Search - Extempore String Ensemble, Weigand, Byrd :: Consort Music of the English Renaissance

One of the favorite entertainments of Elizabethan England was listening to and performing consort music--which was a kind of chamber music written for a specific family of instruments or for compatible combinations of instruments. The result was a very agreeable sound, usually created by the bowed or plucked strings of viols, lutes, guitars, theorbos, or citterns, either in exclusive groups or sometimes with wind instruments or keyboard. On this recording we hear strings of all types, including the orpharion, a version of the lute with a slanted bridge and brass and steel strings. This is an immensely entertaining recording. Its prevailing upbeat attitude, led by brilliant playing of the plucked instruments, is tempered with lusciously melancholy masterpieces for viols by John Dowland and Peter Philips. --David Vernier