Gut Wind and Wire (Gut wind and fire)

Album review

In case you couldn't tell from the title of this album, the Baltimore Consort is strongly in the "early music can be fun" camp. (An earlier album is called La Rocque 'n' Roll.) The fact that the group's performance practice is based on impeccable scholarship and the performers are masterful singers and instrumentalists makes them an ensemble that should appeal to purists as well as newcomers to early music. This collection of instrumental music is primarily compiled from eight of their previous CDs, with a few new tracks added, and is described as an overview of its repertoire from its founding in the early '80s to 2007. This is a particularly nice introduction to music of this era (loosely circumscribed as the time of Shakespeare) and the instruments on which it's played because the program notes include fascinating, brief, non-technical essays on the various instruments. In keeping with the spirit of the album's title, the Baltimore plays these dances, airs, and song arrangements, some of them folk tunes and some notated pieces, with infectious glee and high spirits. The rambunctious playfulness never slides into sloppiness or anything less than demonstrations of the finest musicianship. Dorian's sound is clean, warm, and intimate.
© TiVo

Details of original recording : 58:13 - DDD - Enregistrements réédités et inédits - Dates et lieux d'enregistrements non précisés - Notes en anglais