Les Ages du Monde

where consort and theorbo luxuriate in an other-worldly darkness and delicacy...  Gramophone

A programme that explores music from France in the 16th and 17th centuries. The works presented here include fantasies on popular songs, dances, and a suite, demonstrating the extreme versatility of the viola da gamba. Although the French golden age for the viol was between the mid-17th and mid-18th centuries - represented here with works by Charpentier, Metru and Lully - the programme also gives prominence to earlier compositions, with dances and fantasies by Caroubel, Le Jeune, Moulinie, Du Caurroy, Louis Couperin and Du Mont. Finally, the programme also includes three pieces for solo guitar by Francois Campion, performed by guest musician James Akers. A programme that emphasises elegance, refined melancholy, beautiful sound and a subtle dialogue between the different instruments.

The Strad:
with striking cohesion and aplomb... These players revel in the contrapuntal interplay.

Cheeky to finish this grand tour of French consort music for viols with an arrangement of Lully’s 'Chaconne des
Scaramouches'. Then again, when it’s this well played, why not? - Gramophone