Ralph Rousseau Plays Tobias Hume A Pritty Thing

Viola da Gamba Soloist On 180g Vinyl LP!
To the gamba player Hume's music offers a rare sense of liberty. On the one hand almost nothing is known about his person, but on the other hand every one of his pieces is baptized with a little descriptive title pointing to its origin. This combination - at least to me personally - leads to a wonderful sort of openness, where a few words from an otherwise unknown person are the only things to go on – apart from the music score or tablature itself, obviously. In any case, it was Hume's music that lured me into the realm of the viola da gamba as a solo instrument some 20 years ago. It has been a regular part of my solo performances ever since.
This recording was made in the chapel of the Franciscan Convent in Utrecht, where a spent so many hours meditating, praying, and playing. The recording was carried out in a fully analog fashion. The only way to really do justice to the analog process is the vinyl record. For convenience, however, we used a parallel digital channel in order to make it available on cd as well.
The analog recording technique does require that the recordings be made in one take. So this recording has absolutely no editing whatsoever. Everything you hear is exactly the way it sounded in the chapel. I don't think Captaine Hume would have wanted it any other way. For me as a player, this involved a unparalleled concentration that felt very much like the thrill of a live concert. - Ralph Rousseau
"[I listened] to this record over and over again, with rising enthusiasm [he plays] so virtuoso and with such abandon, that one gladly follows him in this world of unusual sounds and expressions These Pritty Things make for grounding and comtemplation at the same time." - Matthias Böde, Stereo, May 2017
"uncompromising extremes of both romping toughness, and breath and fragility, giving wings to to the free storytelling of [Hume's] ayres stirring battlefield calls, but also contemplative abstruseness. His resume reads like a modern-day picaresque novel" - Mischa Spel, NRC/NRC Next, March 23, 2017
"A powerful plea for Tobias Hume a treasure cove of shades, from trumpets to guitars" - Frits van der Waa, De Volkskrant, March 17, 2017

Features:

• 180g Vinyl
• Pressed in Germany

Musicians:

• Ralph Rousseau, viola da gamba

Selections:

Tobias Hume (1579-1645)
The First Part Of Ayres
1. The Spirit Of Gambo
2. A Soldiers Maske
3. Captaine Humes Pavan
4. T Sa Ala Mod Du' France
5. A Soldiers Resolution
6. Toy Suite
7. My Mistress Hath A Pritty Thing
8. Maister Crasse His Almayne
9. A Preludum
10. A Soldiers Galiard
11. A French Ayre
12. Captain Humes Almayne
13. A Mediation
14. The New Knights Humor
15. The Earle Of Pembrooke His Galliard
16. A French Jigge
17. A Question
18. Ha Couragie
19. An Answere
20. Now I Come
21. My Mistresse Maske