Four Temperaments

Album review

Four Temperaments is the second disc for Avie by the splendid English viol quartet Phantasm led by expatriate American Laurence Dreyfus; the first, a disc of viol consort music by Orlando Gibbons, claimed the distinction of "Best Early Music Recording" in 2004. The follow-up under consideration is certainly no less an achievement and may well be slightly better than its predecessor. Dreyfus has devised a brilliant idea for its program; the four sixteenth century composers under consideration -- William Byrd, Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, Robert Parsons, and Thomas Tallis -- are likened to the four temperaments first described by Hippocrates -- melancholic, phlegmatic, choleric, and sanguine. A well-chosen selection of consort music of these composers, mixed in with a few instrumental realizations of vocal pieces, are sequenced in an alternating manner that lends credence to the notion that the relative "humours" of the four provide the key to their individual and characteristic voices, at least in comparison to one another.
However arcane and theoretical that might sound, in the notes Dreyfus comments that "the point of a performance isn't to replicate historical circumstances but to penetrate music's beauties and convey its sense," and that's exactly what Phantasm achieves here. By virtue of their arrangement, the 22 selections here do not seem like an odd collection of works related through their historical period or instrumentation, but as parts of a whole -- there is an uncanny sense of continuous flow from one piece to the next. Four Temperaments is a disc that one will want to put in and play, perhaps even in repeat mode as it sense of continuity is so refined there isn't a sense of a clear beginning or conclusion. Careful attention paid to the tracklisting will aid the listener in determining whether the composer on a given, usually very short, track happens to be Byrd, Ferrabosco, Parsons, or Tallis, but one needn't be beholden to it. As a listening experience, Four Temperaments is very complete even without the notes or tracklisting. Phantasm's playing is faultless, deeply considered, rich in texture, and emotionally moving, and the recording, made at St. Mary's Church at South Creake in Norfolk, is warm, direct, and multi-dimension. In terms of a high-quality and highly enjoyable recital of sixteenth century viol music, one could not hope for better than what is delivered in Phantasm's Four Temperaments.

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