In this new release presenting music from the Fitzwilliam Collection, Sophie Yates pays homage to one of the ‘founding fathers of our period performance movement’ (liner notes, 8). Named for its founder, Richard, Seventh Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (1745–1816), the Fitzwilliam Collection (part of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge) comprises a wide range of manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that represent Fitzwilliam's personal collecting tastes, as well as a significant portion of England's historical musical culture. Yates's programme draws from some of the collection's most prized acquisitions, notably The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (formerly Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book) and Tisdale's Virginal Book, with works by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643), Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) and the lesser-known Giulio Arresti (1619–1701), Giovanni Paolo Colonna (1637–1695) and Carlo Pollarolo (c1653–1723), also from the collection, interspersed throughout. An explanation for the absence of any works by Handel – autographs of which the Fitzwilliam Collection is also known for housing – lies in Yates's vision for this recording: to bring to life again the music of the ‘first’ early-music revival, as it played out in the concert programmes and musical collections of eighteenth-century England.

Yates acknowledges in the liner notes that a ‘main theme’ of the present recording is ‘the musical relationship between England and Italy’ during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the period from which the chosen repertory dates (10). This is further made apparent in her choice of title – Il cembalo transalpino – inspired by Musica Transalpina, a collection of Italian madrigals whose 1588 publication in England sparked the ‘golden age of English madrigals’ (9). The decision to offer such a specific focus speaks to the historical value of the Fitzwilliam Collection, and what its founder's motivations and tastes can tell us about the origins of the early-music revival. One of the collection's most significant messages concerns the way in which eighteenth-century English revivalists of ‘ancient music’ (denoting works composed pre-1625) related to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italian music.

As Fitzwilliam's collecting habits indicate, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century repertory proved attractive to those ‘reviving’ and promoting early music because of the Italianate leanings of the musical culture of England's royal court during the earlier period, exemplified by the popular adoption of Italian instruments and compositional forms. Eighteenth-century moralistic interpretations of that music also added to its allure. In William Weber's view, the eagerness of ‘high-church Tories’ to resurrect the delicately ornate instrumental music of centuries past was a reactionary response to ‘post-revolutionary politics and social change’, opposing the ‘bad taste’ of the music being played and heard in British homes and opera houses of the eighteenth century (‘Canon versus Survival in “Ancient Music” of the Eighteenth Century’, in The Age of Projects, ed. Maximillian E. Novak (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), 91). This attitude is present in Fitzwilliam's embrace of the popular works and styles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as the adaptation of vocal and string works for keyboard. A desire for historical ‘accuracy’, often associated with the twentieth-century version of the early-music revival, was largely absent. Arguably, this lends Yates's project a sense of freedom often not felt in recordings of such cultural and historical significance, as her approach is not bound by a sense of duty to the composers of the works, but rather has the goal of presenting a taste of Fitzwilliam's relationship with past musical works and styles.

Yates balances the conceptual freedom of this project with a number of measured decisions concerning choice of instrument and tuning, which maintains this recording's appeal to a research-oriented audience. The choice of quarter-comma mean-tone temperament, tuned to A = 415 Hz, not only acknowledges conventional tuning preferences of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – a nod to the programme's origins – but also brings some of the grittier harmonies and modulations (particularly those in in Galeazzo Sabbatini's ‘Prelude’ and Giovanni Picchi's ‘Toccata’) to the forefront. The instrument Yates performs on also deserves some mention. The restored early seventeenth-century harpsichord attributed to Giovanni Battista Boni (died 1641), whilst being of ‘conventional’ construction – the soundboard is ‘slab sawn cypress’ – features a ‘highly unusual’ disposition, with three sets of eight-foot strings (12). The history of the Boni harpsichord, which underwent a compass enlargement in the century following its construction to ensure its currency alongside new instruments, makes this instrument an even more appropriate choice. As the liner notes suggest, the effort required to execute structural changes to an older instrument indicates the value with which it was regarded, making it an apt choice for a recording of works deemed to have significant cultural and aesthetic value at the time of their initial revival. The inclusion of photographs and some brief information about the instrument itself in the liner notes – covering details of its attribution to Boni, its technical biography and tone – are thoughtful touches.

This disc offers an attractive yet considered glimpse of some of the musical treasures of the Fitzwilliam Collection which may otherwise be eclipsed by some of the more imposing names also represented therein, and provides listeners with a timely insight into the tastes and motivations that shaped the eighteenth-century ancestor of today's ‘early-music movement’.