From All Music Guide: Recording place:Église Saint-Augustin de Mirabel (Québec), Canada

William Lawes was one of the most prolific composers of chamber music during the Caroline Era, whose life ended not long after the era itself did. A committed Royalist whose music was written for the lavish entertainments of the Royal Court, Lawes died defending his king at the Siege of Chester, which began in September 1645. Toward the end of his career as a court composer, Lawes composed 11 remarkable consort sets for harp, violin, viol, bass viol, and continuo that are absolutely unique in whole of English consort music, but they remain among the most obscure of his instrumental compositions overall, of which some 200 remain. This is partly due to the condition of the manuscripts from which they come, two of which lack the harp part altogether and others where the bass viol line merely mirrors the continuo part. There is also the crucial issue as to whether by "harp" Lawes means the Irish harp already long establish...

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