Ostinato 0

Ctiuinymous Greensleeve to a Ground Oori.ea de Arauxo Tres Glosas sabre `Todo el inundo. en general' Ortiz Quinta pars IX. ILieercadas — II; V; VII Falconieri Ciaccona. II PrimO libro di canzone — Passacalle Marini IPassacaglia Merula Ciaccona. Ruggiero FatIllbel Canon and Gigue Purcell Fantasia opOtt a Ground, Z731. Sonatas in Four Parts, t'4 No Sin G minor Rossi Sonata ra:PAria di Ruggiero Traditional Canarios VOlihite Gaillarda Napolitana lit6krion XXI / Jordi Savall ye da gamba

I I ,AV9820 (73 minutes: DDD) bly varied compendium performed Savallia.n vim and vitality ' •

Hesperion XXI has already explored the folia in a recent recording (Alia Vox, 6/99) and here the group again recreate the improvisatory world of Instrumental music of the 16th and 17th centuries. Repeated bass or harmonic patterns — the basso ostinato — are again the linkingifactor while each composer from Ortiz to Purcell, displays amazing skill at combining the restriction of harmonic repetition with freedom of inventiveness, discipline stimulating creativity with brilliant result. The same is true of this recording: the players' disciplined virtuosity brings out the improvisatory background of much of this music in a dazzling display that enthralls the listener. Despite the constant of the ostinato, the variety in texture and instrumental colour in the pieces Selected is such that there is never a dull moment: Jordi Sayan on viols ranging from bass to treble is completely at one with the music of Diego Ortiz — never have I heard it more convincingly performed — while the violin playing of Manfredo Kraemer and Pablo Valetti in the later trio sonata-based pieces is full of rhythmic vitality and interest. The continuo team, mostly plucked strings in the earlier repertory and keyboard (harpsichord or organ) with theorbo in the later worlis, is superb: inventive and as virtuoso as the solOists they accompany.

As the Portuguese musicologist Ruy Vieira Nery says, in his commendably lucid insert-notes, these wiIi0en-out and elaborated versions of improvisaiory techniques are in many ways parallel to the best recordings of jazz, capturing for posterity an inspiration of the moment. Flesperion present, their own improvisation on the sequence of chdrds known as the `Canarios', a popular pound bass throughout the period, particularly in the Spanish-speaking world, and which builds in exciteinent and tension very nicely. I'll enjoy listening to this disc at regular intervals, and I'm sure you will too. Tess Knighton