This is technically superb and musically distinctive. Skip Sempe and his musicians grab hold of each piece and play it in a way that leaves no doubt why it was chosen; that is, they have something new and interesting to say musically about each work. The sound is also wonderful: Sempe plays on a Skowroneck harpsichord that he enthusiastically describes as “one of the first truly admirable harpsichords of the 20th century”; the viols and the recorder group are beautifully recorded, with every detail of the dense polyphony clear. So this is the kind of disc you could play to almost any music-lover as a way of explaining that Byrd is not just a great composer but one of the greatest.
On the other hand, those who know the music may well feel a touch uncomfortable. While Sempe plays with often truly dazzling skill and virtuosity, many may wish that his pavans were a touch steadier: nobody now believes that these dance titles define a speed, but they do seem to imply a certain regularity of beat. He also has a slightly mannered way of overdotting cadential bass figurations. The ensemble pieces are sometimes heavily orchestrated: the great six-part Fantasia that opens the disc, for example, has recorders and continuo instruments added to the viols as though to underline contrasts that some would think were already there in the music. Admittedly there is a certain doubt about the intended scoring of these works, but listeners who think of them as viol music may find this treatment worse than what orchestral arrangers did to Beethoven quartets and to Handel’s Messiah early in the century.
But I enter those caveats just as a warning. This is a disc you come away from both invigorated and with a new understanding of some of the finest masterpieces of English music. Don’t miss it.'