Hume: Passion Division

Susanne Heinrich (viola da gamba) Hyperion CDA 67811 ****

Tobias Hume may well be one of the most interesting composers you’ve never heard of. By profession he was a soldier; in music he was a passionate amateur. Hume published two sets of pieces for solo viol, and the 18 on Susanne Heinrich’s CD come from The First Part of Ayres – Captain Humes Musicall Humors, published in 1605. Hume was innovative. He called for pizzicato and col legno (“Drum this with the backe of your Bow”), explored the viol’s polyphonic potential, and delighted in fanciful titles. Heinrich’s selection includes Tickell, Tickell and Tinckeldum, twinckeldum. Her style is attractively grainy in tone and plaintive in manner, with a more pervasive melancholy than Jordi Savall sought out in his Hume collection of 2004. See url.ie/4qdb