Featuring performances of nobility and sensitivity, works of elegance and expressivity, recordings of depth and clarity, and, last but not least, packaging of exemplary beauty, it is impossible to over-recommend this disc.
Bruno Cocset -- the terrific young period cellist whose recording of
Bach's Cello Suites was in the same league as
Casals' and
Fournier's -- leads his colleagues and friends of
Les Basses Réunies in performances of strength, subtlety, and great dignity.
Frescobaldi's Canzoni are landmark works in the emancipation of the instruments whose ease of counterpoint is matched by their grace of melodies. Alpha's recording is warm, rich, honest, real, and true, capturing
Les Basses Réunies in an ideal acoustic environment. Alpha's packaging has interesting and informative notes wrapped in a superb if tiny reproduction of The Finding of Romulus and Remus by Faustulus by Pietro Berrittini, a work painted at about the same time that
Frescobaldi composed his Canzoni.