
John Toll plays Gibbons.
John Toll was a name unknown to me until a week ago when someone mentioned this recording dedicated to Gibbons' keyboard music. It turns out that he died young and was well appreciated as a continuo player.
The first thing to say is that John Toll could play harpsichord. That's to say he knows how to manage touch and voicing to create a variety of textures. And he could play little English organs too - registrations tasteful, never garish or dull or tiring; voicing clear at all times.
His style is very much in the Thurston Dart and Kenneth Gilbert mould: move the music forward, make it thrilling and dramatic, play up the hummable tunes, minimise ornaments and agogics, keep it light and even playful, think about the big structure, make the pulse steady and clear.
There's no shortage of poetry of a sort though, at times attractively lyrical (Lord Salisbury's Pavan for example), and I think this is a valuable complement for Laurent Stewart's CD, and Richard Egarr's. It's attractive playing but somehow generic: what I want to say is that Stewart and Egarr give Gibbons a distinctive voice, but many of these pieces in the hands of Toll sound as though they could be by almost any old Englishman - Byrd, Tomkins, Faranaby . . . I'm sure some people will prefer it to the other two for the straightforward playfulness. Orlando Gibbons as a hearty plain speaking cockney cheeky chappy - John Bull or maybe John Falstaff.
I don't go so far as to prefer it, but I am glad to have it. Gibbons has not been well served on record and it's good to have this one. Good instruments and very well recorded.
The booklet contains a memoir of John Todd by John Holloway (enjoyer of good food and wine, big band jazz, the English countryside . . . ). The harpsichord is after a Ruckers and the organ is the one at Addington Hall (1693)