Phantasm
Linn Records CKD737 57:17 mins
The biographer Roger North hailed Matthew Locke as the ‘Ultimus Heroum’, ‘the last of the heroes’, since his viol consorts are among the swansongs of the great English viol tradition. Despite his cranky and combative personality, Locke’s consorts are luminous, lyrical, often playful, marrying his ‘art and contrivance’ with ‘light and airy musick’.
Phantasm’s new disc makes a companion to their 2018 recording of the first two suites from The Flat Consort, which Locke dedicated to his ‘cousin Kemble’. We’re now treated to the last three suites from the same collection – a trio of works which epitomise the capricious, restless, mercurial character of Locke’s idiom. The disc also includes five suites from The Little Consort – convivial pieces for amateur music-making whose fleeting movements fizz and dissolve like little bonbons.
With their ever-changing affects and tempos, these consorts require alert and agile players and, in this respect, Phantasm is unrivalled. The playing here is technically flawless: lines are articulated with a remarkable lightness of touch; rhythms are balletic and buoyant, subtly animated by Elizabeth Kenny’s graceful theorbo playing.
Though Locke’s writing is sometimes angular and quirky, his textures are open and luminous – even his contrapuntal writing is never dense. These qualities are perfectly captured by the fine recording: the sound is airy yet intimate, and the balance between viols and theorbo is beautifully judged. The ensemble Fretwork has also recently recorded these works; their sound, by comparison, is bigger, edgier and less homogenous than Phantasm’s gossamer fabric.