Gibbons, Orlando - The Woods So Wide

Gramophone Award Nomination 2002 - Early music

"John Toll recently succumbed to cancer in his early fifties‚ thus depriving the world of a supreme continuo player‚ in many ways unchallenged in his generation. Although he recorded very widely indeed‚ this appears to have been his only solo album. Its quality deepens the sense of loss. The choice of Orlando Gibbons is itself intriguing for a man whose main career was in Baroque music. But it is clear from every note that this was a composer very close to Toll's heart‚ that he acknowledged the quiet poet who can often seem less impressive than Byrd or Bull but has perhaps the most distinctive voice of all composers from the age of Shakespeare. While the 24 pieces recorded here are numerically only just over half of Gibbons' known keyboard output‚ Toll has focused on the most substantial works. All the Fantasias are here‚ as well as most of the Pavans; but most of the smaller dances are omitted. So we have a Gibbons of considerable seriousness‚ which Toll underlines by controlled playing that has not the slightest trace of self-indulgence. Some listeners may prefer the occasional hints of whimsy in Richard Egarr's Gibbons survey (Globe‚ 5/98)‚ but what we hear in Toll is the composer who was not just the 'best finger of that age' but also one of the finest contrapuntists and a man of marvellous musical imagination. Toll divides the music between two instruments. The late 17th-century organ at Adlington Hall sounds absolutely glorious‚ beautifully caught by the engineers‚ and played with sympathetic mastery; it is used not just for Fantasias but also for some of the music that one would more instinctively have thought intended for a harpsichord - with fascinating results. A modern Flemish-style harpsichord by Michael Johnson serves for the rest‚ but again not just for the dances. This is top-quality playing."
David Fallows (Gramophone)