Adam Woolf - trombone player, teacher... |  | |||
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SFZ MUSIC, the independent label for His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, are proud to announce their latest release, the debut solo album by one of their core members, Adam Woolf. Adam, one of the most sought-after players in Europe, presents a varied programme of solos works from the early baroque designed to show off, or imitate, the purest-known form of music making - the human voice. He plays with the agility and virtuosity of a violinist or recorder player, without losing the power and velvet tone of his instrument. Ably accompanied by a crack group of continuo players, this is a haunting and enchanting recording, a valuable addition to any lover of Renaissance vocal and wind music, and concrete proof of the vocal qualities of the Sackbut. ______________________________________________________ Adam Woolf is a long-serving member of His Majesty’s Sackbuts & Cornetts, and this solo recital consists of transcriptions of 16th- and 17th-century vocal music. The sackbut follows the vocal line exactly, or adds ornamentation to create virtuoso display pieces. The results are unexpectedly mellifluous and I was unprepared for the panache of Woolf’s playing. It’s like a softer, mellower trombone sound, and the sleeve note quotes period sources praising 17th-century sackbut players who could match the agility and range of singers. Woolf’s technique never draws attention away from the music he’s chosen, or the idiomatic accompaniments on organ, theorbo, harpsichord or viola da gamba. The slower pieces are especially successful- Schütz’s O Jesu nomen dulce with its lilting harp and theorbo backing, or Van Eyck’s mournful Dowland-influencedPavane Lachrymae, the only work on the disc played without accompaniment. TheArtDesk.com - April 2011 _____________________________________________________ This auspicious disc is one of the last arrivals for review in 2010 and if we were to go in for star ratings and Records of the Month (or Year) it would rate very highly for both. 2010 has been a year in which we have developed our interest in early instruments, to such extent that Steinways are beginning to feel anachronistic with such competitors as Kristian Bezuidenhout in Mozart, Malcolm Bilson and his team in Beethoven and Alexei Lubimov in Schubert. Adam Woolf's solo CD is the first full-length commercially available recording which focusses on the sackbut as a solo instrument; precursor of the trombone, and more usually heard in solemn music in groups, e.g. His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts in Monteverdi's Vespers, it will come as a surpise that the tenor sackbut is a flexible, gentle and mellow-toned instrument which goes well with theorbo and harp. Usually I find CD marketing titles unhelpful and avoid them; this one however is spot on and apt for this 16 & 17 C music in which instrumentalists sought to imitate the sound and expression of the human voice, "the purest and most expressive form of music making" [Adam Woolf]. The disc is a joy from beginning to end, with the highest production values from engineers (Huw Morgan & Stephen Saunders) and booklet text and design (Adam woolf an Bridget Saunders). The illustration above is of the whole group improvising (as sackbut players used to do) their version of Frescobaldi's Se L'aura, to round off a brilliant sequence of music making. Peter Grahame Woolf | ||||
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