Laurence Dreyfus ('79-'81), the director and treble viol player of Phantasm, announces the release of their newest album John Ward: Fantasies & Verse Anthems on Linn records. The four-part viol fantasies complement Phantasm's previous recording of Ward's five- and six-part works and exemplify Jacobean consort fantasy at its best. The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford directed by Daniel Hyde, join Phantasm to perform Ward's verse anthems which contain an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of textures and generous word painting amidst a polyphonic swirl of viols. Prof. Dreyfus furnishes the recording with informative liner notes. Click here to buy the album.

Laurence Dreyfus is a University Lecturer and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. In January he was quoted extensively in The Economist to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. Click here to read his remarks.

(Photo Credit Alexa Minsk)