By Haskins
American Record Guide
01-Feb-2007

In my review of Ms Farr's release of Jacquet de la Guerre (Mar/Apr) 2006, I noted her frequent use of staggering-varied degrees of non-synchronous coordination of the right and left hands-and observed that sometimes it work­ed against the grain of the music. For Peter Philips, though, the technique works quite well-especially when the performer takes slow to moderate tempos, as Farr does. The program includes two pavans and galliards; his early Pavan in G; intabulations of vocal music by Caccini, Striggio, Marenzio, and Lasso; and the Fantasias in F and D minor. Her performance is so perfect that I can't find the slightest thing to complain about. In particular, she makes all of the intabulations sound very lyrical and heartfelt. (Usually they sound jangly and technically brilliant.) She plays a 1658 Italian harpsichord that has been expertly restored by Keith Hill, and once more Naxos's engineers capture the delicacy of the instrument and Farr's deft articulation in vivid detail.

Comparisons are few: my library contains the first volume of Rampe's readings for MDG (Jan/Feb 2006) and Paul Nicholson's program for Hyperion (Mar/Apr 1995). Rampe plays with lightning-fast speed in the intabulation for Lasso's 'Margot, Labourez'; compared with Farr's more singing approach, Rampe's sounds like a breathless Renaissance dance. Rampe also varies the instruments: his recording of the F-major Fantasia (on organ) makes for an interesting change from Farr's, but I prefer the sound of these works on the harpsichord. Nicholson plays a fine copy of an Italian instrument. His performances are comparable to Farr's (and duplicate some selections) and are still available at more than twice the price. All three discs are important to the diehard collector of Philips's work, but everyone else can make do very well with Farr. Naxos, keep up the good work. I hope Farr records some Bach before too long: her performances would be revelatory.

By
Early Music America
01-Oct-2007

Why isn’t the music of Peter Philips (1560/61–1628) better known and more widely performed?  Perhaps, as Peter Holman suggested, he was a victim of musical chauvinism. Philips, a Catholic, left England to escape religious persecution and eventually settled in the Spanish Netherlands.  Was he viewed by the English as not English? And/or seen as an outsider in Holland?

By Haskins
American Record Guide
01-Feb-2007

In my review of Ms Farr's release of Jacquet de la Guerre (Mar/Apr) 2006, I noted her frequent use of staggering-varied degrees of non-synchronous coordination of the right and left hands-and observed that sometimes it work­ed against the grain of the music. For Peter Philips, though, the technique works quite well-especially when the performer takes slow to moderate tempos, as Farr does. The program includes two pavans and galliards; his early Pavan in G; intabulations of vocal music by Caccini, Striggio, Marenzio, and Lasso; and the Fantasias in F and D minor. Her performance is so perfect that I can't find the slightest thing to complain about. In particular, she makes all of the intabulations sound very lyrical and heartfelt. (Usually they sound jangly and technically brilliant.) She plays a 1658 Italian harpsichord that has been expertly restored by Keith Hill, and once more Naxos's engineers capture the delicacy of the instrument and Farr's deft articulation in vivid detail.

Comparisons are few: my library contains the first volume of Rampe's readings for MDG (Jan/Feb 2006) and Paul Nicholson's program for Hyperion (Mar/Apr 1995). Rampe plays with lightning-fast speed in the intabulation for Lasso's 'Margot, Labourez'; compared with Farr's more singing approach, Rampe's sounds like a breathless Renaissance dance. Rampe also varies the instruments: his recording of the F-major Fantasia (on organ) makes for an interesting change from Farr's, but I prefer the sound of these works on the harpsichord. Nicholson plays a fine copy of an Italian instrument. His performances are comparable to Farr's (and duplicate some selections) and are still available at more than twice the price. All three discs are important to the diehard collector of Philips's work, but everyone else can make do very well with Farr. Naxos, keep up the good work. I hope Farr records some Bach before too long: her performances would be revelatory.