Dowland Honey from the Hive
‘RIches beyond compare’ as Emma Kirkby sings Dowland
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: John Dowland
Genre:
Vocal
Label: BIS
Magazine Review Date: 4/2006
Media Format: Super Audio CD
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: BIS-SACD1475

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(The) First Book of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Can she excuse my wrongs with vertues cloake (= The Earl of Essex Galliard) |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: I saw my Lady weepe |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Flow my teares fall from your springs |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Sorrow sorrow stay, lend true repentant teares |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Dye not before thy day |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Mourne, mourne, day is with darknesse fled |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: O sweet woods, the delight of solitarienesse |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Fine knacks for Ladies, cheap, choise, braue and new |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: Farewell too faire |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: Time stands still |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: Behold a wonder heere |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: Daphne was not so chaste as she was changing |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: Me me and none but me |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: When Phoebus first did Daphne loue |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: Say loue if euer thou didst finde |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Third and Last Book of Songs or Aires, Movement: It was a time when silly Bees could speake |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) First Book of Songs or Ayres, Movement: His goulden locks time hath to siluer turnd |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
(The) Second Booke of Songs or Ayres, Movement: Tymes eldest sonne, old age the heire of ease (first part) |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
Farre from triumphing court |
John Dowland, Composer
Anthony Rooley, Lute Emma Kirkby, Soprano John Dowland, Composer |
Author: William Yeoman
Semper Dowland, semper dolens. And indeed, the melancholy strain is never far from view in this latest selection of John Dowland’s songs impeccably performed by Emma Kirkby and Anthony Rooley. ‘Honey from the Hive’ explores Dowland’s response to Elizabethan patronage throughout his career: here is the flashy Essex who came to a bad end; the muse for many a poet, Lucy, Countess of Bedford; Queen Elizabeth, who magnified Dowland’s melancholy through her refusal to appoint him court lutenist; and Sir Henry Lee, Elizabeth’s aged knight.
Some of Dowland’s most poignant songs are here, including Flow my teares, which uses the famous ‘Lachrimae’ tune. The performances are no less poignant. Gone is the straitlaced approach of the early recordings for L’Oiseau-Lyre; in its place is a highly refined responsiveness, the result not just of experience but of consciously applying devices more commonly found in the Italian madrigal (one of Dowland’s masters was Luca Marenzio). The earlier recordings gave us the bare bones: here we get the flesh too, in the form of (sometimes quite dramatic) changes in tempo and dynamics and free ornamentation as the text requires. Kirkby’s voice has gained more weight and vibrato with time while retaining its purity, resulting in a rich palette from which to choose and ideally complementing Rooley’s tonal range.
As Kirkby says in the booklet-notes, Länna church in Sweden proves to be the perfect recording venue for this repertoire. A welcome return to Dowland for both artists, full of ‘riches beyond all compare’.
Some of Dowland’s most poignant songs are here, including Flow my teares, which uses the famous ‘Lachrimae’ tune. The performances are no less poignant. Gone is the straitlaced approach of the early recordings for L’Oiseau-Lyre; in its place is a highly refined responsiveness, the result not just of experience but of consciously applying devices more commonly found in the Italian madrigal (one of Dowland’s masters was Luca Marenzio). The earlier recordings gave us the bare bones: here we get the flesh too, in the form of (sometimes quite dramatic) changes in tempo and dynamics and free ornamentation as the text requires. Kirkby’s voice has gained more weight and vibrato with time while retaining its purity, resulting in a rich palette from which to choose and ideally complementing Rooley’s tonal range.
As Kirkby says in the booklet-notes, Länna church in Sweden proves to be the perfect recording venue for this repertoire. A welcome return to Dowland for both artists, full of ‘riches beyond all compare’.
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