Program: #26-11🏆 Air Date: Mar 09, 2026
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This extraordinary label has two remarkable recent releases: world premiere recordings from the Arundel Choirbook (The Lambeth Anonymous”), and Allison Luthmers performing the unusual assagi of Johan Helmich Roman.
Note: All of the music on this program comes from the Rubicon Classics label. For complete information:
I. The Lambeth Anonymous (Iken Scholars/Matthew Dunn). Rubicon RCD1217.
From Early Music America: In the early 16th century, an illuminated manuscript containing English sacred music was assembled. It is known both as the Arundel Choirbook, after the college in Sussex where it was created, and the Lambeth Choirbook, after the library where it’s housed. On its pages are important polyphonic Masses and other works by Robert Fayrfax, Nicholas Ludford, and a few lesser-known composers. In this new album by the Iken Scholars, under the direction of Matthew Dunn, the focus is on seven anonymous pieces found in the choirbook. All seven are world-premiere recordings.
The Iken Scholars are a 17-voice SATB chamber choir. Dunn describes the group as committed to performing works from the “hidden corners of Renaissance polyphony.” They even managed to record this album in Lambeth Palace Chapel itself. Whatever logistics that feat required was well worth the effort. The sound flies angelically around that space, its flight captured admirably — reverberant yet not marred by echoes — by producer Jeremy Summerly.
The three-movement setting of the Salve Regina that opens the album establishes the Lambeth anonymous’ material — we’ll never know if it’s by one writer or more — as top-flight compositions of the same quality as those of the known composers. Likewise, the choir proves itself solidly up to the challenge. The sopranos have a motive of a repeating upward jump, at the top of their range; it’s on the nose every time, yet those six high voices don’t overwhelm the four altos whose line they sing in counterpoint with. The performance is confident and balanced.
Arguably the most significant discoveries here are the two Magnificat settings. These are mighty works, with ringing counterpoint designed to fill a church’s nave clear up to the dome. Magnificent, indeed, is the soaring high-voice writing in the line “Fecit potentiam in bracchio suo” (He has showed strength in his arm) in Magnificat I. The gifted unnamed composer knew how to create effective contrast by giving “Esurientes plevit bonis” (He has filled the poor with good things) to just the tenors and basses. Magnificat II applies more complex imitative techniques and modal switches, especially in the final section.
The other anonymous works are equally well crafted and finely sung: an Ave dei patris in three sections, and settings of Ave mundi spes Maria (its first movement has some brief but fun dissonances), Vidi aquam egredientem, and Gaude flore virginali. All are lustrous examples of the flowering of the Renaissance in English music.
Early-music enthusiasts may be surprised by the Iken Scholars’ use of vibrato, which is practically deemed a poison by some in the “authenticity” business. But this vibrato sounds natural and not at all egregious or disruptive. The singers’ intonation is generally quite reliable and, surely most important, the singing is always fluid and expressive.
This album is worth listening to purely for its beauty. But by sharing these pieces with the world, Dunn and company have also made an important contribution to our understanding of the development of English sacred polyphony, which always had a special richness, distinct from what was being written on the European continent. Too bad we can’t credit the artists who wrote these fine works.
Anon.: Salve Regina
Work length 14:05
Iken Scholars
I. Salve regina
4:27
II. Benedictum ventris tui
2:17
III. O Clemens
7:21
Anon.: Ave dei patris
Work length: 14:11
I. Ave dei patris
5:22
II. Ave Jesu
4:41
III. Ave virgo fecta
4:08
Anon.: Magnificat I
Work length: 17:05
Iken Scholars
I. Magnificat anima mea dominum
4:38
II. Et misericordia ejus
5:36
III. Suscepit Israel
2:58
IV. Gloria patri et filio
3:53
II. J.H. Roman: Assaggi for Solo Violin (Alison Luthmers). Rubicon RCD 1140.
From Early Music America: The father of Swedish music’ and ‘the Swedish Handel’ are two descriptions of Johan Helmich Roman (1694 – 1758), one of Sweden’s most important composers. Roman composed around twenty Assaggi (Assaggio has been translated as ‘sample’, ‘essay’, ‘study’ or ‘experiment’) and they range from multi-movement works to single movements, with some surviving as just fragments. They are beautifully written for the violin and reveal a startling musical imagination at work.
A new release from Rubicon Classics, a British label, features Canadian-American Baroque violinist Alison Luthmers performing four so-called “Assaggi” — a set of violin studies by Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758). Solo violin music from this era has a rich lineage, from Biber and Bach to Telemann and probably Tartini, so this infrequently heard music by Roman is especially intriguing.
Known as “the father of Swedish music,” Roman was influential in his native land as a composer, instrumentalist, and leader of prominent music organizations. He spent time in the music capitals of Europe, absorbing a cosmopolitan, Italianate style from composers including Bononcini and Geminiani. From around 1715-21, studying and playing in London, Roman was a member of Handel’s Royal Academy of Music opera orchestra at the King’s Theatre, and was likely one of the 50 musicians who performed Water Music on a barge on the Thames in 1717. No wonder he was later known as “the Swedish Handel.”
Among Roman’s compositions are approximately 20 inventive works, from the 1730s, for solo violin given the composer’s own title: Assaggi. Common translations for the Italian word assaggio are “tasting” or “sampling.” In her liner notes, Alison Luthmers adds “essay,” “experiment,” “study,” and “attempt.” (Now living in Sweden, the violinist says it was this curious title that initial piqued her interest in the composer.)
As Luthmers writes, Johann Helmich Roman’s Assaggi explore “varying forms — some are full-fledged works with four or five movements, while others are just fragments.” The four Assaggi that Luthmers performs on this recording — in E minor (BeRI 312), A Major (BeRI 301), G minor (BeRI 314), and G minor (BeRI 320) — comprise, respectively, five, four, four, and three movements.
It appears that Roman preferred to assign neither movement titles nor tempo markings to his Assaggi. Among the 16 movements performed by Luthmers on this recording, only two (the second and fourth in the G minor Assaggi, BeRI 314) contain tempo markings. Several of the movements lend themselves to a leisurely approach. Luthmers views the elements of Roman’s Assaggi as an invitation for exploration and improvisation by the performer. Luthmers explains: “I took the liberty of adding cadenzas as well as repeats or da capos in many of the pieces.” The repeats afford Luthmers ample opportunity to explore ornamentation, as well as a variety of instrumental sonorities, dynamics, and articulation. Luthmers’ beguiling flexibility of phrasing also lends her performances an improvisational character.
The recording was made in two sessions at Copenhagen’s Garnisons Kirke. Luthmers praises the Church’s acoustics for providing the opportunity “to explore the extremes of my instrument.” The variety of tone and dynamics Luthmers coaxes from her Baroque violin is impressive. But it is the sheer beauty and richness that provide the most profound and gratifying impression. These superb performances are documented in recorded sound that offers an arresting balance of presence, detail, and resonant warmth. A marvelous recital.
Assaggio in E minor, BeRI 312
Assaggio in A, BeRI 301
Assaggio in G minor, BeRI 314
Assaggio in G minor, BeRI 320