A beautiful compilation but still perfectible

English music is only too well known. Yet well before Elgar, the "Perfidious Albion" knew generate several generations of talented composers from the Renaissance to the Baroque. If Purcell is still present in stores, other names, formerly illustrious, are hardly known today ... I think of Blow, or at Dowland (Shakespeare's favorite composer) This finding ... is only too true for the music of the Renaissance. A label chooses to venture into that directory has, for the curious music lover, any good news. Especially in 10 CD, we offered a broad overview of the productions of the time.

Start with the "presentation" of the cabinet. The booklet is for any content that the statement of the tracks on each disc. No composer biography, not a line on the historical and social context, and worse: nothing that could tell us what the music of the English Renaissance is distinguished from that of other countries such as Italy, France or the Spain. Thus, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi does not give us the keys that allow us to evaluate the relevance of this approach or not "geographic", or at least to understand the consistency of what is available to listen. If there are no doubt specific characters to the music of the Renaissance and the English Baroque, it is not in this booklet which they teach.

We can at least point out the effort of the label to give us a panorama of composers and musical genres of these centuries. The most famous names (Purcell, Byrd ...) alongside little-known composers or anonymous. The songs are varied: songs, masks, dance suites, masses, etc. However, it is regrettable that the implementation does not always conform the score: I think including CD No. 9, which includes pieces written for harp transcriptions for lute, or voice. The fact that it is not specified has something extremely annoying because the cabinet seems to promise of authenticity. We also regret syndrome "best of" suffered by Purcell, eg Deutsche Harmonia Mundi chose completely tunes out of context (like the famous "Rondo" - not "Round-O", which is extracted from an opera), rather than short works presented in full. Fortunately, this is rare.

The interpretation is correct to excellent. For example, the flutist Pedro Memelsdorff shows perfect for most of the 2 disc; but in the latest tracks, it seems that it always plays harder acute passages, as if to burst the eardrums of the listener ... The Deller Consort, meanwhile, exceptional. Some soloists of other drives, however, are unconvincing. Include big names like Skip Sempé Gustav Leonhardt at the harpsichord.

Turning now works in themselves, the conclusion is the same: if our expectations are often met, it is clear that not everything is of equal value. I have already spoken of the magnificent CD # 7; you can add the "Venus And Andonis" by John Blow or Masses A Capella the last disc. The first 2 CDs also have, at times, fairly arbitrary pieces, including the harpsichord. But overall, the choices seemed to me wise, achieving a good balance between the known and what to discover, among the instrumental and vocal, between the sacred and the profane.

What progress this compilation? I have some reservations, it will be understood. All is not perfect, but shows very convincing most of the time. For this reason, I can not recommend it to music lovers fond of English music of the Renaissance and the Baroque period. For someone looking for an introduction, this box is a good investment. It also gives to know the composers of interest and calls for their discovery; this is, I think, his greatest achievement.