Favourite Dowland records

[Barbirollians]

Bought The Art of Melancholy with Iestyn Davies and Thomas Dunford - a knockout record . Meant to listen to a few tracks and found myself transfixed and played the whole CD.

What other Dowland records are favoured by forumites ? I also am very fond of Kirkby’s Virgin Classics disc .

[BBMmk2]

I think I have one of Byrd and Dowland, by Fretwork?

[LeMartinPecheur]

I bought all the Consort of Musicke/ Rooley songbook LPs as they came out together with some of the instrumental ones including Lachrimae, having already discovered the wider lute song and solo lute repertoire mainly through Julian Bream and Peter Pears. (Oh dear, I'm sounding very old suddenly). Then bought the 'complete Dowland' Rooley Oiseau-Lyre CD box. Have added a few since including some of the Naxos issues but am probably not going to rush for more 'modern' versions unless the reviews are quite exceptional.

Perhaps the key moment in my Dowland appreciation was when the blessed Patricia Hughes, seeking a late-night filler after a programme under-run on R3, put on 'Come heavy sleep' from the First Booke of Songes, Emma Kirkby just wonderful and the song itself apparently infinitely prolonged by its large number of verses. I hoped it would never end but in the end it did, so I had to go out and buy the records! One of my better purchases and still on the shelves despite the CD box.

[Richard Tarleton]

I bought all the Consort of Musicke/ Rooley songbook LPs as they came out together with some of the instrumental ones including Lachrimae, having already discovered the wider lute song and solo lute repertoire mainly through Julian Bream and Peter Pears. (Oh dear, I'm sounding very old suddenly). Then bought the 'complete Dowland' Rooley Oiseau-Lyre CD box. Have added a few since including some of the Naxos issues but am probably not going to rush for more 'modern' versions unless the reviews are quite exceptional.

Perhaps the key moment in my Dowland appreciation was when the blessed Patricia Hughes, seeking a late-night filler after a programme under-run on R3, put on 'Come heavy sleep' from the First Booke of Songes, Emma Kirkby just wonderful and the song itself apparently infinitely prolonged by its large number of verses. I hoped it would never end but in the end it did, so I had to go out and buy the records! One of my better purchases and still on the shelves despite the CD box.

Indeed - I was sitting in the middle of the front row at the QEH for this....



I return to the L'Oiseau Lyre box for the songs - Emma Kirkby, Martyn Hill and co. are still the best there is. But the lute and consort discs no longer cut it - performance practice, instruments, the players themselves have all moved on and improved immeasurably since then - two of the players (North, Lindberg) have recorded complete sets and their playing is far better on the later discs - it shows in things like freer ornamentation, the earlier sets were more buttoned-up. Both of their complete sets highly recommendable - Jakob Lindberg groups the pieces by source (Cambridge University Library, Jane Pickering's Lute Book etc. etc.), North groups them by type of piece (Fancyes, Dreams and Spirits, Dowland's Teares etc.). The third complete set is by Paul O'Dette - superb playing but when I last looked only downloadable, or very expensive. For a single disc I'd recommend his "My Favourite Dowland", a generously-filled 75 minute anthology. Just rather closely-miked, with some rasping heavy breathing. I think Tess Knighton preferred the complete O'Dette on her all-of-Dowland BAL.

For the Lachrimae - the trouble with the Fretwork discs that BBM mentions is that they're broken up by Byrd pieces. I prefer my Lachrimae "straight", and would go for Kirsten Gibson's recommendation on her recent BAL, Phantasm with Elizabeth Kenny.

If you like Dowland on guitar, Christoph Denoth's "Mister Dowland's Midnight" on Signum Classics is a lovely disc.

My first all-Dowland disc was Julian Bream's Dances of Dowland (1967) - I still have the LP, but don't play it these days - its hard to go back to the sound of playing with nails after everything that has come since. But it was Bream who put Dowland on the world stage.

I've got several part-Dowland anthologies I'd recommend, but that's not what Barbs asked.

I did buy the Art of Melancholy disc, played it once and didn't like it, played it again and gave it away - I just have a problem with counter-tenors, I'm afraid .

[richardfinegold]

I have the Paul O’Dette set of the lute works, aa 5 CD set on Harmonia Munda.

[Padraig]

I like Dowland's songs, and Lute music.

Not yet mentioned are the only two CDs I have -

Dowland

Fancyes, Dreams and Spirits

Nigel North, Lute

and

Songs from the Labyrinth

Sting

[Richard Tarleton]

I like Dowland's songs, and Lute music.

Not yet mentioned are the only two CDs I have -

Dowland

Fancyes, Dreams and Spirits

Nigel North, Lute

and

Songs from the Labyrinth

Sting

Hi Padraig - I mentioned Fancyes etc. in #4 - my favourite of the 4-vol Nigel North set. I can play tracks 4,6,15, 19 and 20 on the guitar from memory, and can stumble through several more sight reading Sting, I have to say, is an acquired taste, and divisive to say the least in Dowland circles. It was a commendable effort, and I gave it my best shot.

