Charles Metz – Music for Virginal (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

This special recording features an historical repertoire seldom heard, even by Early Music aficionados. But more remarkable, the instrument heard here dates to the years when this music was first played. Nothing is known of this instrument’s provenance before 2005, when it surfaced in an antique shop in Fairview Heights IL. Guided to the shop by a friend, Charles Metz purchased it, following a gut instinct that it was original. Unplayable, the virginal was advertised as a piece of painted furniture.

Metz enlisted Walter and Berta Burr and the three embarked on a three-year restoration, investigating construction materials and techniques and ferreting out the original from more recent. They found no original date or signature on the instrument, but based on the keyboard scroll (a decorative element unique to each builder), Denzil Wraight, an expert in Italian instruments of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, identified it as the work of Francesco Poggi. The prolific Poggi, who worked in Florence and died there in 1634, built both harpsichords and virginals, but only his virginals have survived. In fact, more Poggi virginals survive than those by any other builder, a testament to their sound and superior construction. With this discovery, 18 extant instruments by Poggi have been documented, all but three (including this one) in museum collections. Another Poggi virginal, signed and dated 1588, resides in the Tagliavini Collection in Bologna, Italy and features the exact same rose as Metz’s instrument. Based on this match and other internal data, Metz dates his instrument to c.1590.

While the instrument case and lid appear original, their decoration is not. Chemical analysis of the exterior paint revealed zinc white, an elemental pigment not available to artists until 1830. Additionally, beneath the soundboard an Italian inscription documents a prior restoration from 1891 in Grosseto, Italy. The current painting and cabriole stand likely date from that restoration. An X-ray of the lid showed no earlier painting beneath this 19th-century layer and it is possible that the instrument case left Poggi’s shop unadorned.

Tracklist:
1. Charles Metz – Pavana in G Minor, FVB 220 (02:42)
2. Charles Metz – Paul’s Wharf, TVB 17 (01:33)
3. Charles Metz – John Holmes’ Pavan – Robin Smart’s Delight, TVB 20 (02:16)
4. Charles Metz – Pavan, TVB 19 (03:36)
5. Charles Metz – Medley, TVB 1 (Arr. W. Randall for Virginal) (03:36)
6. Charles Metz – Pavan, TVB 15 (Arr. Heyborne for Virginal) (04:57)
7. Charles Metz – Galliard, TVB 16 (Arr. for Virginal) (02:14)
8. Charles Metz – Lachrymae Pavan, TVB 2 (Arr. for Virginal) (03:00)
9. Charles Metz – Passamezzo Pavan, TVB 10 (02:40)
10. Charles Metz – Passamezzo Galliard, TVB 11 (02:07)
11. Charles Metz – Susanne un jour, TVB 12 (Arr. for Virginal) (06:47)
12. Charles Metz – Galiarda in D Minor, FVB 295 (02:26)
13. Charles Metz – Pavan, TVB 6 (01:42)
14. Charles Metz – Coranto, TVB 3 (01:07)
15. Charles Metz – Lachrymae Pavan, TVB 9 (Arr. W. Randall for Virginal) (06:19)
16. Charles Metz – Galliard, TVB 7 “Can She Excuse” (Arr. for Virginal) (01:51)
17. Charles Metz – Pavan, TVB 13 (05:36)
18. Charles Metz – The Hunt’s Up, TVB 8 (06:53)
19. Charles Metz – My Desire, TVB 18 (01:18)
20. Charles Metz – Almand in A Minor, FVB 213 (01:58)
21. Charles Metz – Passamezzo Pavan, TVB 14 (02:58)
22. Charles Metz – Newman’s Pavan, TVB 5 (03:46)
23. Charles Metz – Pavana chromatica in E Minor, FVB 214 “Mrs. Katherin Tregian’s Paven” (04:55)
24. Charles Metz – Pavana in A Minor, FVB 219 “Clement Cotton” (01:43)
25. Charles Metz – Coranto, TVB 4 (01:20)