Description
SKU/Barcode: 822252004526
Vocalist Emily van Evera has participated in the making of many early music recordings over the years, mainly as a performer within a group, among them Taverner Consort, Hilliard Ensemble, Tragicomedia, Sequentia, and Gothic Voices. The most famous, and notorious, of van Evera's associations is her vocal portrayal of Hildegard von Bingen as set to an electro-disco backdrop for the EMI Angel album Vision. It sold boatloads of units, but did not help solidify van Evera's reputation. Avie's My Lady Rich appears to be the first instance in van Evera's long career where her name appears above the title. Unlike Vision, a project with a clear commercial purpose, My Lady Rich is a straight-ahead collection of Elizabethan songs, choruses, and instrumental music. Van Evera is here again channeling the spirit of a long-departed feminine singer and icon, in this instance Lady Penelope Rich. Whether one buys into the idea of this kind of musical s ance is decidedly up to the listener, but the research that went into it and the number of pieces found relating to Lady Rich is impressive in itself. Unlike Hildegard, Lady Rich did not compose music, but English composers and lyricists of her day swarmed around her, inspired by her strong character and beauty and intrigued by her tempestuous personal life. Lady Rich is also reputed to have been quite a singer herself, and as such is a voice that we cannot hear as she lived and died long before recording, much as did Susanna Cibber, Jenny Lind, Francesca Cuzzoni, and countless others. Van Evera is in excellent voice, and her main collaborator in this project, lutenist Christopher Morrongiello, likewise turns in a stellar performance, but not all the sailing is smooth. After getting off to a terrific start, My Lady Rich bogs down badly at the Byrd piece on track five; it is the longest work on the disc and probably would be better placed somewhere toward the end of the second or third. My Lady Rich does recover, and is at its best when playing through long strings of short pieces. Emily van Evera is such a fine singer that after awhile one won't really care who wrote what, happy just to luxuriate in van Evera's singing and the fine playing of the all-star instrumental support found on My Lady Rich. A very good initial outing for an artist whose debut has been long in coming.