ACRONYM's exploration of the wild music attributed to H.I.F. von Biber includes several pieces recorded here for the first time. Works include programmatic battle music, Latin church music, and dance suites. ACRONYM (Anachronistic Cooperative Realizing Obscure Nuanced Yesteryear’s Masterpieces), an “outstanding young early music string ensemble” (The New Yorker), is dedicated to giving modern premieres of the wild instrumental music of the seventeenth century. Since 2014 the band has released seven critically acclaimed recordings. ACRONYM’s performances have been praised for their “consummate style, grace, and unity of spirit.” (The New York Times)

Carolyn Surrick writes of this new release: “When I called Ronn McFarlane in January to ask if he wanted to play a house concert in April, he checked his calendar and said, “Sure, sounds great!” Members of Ensemble Galilei... are spread across the country, and we don’t usually get together until right before a performance. But Ronn and I live about twenty miles away from each other, so we started rehearsing. February turned to March in this year of COVID-19. There would be no house concerts. But we kept meeting on Saturday mornings... It was a few weeks into March when I turned to him and said, “Hey, let’s make a recording in June.” It was a crazy idea. We didn’t have much shared repertoire... That meant a huge investment of time and energy. I did not receive a resounding affirmative response. But days passed and the reality of the pandemic settled in. Nothing else was going to be happening this spring. No concerts. No tours. Cancellation after cancellation, with no end in sight. “Yes,” he said, “let’s do this.” I called Lindsey Nelson, Ensemble Galilei’s wonderful executive producer, and Collin Rae, the master of strategic marketing at Sono Luminus. I texted our producer, Dan Merceruio. Totally on board. We added rehearsals. Wrote harmony parts. Wrote new music. Arranged our favorite tunes for lute and viola da gamba… All in the shadow of the pandemic. Would we have done this a year ago? Not a chance. We were too busy… The recording exists because of this moment in time...”

REVIEWS:

This instrumental pairing, lute and viola da gamba, occurs only occasionally in Baroque and Renaissance literature. They augment Dowland’s Adew for Master Oliver Cromwell with newly composed works by McFarlane and with arrangements by both players. These are delightfully varied, taking up such works as The Allman Brothers’ Little Martha (originally an acoustic guitar solo by Duane Allman, so not as odd as it sounds), Amazing Grace, and Gounod’s Ave Maria. Some of the selections veer toward the Celtic folk side, including an intriguing version of Blackwater Slide modeled on one by Scottish musician Bert Jansch. Sono Luminus’ sound is, well, luminous, a pleasure throughout. Falling into a class of pandemic-time recordings where musicians rediscovered the enjoyment of home music-making, this is an unusually satisfying example of the genre. 

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)
What is wonderful and becomes most fascinating are the new compositions and the threading of two or three songs into one. Carolyn Surrick’s viola da gamba has a rarity in its ability to provide shadings of emotions that add great chemistry. Equally, Ronn McFarlane’s investments are worthy and in their own right.

– ConcertoNet.com (Christie Grimstad)

Made between December 1948 and June 1950, these recordings enjoy an unusual history which is bound up with the burgeoning industry of classical music retail in the postwar era. Among the best stocked record stores in New York at that time was The Gramophone Shop on 42nd East Street, co-owned by William H. (Bill) Tyler and Joseph F. (Joe) Brogan, an Irish-American collector and dealer. Trying to rival or surpass the mail-order business of H. Royer Smith in Philadelphia, the shop issued (in 1929 and 1931) two fat paperback catalogues, The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music. Three further editions, from 1936, 1942, and 1948, remain standard reference works. The store also ran it's own mail-order business with the reputation as a specialist in rare and high-quality recordings from Europe. From that arm of the business naturally developed the store's own label, marketed as the Gramophone Shop Celebrities (GSC) series. This is the first time these recordings have been available on modern media.

Legends of the period-performance community Sarah Cunningham and Richard Egarr need little introduction, with their contributions to recorded music garnering critical acclaim from early music afficionados across the decades. They join forces for their AVIE Records debut recording of J.S. Bach’s celebrated Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, together with Cunningham’s dazzling arrangements of the composer's Organ Trio Sonata and Flute Partita to conclude the programme. The Gamba Sonatas have long since established themselves as a staple in the cello and gamba repertoires, notably extending their fame into popular culture through film and television features.

Encouraged by Camille Saint-Saëns, violist/composer Henri Casadesus founded the Société des Instruments Anciens in 1901. Casadesus played viola d'amore, his brother Marius played quinton, and additional Casadesus family members and friends played viols, keyboards, and plucked strings. Unlike other early period-instrument revivals, the Casadesus ensemble performed not only baroque pastiche, but also new works which they commissioned and composed for their rediscovered instruments. This disc presents the premiere recordings of music written in the first decades of the twentieth century by Henri Casadesus and Ottorino Respighi for a "quartet of viols."

Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729) was a singer and organist, as well as a cellist and composer. When his name appears today, however, it is usually in connection with the viola d'amore. Ariosti was famous as a virtuoso performer on this instrument, but he also composed for it. The chamber works for viola d'amore which have survived are his Collection of Lessons and the Recueil de Pièces pour la Viol d'Amour, comprising 21 solos - really sonatas in all but name. Together they form the largest single set of baroque works for the viola d'amore. During Ariosti's lifetime these works probably circulated in manuscript copies. That the solos of the Recueil survive at all is thanks to a young music student, Johan Helmich Roman, later known as the father of Swedish music, who copied them in the late 1710s and brought them home with him to Stockholm. In his initiated liner notes, Thomas Georgi, one of today's finest exponents of the viola d'amore, gives an interesting introduction to Ariosti and the instrument, including the various tunings and notational system that are associated with it. This disc, the first of three, contains the six Lessons of the Collection, produced by Ariosti in order to promote the viola d'amore in England, his new home. Five of them appear as in the original, whereas Thomas Georgi has combined the sixth with four movements from the Recueil de Pièces, to form two sonatas - 'Stockholm Sonatas'. A fascinating opportunity to enjoy a rarely heard instrument, expertly supported by Lucas Harris and Joëlle Morton, two of North America's finest baroque instrumentalists.