Phantasm Displays Power, Expressive Flair of the Viol

Moody fretted cousins of the violin family, viols enjoyed a golden age in 17th century England. They live again thanks to period instrument ensembles such as Phantasm, a 6-year-old quartet based in London and widely admired for its recorded work. The group made its West Coast debut Tuesday night at the Ebell Club of Los Angeles, with a revelatory and affecting survey of that era for the Chamber Music in Historic Sites series.

Viols of different times and places come in many denominations, but the basic form is something like a bowed lute, in this case played from the lap or legs like a cello. Director Laurence Dreyfus (treble viol), Wendy Gillespie and Jonathan Manson (tenor viols), and Markku Luolajan-Mikkola (bass viol) handled their recalcitrant charges--tune and tune again--with expressive flair.

On the basis of four quirky Fancies, the barely known composer Richard Mico seems to have been absorbed by polyphonic engineering, building musical Rube Goldberg machines that lurch in odd directions until coming to a sudden, smiling halt right where they started. Though just as personal, three of John Jenkins’ creations purred along much more lyrically.

The Sett No. 5--a sort of dance suite--by Matthew Locke and two Fantasias by Henry Purcell added a more instrumentally idiomatic and virtuosic concept to the prevailing contrapuntal mix.

Although for the most part linear rigor was the driving compositional force here, there was never anything mechanical about Phantasm’s playing. Rich in subtly shaded color, it moved with an organic ebb and flow, clearly thought, deeply felt and communicative on all levels.

This English music for ensembles of viols has its roots in vocal models arranged for instruments and essentially consists, whatever the titles, of text-less motets and madrigals. At the fount of the tradition, however, William Byrd merged accompanied song with the polyphonic consort and Phantasm also brought along a generous assortment of those soothing and startling wonders.

And a fine singer. Geraldine McGreevy’s soprano is a suave, flexible instrument in its own right, maybe a bit overwhelming at times for the ideal of absolute equality here, but pure, gleaming and wielded with relish. She and Phantasm offered eight of Byrd’s consort songs, ranging from the madrigalesque “Though Amaryllis Dance in Green” to the aching elegy for Thomas Tallis, “Ye Sacred Muses,” with the sassy “In Fields Abroad” as encore.