Lawes: Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol Richard Boothby

• 1Prelude, VdGS 43501:16
• 2Country Coll, VdGS 42101:17
• 3A Jigge, VdGS 42201:17
• 4Almain, VdGS 49102:27
• 5Coranto, VdGS 51201:29
• 6Almain, VdGS 46102:44
• 7Coranto, VdGS 42301:50
• 8Air, VdGS 59601:30
• 9Almain, VdGS 46202:23
• 10Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol: Coranto VdGS 42401:36
• 11Almaine, VdGS 51102:45
• 12Coranto, VdGS 51301:48
• 13Saraband, VdGS 51401:03
• 14Almain, VdGS 46301:57
• 15Coranto, VdGS 46501:34
• 16Saraband, VdGS 46701:11
• 17Almain, VdGS 54302:12
• 18Coranto, VdGS 54101:21
• 19Almaine, VdGS 46401:24
• 20Corrant, VdGS 42501:34
• 21Saraband, VdGS 43400:56
• 22Almain (Pavan), VdGS 54202:28
• 23Coranto, VdGS 54401:07
• 24Almain, VdGS 43003:16
• 25Corant, VdGS 42601:17
• 26Sarabrand, VdGS 43301:07
• 27Corant, VdGS 42701:53
• 28Saraband, VdGS 59101:01
• 29Corant, VdGS 42801:31
• 30Saraband, VdGS 46601:29
• 31Coranto, VdGS 54501:37
• 32Coranto, VdGS 54602:12
• 33Corant, VdGS 42901:50
• 34Corant, VdGS 43101:33
• 35Sarabrand, VdGS 43201:22
• Total Runtime59:17

Info for Lawes: Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol

Some of the most famous English composers of the 17th century wrote pieces for the lyra viol, or even entire anthologies. These composers include John Cooper, John Jenkins, Christopher Simpson, Charles Coleman, and William Lawes. Due to the number of strings and their rather flat layout, the lyra viol can approximate polyphonic textures, and because of its small size and large range, it is more suited to intricate and quick melodic lines than the larger types of bass viol.

Employed as musician in ordinary for lutes and voices at the court of Charles I, English composer Lawes (1602-1645) is most admired today for his sublime suites for viol consort. His less familiar solo repertoire for lyra-viol is performed here by Richard Boothby, a founder member of Fretwork, on the best preserved instrument of the period (Richard Meares, c. 1647-1725) which is now part of the Kessler Collection in the museum of the Royal College of Music, London.

Richard Boothby, viola da gamba

Richard Boothby
After studying with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Salzburg, he founded the Purcell Quartet in 1984 and was a founder member of Fretwork in 1985. Since then his career has been bound up with these two groups with whom he records and tours; and through whom he plays the broadest range of repertory for the instrument from the earliest music to the latest contemporary music commissioned for viols.

With the Purcell Quartet he has recorded nearly 50 albums with them for Hyperion and Chandos. He tours Europe, Japan and the United States regularly with both ensembles. In 1998 he directed performances of Monteverdi’s ‘L’Incoronazione di Poppea’ with the Purcell Quartet; and in 2001 directed them in a fully-staged production of ‘L’Orfeo’, with Mark Padmore in the title role.

As a soloist, he has given many recitals of the rich solo repertory, and in 1994 he recorded the three Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord with Shalev Ad-El for Chandos Records, to critical acclaim. He has given many recitals of the great suites by Antoine Forqueray, with whose music he feels a special affinity. He is professor of Viola da Gamba at the Royal College in London.

Booklet for Lawes: Complete Music for Solo Lyra Viol