Phantasm - Locke - The Times

After Bach's music for solo violin, why not hop back almost a century to British music for a consort of viols? Performances by Laurence Dreyfus's ensemble Phantasm are always worth treasuring, although there's a special glory about this album devoted to Matthew Locke, who lived through Charles I, the Civil War and a good bit of Charles II. In knotty times Locke wrote knotty music, with jagged edges and angular harmonies. The Birtwistle of his time? Not quite, for there's always some lurking sweetness too, reflected in the golden tones of Dreyfus's team, superbly recorded by Philip Hobbs. This week, then, we have one violinist sounding like a quartet and seven string players exerting their differences while being joined at the hip. It's the best of both worlds.