Robert Smith / Paolo Pandolfo THE EXCELLENCY OF HAND

Following on from his critically acclaimed recording of solo English viola da gamba works (Tickle the Minikin), founder member of Fantasticus, Robert Smith, returns with this album of English works for viola da gamba duo. Smith is joined in this collaboration by the prolific and celebrated gambist Paolo Pandolfo.

Featuring a selection of seventeenth-century repertoire from Christopher Simpson, John Jenkins & Simon Ives, this album is packed with divisions for duo, which are often intensely virtuosic. Also featured are a selection of preludes from Christopher Simpson’s The Division Viol and an additional Prelude in A minor by gambist Robert Smith.

'[...] gamba demons Paolo Pandolfo and Robert Smith (early music's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) have concoted an intoxicating brew of pieces that would surely convert the most hardened sceptic [...] Smith and Pandolfo enjoy a terrific rapport sharing an acute sensitivity to balance, ensemble, phrasing and nuance' (BBC Music Magazine)