The influence of English Tudor music runs like a silver thread through the compositions of Herbert Howells (1892-1983), nowhere more so than in this most esoteric of recordings, his complete works for the intimate voice of the clavichord. His first collection, Lambert’s Clavichord (1928), is modelled on the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and dedicated to fellow musicians and friends, with pastiche titles such as Fellowes’ Delight and Wortham’s Grounde. Howells’s own deliciously distinctive voice comes to the fore in two later collections, gathered in 1961 – pieces that test the virtuosity of the performer, a challenge easily accepted by the stylish Julian Perkins.
