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This extraordinary recording far surpasses its premise: rare, historic instruments are used to perform contemporaneous music. I found myself completely seduced by the elegant flow of the program, the masterful engineering of the sound (I felt like I was in the room with the musicians), and the understated brilliance of the performances themselves. Zachary Wilder’s contributions gild the lily, making this an album to relish from start to finish without pause.

Oliver CamachoMusic Director

French gambist Mathilde Vialle leads an ensemble featuring early plucked instrument specialist Thibaut Roussel. It was love at first sight when Vialle and Roussel first encountered the English bass viol and Venetian archlute preserved at the Museum of Music at the Philharmonie de Paris which inspried this program of English music from the second half of the seventeenth century, much of it never recorded before. The exceptional sonorities of their two period instruments are complemented by the virginal of Ronan Khalil and the captivating voice of tenor Zachary Wilder. The repertoire includes stunning arrangements of folksongs like “Greensleeves” and “Tis the Last Rose of Summer” interspersed with an engaging array of chaconnes, Scotch tunes, toccatas, and other works that show off the timbres of the unique instruments on hand.

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