Phantasm's Lawes Named Gramophone Choice

The brilliant viol consort Phantasm, have long since been firm favourites at Gramophone. Phantasm's previous recording of Lawes, Consorts to the Organ, was a Finalist at the 2013 Gramophone Awards, having triumphed previously with its Gibbons recording at the 2004 Awards.  Director Laurence Dreyfus describes this as ‘one of the greatest collections of ensemble dance music ever composed'. It seems Gramophone's David Vickers agrees: 

Choice: 'Phantasm's playing brims with imaginative fantasy and dance-like momentum...Elizabeth Kenny's theorbo continuo realisations are a model of tasteful clarity. Concise individual pieces often display rare sophistication, such as the seemingly floating Paven that begins No 9 and a song-like Galliard in No 2. A vividly accentuated ‘Morriss' folk dance follows hot on the heels of an elegant Corant (No 6) without any hint of formulaic articulation. Strong doses of Jacobean melancholy are abundant in a few longer pieces such as the Paven in D minor that starts No 2; this is one of several pavans that quotes from Dowland's Lacrimae but the inclusion of an extra short set for four-part viols dating from earlier in Lawes's career suggests that Dowland's influence cast a subtler shadow later on.'