[Padraig]

Hi Padraig - I mentioned Fancyes etc. in #4 - my favourite of the 4-vol Nigel North set. I can play tracks 4,6,15, 19 and 20 on the guitar from memory, and can stumble through several more sight reading Sting, I have to say, is an acquired taste, and divisive to say the least in Dowland circles. It was a commendable effort, and I gave it my best shot.

Sorry Richard, I missed your mention of Nigel North. And Sting, I acquired. He's better than I am at the singing!

Fancye this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l6jF8v_Wus

[johnb]

My first all-Dowland disc was Julian Bream's Dances of Dowland (1967) - I still have the LP, but don't play it these days - its hard to go back to the sound of playing with nails after everything that has come since. But it was Bream who put Dowland on the world stage.

That was my first Dowland disc too. In spite of everything you say, taken on its own terms, the playing has a wonderful sense of pulse (by no means always the case with lutenists) and great elan.

An example from the disc (well worth hearing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1nT...sEWkPSRHaZNlZU

In the past the playing of lutenists has often disappointed me (musical lines disappearing, excessive rubato, and that business of "pulse" I mentioned) so I have rarely listened to any in recent years. However, inspired by Richard, I'm going to scour Qobuz and Spotify over the next few days for Lindberg, O'Dette, etc.

As far as Dowland's wonderful Lute Songs are concerned, one thing that really irritates me is when I can't hear or understand the words that are sung. I know my hearing is ... err ... past its prime, but for heaven's sake I wish singers would articulate the bl**dy consonants (including the blessed Emma).

(Apologies for the somewhat carping post.)

[Old Grumpy]

I would imagine this is a bit of a "Marmite" choice, but my first introduction to Dowland was John Potter's first release for the ECM Dowland Project - In Darkness Let Me Dwell. Very atmospheric with John Surman's soprano saxophone and brooding bass clarinet.

OG

[Pulcinella]

For the Lachrimae - the trouble with the Fretwork discs that BBM mentions is that they're broken up by Byrd pieces. I prefer my Lachrimae "straight", and would go for Kirsten Gibson's recommendation on her recent BAL, Phantasm with Elizabeth Kenny.

I have this (original?) Fretwork Virgin release, just Dowland:

https://www.allmusic.com/album/dowland-lachrimae-mw0001812977

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I have this (original?) Fretwork Virgin release, just Dowland:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/dowla...e-mw0001812977

The originals were the two CDs with birds on the cover shown underneath, Pulcie: Night's Black Bird from 1989 (with the owl) and Goe, Nightly Cares from 1990 with the (?) falcon. The single-issue Lachrymae was a later "reissue" (1993) on Veritas (as was a mid-price double CD from 1999 [I think] with the original Byrd/Dowland alternations).

[Pulcinella]

The originals were the two CDs with birds on the cover shown underneath, Pulcie: Night's Black Bird from 1989 (with the owl) and Goe, Nightly Cares from 1990 with the (?) falcon. The single-issue Lachrymae was a later "reissue" (1993) on Veritas (as was a mid-price double CD from 1999 [I think] with the original Byrd/Dowland alternations).

Ah! Still in bed, so hadn't checked recording info/details on the CD.

[Richard Tarleton]

The originals were the two CDs with birds on the cover shown underneath, Pulcie: Night's Black Bird from 1989 (with the owl) and Goe, Nightly Cares from 1990 with the (?) falcon. The single-issue Lachrymae was a later "reissue" (1993) on Veritas (as was a mid-price double CD from 1999 [I think] with the original Byrd/Dowland alternations).

Ah yes. It's the Veritas double CD that I have.

The lutenist on it is Christopher Wilson - like so many, a pupil of Dowland scholar and teacher Diana Poulton, and one of the lutenists on the pioneer L'Oiseau Lyre set referred to above. Jakob Lindberg also studied with Poulton, as did Nigel North briefly. Lindberg succeeded Diana Poulton as professor of lute at the RCM. The first time (of 3) I saw Lindberg was in an all-Dowland programme, in the Holywell Music Room, on his restored 400-year old lute. The programme was more or less the same as the Bream programme illustrated above that I witnessed 34 years earlier, the style of playing utterly different, "correct" lute technique being quite distinct. Bream and Poulton were friends (that recital was to celebrate her complete Dowland edition with Basil Lam), but he kept well clear of her world on the performing front!

A lutenist with a different heritage - a product of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis - is the engaging American Hopkinson Smith. His "Dowland - A Dream" on Naïve is another highly enjoyable collection. There are only about 95 Dowland lute pieces, give or take some dubious attributions, so you're bound to find the more well-known pieces turning up multiple times in recitals, it depends how much you like listening to different approaches.

[silvestrione]

I have the Consort of Musicke/Rooley et al complete box, which is a cornucopia, though the knowledgeable reservations expressed above sound convincing! The deeply moving vio-accompanied songs from A Pilgrim's Solace certainly could do with a new recording with a more expressive viol line. But I love lots of things about it, not least (I am a keyboard player!) the disc of transcriptions.

I prefer James Bowman to Jestyn Davies, the former's disc very cheap these days on budget labels. Also enjoy Mark Padmore, Dowland Lute Songs.