There is something special about a homogeneous ensemble of widely
ranged but well matched instruments. The recorder consort A
Imagem da Melancolia has a beautiful sound, using faithful
reproductions of period instruments from several different museums.
Little is known about the actual makers of these renaissance woodwind
instruments, but Adrian Brown’s part of the booklet notes give
a fairly detailed account of what we do know, as well as some
of the acknowledged principles of ensemble formation of the time,
including the universal issues of tuning, an aspect which seems
more pronounced the earlier one goes with historical instruments.
The other section of this leaflet, an essay by ensemble member
Pedro Sousa Silva, does deal with some interesting thoughts on
authenticity, but unfortunately also goes off in such a flight
of fancy that it becomes neither informative nor really poetic
for much of the time – at least, not in translation. Don’t also
be put off by The Bad Tempered Consort title. This no doubt
refers to intonation, which is as impeccable with this consort
as their seriousness of intent, bearing no apparent relationship
with S.J. Perelman’s humorous The Ill-Tempered Clavichord.
What Pedro Sousa
Silva does point out is one of the things which may strike
you about the sound of the ensemble: that the repertoire intersects
with 17th century music written for the organ.
When this ensemble is literally firing on all cylinders their
sound can be compared with the wooden pipes of an early organ:
albeit one with improbably expressive phrasing, and some remarkable
differentiation of voicing. Just as with any flute ensemble
or indeed the portativo organ, the balance favours the higher
registers. The sweet resonances of the lower instruments support
and murmur their rhythm, harmony and counterpoint, but rarely
impose their rounded consonant OOOOs over the leading voices.
Variety comes
in numerous guises with this programme. The ensemble has deliberately
chosen a selection and ordering of pieces which are an “historical
improbability.” Note: improbability, not impossibility. The
styles and period nature of these pieces is as well matched
as the instruments themselves. Contrast is brought about through
rhythmic and sometimes gloriously syncopated works such as
the Obra de registro de mano ysquierda on tack 5, or
the light articulations which open the Fantasia of
track 11. The gentle singing voice of Magna Ferreira contributes
at a number of points, also adding a welcome change whilst
keeping nicely within the concept. I commend the striking
yet deceptively simple beauty of the longest track (15) on
the disc, Sobre o Seculorum, where her voices rises
above the consort with so much restraint it is harder than
you might expect to separate her countermelodies from the
other lines beneath. The concept of “authenticity” is re-shuffled
rather than thrown out with the bathwater on this CD, and
what the ensemble proposes “is a historically improbable programme
built on criteria of historical probability”.
Marvellously well
prepared and recorded, this disc is a quiet joy from beginning
to end. I am especially taken with the unpretentious and unforced
way in which the consort stays ‘within’ the dynamic of each piece:
there are no tiresome solos or vapid improvisations here, nor
any attempt to drive the music any harder than our 21st
century tastes would sometimes seem to demand. I also admire the
way this ensemble has created a ‘different’ concept with their
programme without resorting to novelty in the way some other consorts
have in the past. Attempts to bring early music up-to-date with
off-the-wall arrangements or mixing the new with the old can be
great fun, but run the risk of having a limited shelf life, both
in the shops and at home. This is one of those recordings which
has built-in staying power, and once you have allowed its special
atmosphere to take hold you will be glad to have it to hand –
most probably on quiet nights when the traffic noise has abated,
and you can allow your thoughts to wander through distant and
long lost realms.
Dominy Clements
A Imagem da
Melancolia (Voces materialium: 
