Dowland: Fine knacks for ladies

In the late 16th C, lute songs were known as ‘Ayres’ with John Dowland’s form of writing establishing a fashion of both composition and performance which was to last for 25 years.

The popularity of rhetoric and a fashion for melancholy spilled over to Dowland’s writing and he became one of the greatest advocates for this style.

This disc is a wonderful collection of his melancholic works (difficult to achieve as the composer himself never made a ‘collection’ as such), performed here by the fantastic Fretwork ensemble with countertenor Dominque Visse singing.

Dominque began his career at the age of 11 as a chorister in the Cathedral of Notre Dame and went on to study with Alfred Deller. He has since performed with other greats including more recently René Jacobs, Nigel Rogers and William Christie.

Dowland dedicated his song From Silent Night “To my loving countryman, Mr. John Forster the younger, merchant of Dublin, in Ireland”, revealing his possible Irish origins. Working closely with the American tenor Michael Slattery, La Nef gives Dowland’s Ayres a simple celtic flavour. “…a talented and serious artist.” Gramophone.

Peter Pears’ voice was undoubtedly one of the finest and most distinctive of the twentieth century and here he collaborates with Julian Bream and Benjamin Britten in performances of English song. Repertoire includes works by Ford, Morley, Rosseter, Dowland, Pilkington, Campion, Bridge, Butterworth, Ireland, Moeran, Warlock, Holst, Berkeley, Oldham and Britten.

Damien Guillon has chosen for his first solo recital disc a refined, subtle and melancholy repertoire, which he has gone on to explore in depth and polish in genuine chamber style with the lutenist Eric Bellocq, an expert in Renaissance music.

Eric Bellocq plays a liuto forte from André Burguete’s conception, an instrument which enables the player to develop a larger sound possibilities creating a true dialogue with the singer and a great freedom in improvisation. Damien Guillon started at an early age as a member of child’s choir Brittany, then at the Versailles Baroque Center while studying organ and harpsichord. In 2004, he was admitted to the countertenor Andreas Scholl’s class at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis… He was soon spotted by such well-known conductors as Jordi Savall, Vincent Dumestre, Hervé Niquet, Jérôme Correas, Philippe Pierlot, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Christophe Rousset, William Christie, and Philippe Herreweghe. He has founded his own ensemble, Le Banquet Céleste, with which he has performed at Les Nuits Musicales d’Uzès and the Froville Festival. Their repertoire includes Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and the cantatas for alto and obbligato organ of J. S. Bach, which will be Damien Guillon’s next recording project on Zig-Zag Territoires.

The elegant, keyless, cylindrical flute of the sixteenth century had a reedy, penetrating sound, closer to the cornetto than to any other wind instrument of the day. It had an impressive range of two and a half octaves and an evenness of tone quality that would not be matched again until the nineteenth century.

The pieces on this recording focus on repertoire for the renaissance flute consort, almost all of which was originally vocal music.

Guild is pleased to present music by John Dowland combined with world premiere recordings of 5 new lute songs by Peter Croton, lute teacher at the renowned Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. An additional feature of this recording is the inclusion of new lute solos arranged by Croton based on Dowland songs. In CONCERTO Magazine: “The manner in which the Bothe/Croton duo, with intelligent emotionality and natural passion, was able to uncover new aspects of lute songs by Dowland totally enchanted the audience, which exploded in thunderous applause”. In the GERMAN LUTE SOCIETY newsletter: “The few attempts to extend the lute repertory into the 20th and 21st centuries have not attracted the attention of the listening public. All the more welcome, therefore, is the opportunity to report here songs which in my opinion have the potential to become a permanent part of the lute song repertory… the audience is treated to music both challenging and refined. Bothe’s voice is a feast for the ears, Croton’s playing is lively and impeccable”. Special guest Derek Lee Ragin is regarded as one of the foremost vocal artists of our day and is also known to a wide international audience from the soundtrack to the film "Farinelli”.

These beautiful and melancholy “Ayres” by the English 16th century composer John Dowland may be seen as precursors of the songs of the Romantic period, two centuries later. They are performed here by the renowned combination of Gerard Lesne and the Ensemble Orlando Gibbons.