Lutes and flutes.Lutes and flutes provide the perfect instruments for this collection of Renaissance and Baroque folk and classical music, presented on a standard CD and a Blu-ray disc.
First, a word about the title, which goes without comment in the booklet and packaging. I can only assume it is a take on American journalist and socialist John Reed's book, Ten Days That Shook the World, about the 1917 October Uprising in Russia. Beyond that, the album's reference is rather vague, but it's a cool title, anyway.
The music derives from the early sixteenth to late-eighteenth centuries. The composers include the familiar: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Pietro Locatelli (1695-1764), and John Dowland (1563-1626); the less familiar: John Adson (c.1587-1640), Michael Blavet (1700-1768), Adrian Le Roy (c.1520-1598), James Oswald (c.1711-1769), Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755), Robert Ballard (c.1752--after 1650), Cesare Negri, and Fabritio Caroso da Sermoneta; plus a few traditional and anonymous acknowledgements.
The recording artists are Ronn McFarlane playing Renaissance and Baroque lutes; and Mindy Rosenfeld playing Renaissance, Baroque, and Celtic flutes, fifes, harp, and bagpipe. Ms. Rosenfeld writes that "Ronn and I have been musical colleagues since we met in Baltimore in our early twenties at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, playing together in the Baltimore Consort, and in the trio 'Gut, Wind and Wine" with our friend, Mark Cudek. Performing together as a duo is a more recent incarnation of our musical connection."
Mr. McFarlane is an American lutenist and composer. He was a founding member of the Baltimore Consort; began a touring career in the United States, Canada, and Europe, both with the Baltimore Consort and as a soloist; became noted as an interpreter of Renaissance music; served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory teaching lute; received an honorary Doctorate of Music from the Shenandoah Conservatory; and began composing music for the lute and working with a new ensemble called Ayreheart. Ms. Rosenfeld is an American flutist, piper, and harpist who specializes in Renaissance music. She co-founded the Baltimore Consort, in 1989 became a member of San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and is currently the Principal Flutist and soloist with the Symphony of the Redwoods and the Mendocino Music Festival in California.
About the music, Ms. Rosenfeld further writes that "This recording is a gathering of some of our favorites, a musical feast. A wide cross-section of styles both 'folk and fyne,' evocative and expressive of the variety and intensity of human feelings, from sparky, joyful fun to deeper meditative inner reflection, these timeless tunes from past centuries still touch us in ways words cannot, stirring our life energy."
McFarlane and Rosenfeld are consummate artists, and their experience allows them to blend their various instruments in ideal harmony and execution. Most of the tunes they play are soft, sweet, and gentle, yet their choice of songs, dances, and instruments are diverse enough to provide a wide range of moods and emotions. The performers seem keenly aware of one another's style and provide a variety of nuances in their playing, enough to keep even this listener, ordinarily only mildly interested in Renaissance music, entertained.
While I surely enjoyed the folk and traditional melodies they play on the program, I probably got the most pleasure from Handel's Sonata in G Major. McFarlane and Rosenfeld infuse it with wit, charm, serenity, and good cheer. Yet for that matter, their playing of assorted Scottish, Irish, and English airs and dance tunes also delighted me no end. Heck, the whole thing was fun, and the closing bagpipe number is a kick.The performers fill out the album with over seventy-five minutes of music, very nearly the limit of a CD and certainly good value. A Blu-ray disc, of course, has far more room on it than a compact disc, so because you get to choose among three different BD formats, it offers extra worth.
Producer and editing engineer Dan Mecurio and recording, editing, mixing, and mastering engineer Daniel Shores made the album in October 2012 at the studios of award-winning Sono Luminus in Boyce, Virginia. Audiophiles know Sono Luminus for their "less-is-more" recording philosophy, producing some of the most natural-sounding discs around. Nine Notes That Shook the World is no exception.
The package contains both a standard CD in two-channel stereo and a Blu-ray disc with DTS HD MA 5.1 multichannel (24/192kHz), DTS HD MA 7.1 multichannel (24/96kHz), and LPCM 2.0 stereo (24/192kHz). Although I have a 7.1-channel playback system in my home-theater room, it doesn't use speakers as good as those in my main music-listening room, so I opted to listen mainly to the standard CD.
In any case, here's another of those "reach-out-and-touch-it" affairs that sounds so real you'd think the performers were with you in your listening room. A modest resonance complements the realism of the occasion, the miking putting the players at a distance that appears just beyond the loudspeakers. Clarity, definition, and detail are exemplary, all while maintaining the smooth, warm sound of the instruments.
Just for the heck of it, though, I did spend some time with the Blu-ray disc, where I thought the DTS 5.1 sounded best, providing the better combination of transparency and ambient surround space.
JJP
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
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