The Broken Consort

• Cat No: METCD1086
• Type: Classical, Home Page Featured, Home Page New Releases, Metronome Recordings
• Format: CD
• Release Date: December 01 2011
• Duration: 156' 00"

This is the first ever recording of the complete “Broken Consort” and the suites for Tripla concordia by Matthew Locke, performed by The Locke Consort.  

Matthew Locke (1622 – 1677) was the pre-eminent composer of the English Restoration period.  Born in Exeter in 1620 he left England as he stuck to the “Old faith” during the civil war and he probably spent some of his exile in the Netherlands.  The first part of the Broken Consort was written in the year after the restoration of Charles II in 1660; the second part shortly afterwards.  Charles II was a rhythmic king, disliking any type of music to which he could not beat the time.  He hated fantasies and was more inclined to the “French style” of music with an emphasis on dance music made popular by Lully. This style then superseded of the older style of broken consort with a new grouping called the “Twenty-Four Violins”.  Locke readily wrote some great dance music in the new style, and the two “Tripla Concordia” dance suites on this recording also show great musical  invention and humour.

The Locke Consort:  John Wilson Meyer (violin); Mimi Mitchell (violin); Susanne Braumann (viola da gamba) and Fred Jacobs (theorbo) have a truly international reputation for championing the music of 17^thcentury England.  They met at an international conservatory in the Netherlands coming from respectively England, USA, Germany and the Netherlands.

These recordings were made in the Protestant Church in Haarlem in 2011.  They follow Metronome’s highly acclaimed recording of the music of Robert de Visee with the theorbo player, Fred Jacobs (METCD1072 – released in May 2008).