Review – The Art of David Munrow
REISSUES: Dispatches from a parallel universe Edward Breen revisits the recordings of the early music evangelist David Munrow A box-set always offers pause for reflection, and the sheer satisfactory weight of this release is remarkable as it is the result of an all-too-short career. Yet these 21 discs are just the tip of an iceberg, being only Munrow's Warner recordings (originally HMV et al), mostly with the Early Music Consort of London but also including solo albums, film soundtracks and, somewhat delightfully, selected movements from three Brandenburg Concerto recordings conducted by Yehudi Menuhin, Arthur Davison and Adrian Boult. David Munrow remains one of those rare musicians whose reputation seems only to expand with time. Half a century after his death these recordings bear no hint of reverent archaeological exercises; rather they exude the freshness and fluidity of dispatches from a parallel universe in which the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance never really vani...
