Dowland In Darkness Let Me Dwell

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: John Dowland

Label: ECM New Series

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 73

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 465 234-2

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(The) First Book of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Now, O now I needs must part (= The Frog Galliard) John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Bass clarinet
John Surman, Saxophone
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
(The) First Book of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Go Cristall teares John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Bass clarinet
John Surman, Saxophone
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
(The) First Book of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Come againe: sweet loue doth now enuite John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Saxophone
John Surman, Bass clarinet
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
(The) First Book of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Come heauy sleepe John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Saxophone
John Surman, Bass clarinet
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Flow my teares fall from your springs John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Saxophone
John Surman, Bass clarinet
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Fine knacks for Ladies, cheap, choise, braue and new John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Saxophone
John Surman, Bass clarinet
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: Weepe you no more sad fountaines John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Saxophone
John Surman, Bass clarinet
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: The lowest trees haue tops John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Bass clarinet
John Surman, Saxophone
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
(A) Pilgrimes Solace, Movement: From silent night, true register of moanes John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Bass clarinet
John Surman, Saxophone
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
In darknesse let mee dwell John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Potter, Tenor
John Surman, Saxophone
John Surman, Bass clarinet
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares, Movement: Lachrimae Tristes John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Surman, Bass clarinet
John Surman, Saxophone
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares, Movement: Lachrimae Amantis John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Surman, Bass clarinet
John Surman, Saxophone
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares, Movement: Lachrimae Verae John Dowland, Composer
Barry Guy, Double bass
John Dowland, Composer
John Surman, Saxophone
John Surman, Bass clarinet
Maya Homburger, Violin
Stephen Stubbs, Lute
Only ECM, matchmakers supreme, could have pulled this one off. Here is John Dowland, no longer semper dolens, but with a smile tweaking at the corners of his mouth as his lute ayres are teased and troubled by soprano sax, bass clarinet, violin and double-bass.
Given this cast of virtuosi of the imagination, there can be no disputing the sensitivity and invention of the improvisations with which these musicians reinvent Dowland. But the more closely the instrumentalists relate to the voice, the less eloquent they become. In Weepe you no more and Now, O now, where wind and strings, respectively, track the voice, Dowland’s melody is actually weighed down, robbed of nuance and flexibility – just those qualities these performers hoped to gain. And too often these ‘arrangements’ pre-empt what the magination supplies in the space between voice and lute. Nowhere is this more grotesquely true than in Barry Guy’s gothic-horror bass shudderings at the start of In darknesse let mee dwell.
But in Come againe, voice and lute are wisely left alone ‘to see, to hear, to touch, to kiss’, with Surman’s sax confining itself to irresistibly cheeky interludes between stanzas. At last they have learnt that it is, indeed, ‘a precious jewel to be plain’. Response to this disc must remain very much a matter of individual taste. All I can say is that I had never experienced any longueurs in Dowland until it came my way.'

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