The Image of Melancholy is the kind of title which at the
very least lays its cards on the table. No wild abandoned dancing
in the streets is to be expected from this music, but if you fancy
revelling in the way Victor Hugo defined it, with melancholy as ‘the
pleasure of being sad’, then this is a delicious place to pause,
reflect, and perhaps mourn a little. Acclaimed baroque violinist Bjarte
Eike has popped up on titles such as the Handel & contemporaries
disc London Calling! (see review),
and Schmelzer & Co (see review).
He conceived this programme for his period band Barokksolistene as
a personal ‘image of melancholy’, writing in the booklet,
“for me, melancholy is not only synonymous with sadness and
despair, it is a state also harbouring reflection, meditation and
relief.”
Such a selection of pieces stands or falls by its performance and
to a certain extent the context of the works. Eike’s violin
often melts into the sound of the other instruments, at times colouring
the solo lines with a kind of hardanger folk-soulfulness, at other
times keeping to a more mainstream baroque character and allowing
for greater solo flexibility in specialist works such as Biber’s
Die Kreutzertragung from the well-known Mystery Sonatas.
Berit Norbakken Solset’s voice is perfect for the simplicity
of arrangement chosen for songs such as Dowland’s Sorrow,
stay, its purity of tone suitably timeless in the lullaby Gjendines
bådnlåt, which is given a gently swirling electronic
accompaniment not unlike an organ. Jon Balke’s soundscapes in
this and the meditation on Susanne un jour called Introducing
Susanne are good enough as far as they go, keeping the ‘live’
feel of the music though sympathetic keyboard work and adding a sense
of temporal surrealism, but falling short of being truly inspired.
Eike is quite candid about the eclectic nature of his choice of pieces,
writing that the music “does not belong to any particular style,
nationality or period in time; it’s rather a string of tunes
that have all had a personal significance to me, and that together
form a musical matrimony between a Nordic melancholy, the rich sounds
of the Elizabethan consort and a modern approach to music-making.”
The sound of the Barokksolistene playing together is for me the strongest
sonic aspect of the recording, from the restraint on show in Buxtehudes
harmonic labyrinth in the beautiful Klag-Lied to the fuller
sonorities of Holborne’s The image of melancholy or Last
will and testament. There is light relief amongst the lamentations,
and Holborne’s galliard Muy linda is an uplifting break
from sadness, as is the Dowland Galliard ‘Susanna’
further on. More contrast follows with viola player Milos Valent’s
emotive vocals in Joj Mati or ‘Oh mother, dear mother’,
and another traditional sounding but deeply groovy Evertsbergs
gamla brudmarsch. You can’t have a programme on melancholy
without Dowland’s Flow, my tears, and the light and shade
in this version is delightful. The final two pieces go straight to
the heart of the matter, drawing out the real spirit of melancholy
and uniting its Nordic spirit with that of the Elizabethan consort.
BIS have a rich resource with mixed releases of this kind, and this
title will sit nicely alongside something like Emilia Amper’s
Trolfågeln (see review).
The recording is perfect, the music capable of transporting us to
far away - geographically, but also more importantly on those priceless
inner wanderings which can show us more about ourselves than we imagined.
Dominy Clements
Track listing
Bjarte EIKE (b. 1972)
Savn - a tune for Signe [2:59]
Anthony HOLBORNE (c. 1545-1602)
The image of melancholy, pavane [5:33]
John DOWLAND (1563-1626)
Sorrow, stay [2:58]
Traditional / arr. Bjarte Eike
Bjørnsons bruremarsj [2:46]
Anthony HOLBORNE
Wanton, galliard [1:08]
Traditional / arr. Jon Balke/Bjarte Eike
Gjendines bådnlåt [4:25]
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von BIBER (1644-1704)
Die Kreuztragung (‘The carrying of the Cross’)
Sonata (1st movement) [2:43]
Dietrich BUXTEHUDE (1637-1707)
Klag-Lied (‘Lament’) [3:46]
Anthony HOLBORNE
Muy linda, galliard [2:06]
Traditional / arr. Milos Valent
Joj Mati (‘Oh, mother, dear mother’) [3:00]
Traditional / arr. Bjarte Eike
Evertsbergs gamla brudmarsch [1:39]
Traditional / arr. Jon Balke/Bjarte Eike
Bånsull [2:53]
Anthony HOLBORNE
Last will and testament, pavane [3:30]
Ruaidri Dáll Ó Catháin / arr. Bjarte Eike
Tabhair dom do lámh (‘Give me your hand’) [5:25]
John DOWLAND
Flow, my tears / Lachrimae antiquae [4:24]
Jon BALKE (b. 1955)
Introducing Susanne - a meditation on Susanne 'un jour' [1:51]
Johann Sommer / arr. Bjarte Eike
Devising Susanne, pavane with divisions [2:46]
John DOWLAND
Gaillard ‘Susanna’ [1:11]
William BYRD (1540-1623)
Ye sacred muses [4:18]
Niel GOW (1727-1807) / arr. Bjarte Eike
Niel Gow’s lament for the death of his second wife [5:35]
[66:28] 
