Dowland: Sorrow, stay

“It might not be evident in Sting's versions, but the music of the 16th-century composer John Dowland involved an appreciation of the way despair could be surmounted by its transformation into melancholy artistic expression. That shines through the "Seven Shades of Melancholy" captured in these 15 interpretations by lutenist Lee Santana and a consort of viola da gamba led by Hille Perl, with soprano Dorothee Mields giving full account of the "despaire, griefe and sorrowe" in Dowland's lyrics.” The Independent, 13th February 2009 ****

“Mields's slight accent aside, the songs are a pleasure to listen to: the voice - full yet light and with just a hint of vibrato - blends fully with the sonorous, well balanced and highly musical Sirius Viols… while yielding to the gentle majesty of Santana's expertly played lute...” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009

“Padmore provides context by singing Dowland's original song before Craig Ogden steals in, alert to the Nocturnal's every nuance, and with a palette of colours both caressing and disquieting. Completing the frame, 'Flow my Tears' is beautifully inflected, though finer still is 'In Darkness let me Dwell' where in the final bars Padmore's enrapt engagement seems to conjure up the very chill of death.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 ****

“Mark Padmore again shows why he is one of today's finest tenors. The quicker songs, like "Away with these self-loving lads", gain in clarity from a semi-declamatory approach, while the slower are eerily viol-like.” Gramophone Magazine, Janurary 2008

“A simply brilliant disc. I can’t praise it enough. A bronze Liz Kenny should be on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, in my opinion” Early Music Today

“Since Emma Kirkby’s first recording in the late-1970s, we have known what to expect from Dowland’s lute songs. Some fine discs have followed, but not until Mark Padmore and Elizabeth Kenny’s new release has there been one as radical in its potential impact on our understanding of the music. With tonal purity intact, voice and lute add subtle decoration, rhythmic fluidity, drama and rich poetic sensibility to these songs” The Independent on Sunday

“... extraordinary diction and whispering chamber-like intimacy … [Mark Padmore] joy in conveying the emotional core of each situation” Gramophone Magazine

“Pamela Thorby's tone is silvery, alert and her intonation is impeccable” BBC Music Magazine

“Whether on soprano, alto or tenor recorder, Pamela Thorby's tone has a limpid clarity which gives a crisp filigree-like quality to even the most fast and furious figurations...This crystalline sound is equally successful in conveying the melancholy expressiveness of slower and less highly ornamented items such as Van Eyck's arrangement of Caccini's Amarilli.” The Telegraph, 5th July 2008

“Thorby's playing exhibits a vitality, exuberance and earthiness that reminds me of the great David Munrow.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 *****

“Recorded sound is nothing short of stunning, while the cover image of a hummingbird nicely encapsulates Thorby's lightness and agility as she darts from piece to piece to extract its nectar. This is Paradise indeed.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008