucement / Au joly bois 1'57


Pierre Certon
17 La, la, la, je ne l’ose dire 1'41


John Dowland
18 If my complaints could passions move 2'15


John Dowland
19 Sir John Smith his Almain 2'08


Tielman Susato
20 Passe et Medio 1'57


Tielman Susato
21 Gaillarde XV ‘Le Tout’ 1'02


John Dowland
22 The King of Denmarks Galiard 1'46


John Dowland
23 M. Giles Hobies Galiard 1'51


Carlo Gesualdo
24 Dolcissima mia vita 2'34


Claudio Monteverdi
25 Sinfonia & Moresca (from L’Orfeo, Act 1 and Finale) 1'20


Claudio Monteverdi
26 Pur ti miro (from L’incoronazione di Poppea: closing duet) 3'47


Claudio Monteverdi
27 Sinfonia a 7 (from L’Orfeo, Act 3] 1'30


Claudio Monteverdi
28 Damigella tutta bella (from Scherzi Musicali a tre voci) 1'19

Album total 59'36