Three Dowland Discs

Program: #20-12   Air Date: Mar 09, 2020

I. John Dowland: Lachrimae or Seven Teares (Phantasm). Linn CD CKR 527.

John Dowland's gifts as an exceptional melodist are evident throughout Lachrimae or Seven Tears, an artistic achievement which has cast a remarkable spell on early music. 

This wonderful album has won two major Early Music awards: the 2017 Gramophone Award and the 2017  Diapason d'or de l'année. It was also named a Building A Library: 'First Choice' by BBC Radio 3 - Record Review.

Summing up the Renaissance preoccupation with melancholy, this extraordinary collection of dance music for viols and lute includes Dowland's 'signature' piece, Semper Dowland semper Dolens. Dowland reveals a personal world of sublime sadness, grief, anger and melancholy mollified by moments of joy and gladness.

A skilled lutenist, Dowland's intricately-worked parts demand perfect synchronicity between Phantasm and Elizabeth Kenny, who rise to the technical and tempi challenges of marrying their instruments.

The popularity of Dowland's music in his own lifetime continued through the centuries with Lawes, Jenkins and Gibbons all paying homage to Dowland's 'Tears'. Although freed from lyric constraints poetic images linger prompting Phantasm's Laurence Dreyfus to describe this as ‘the most sensuously tuneful hour of music ever written'.

From Gramophone: How to describe Dowland’s Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares? Seven pavans for five-part viol consort with lute, each a subtle transformation of the pavan known in its song version as ‘Flow my tears’, would be a start, but hardly does justice to its patient flow of exquisitely drawn and closely summoned emotion. These are not ‘division’ variations but a sequence of new pieces, each related to its companions by the falling motif that opens the song but also by numerous significant cross-references between them. In Laurence Dreyfus’s words, they are ‘an extended process of reflection on a poetic-musical theme’.

Phantasm’s performances are totally convincing and absorbing. Drawing richly on their depth, intensity and homogeneity of tone, their acuity to the music’s ever-active emotional flux leaves them unafraid to use forceful gestures of articulation and dynamics to make a point. This keen awareness of the music’s power extends to their performances of the 14 other pieces Dowland included in his Lachrimae publication, most of which are arrangements of his own songs and dances. But while many are light-hearted, short and familiar, nothing is routine in Phantasm’s hands. Semper Dowland semper Dolens (rather more in the mould of the seven pavans) ends in crushing silence, The King of Denmark’s Galliard is proud of its manly power, while The Earl of Essex his Galliard or Mr George Whitehead his Alman really rock with what Dreyfus defines as rhythmic ‘jumps’ and ‘landings’. Even the timings of the gaps between pieces are part of the act, carefully judged to create effective groupings and segues.

The CD is beautifully presented, with readable and insightful booklet articles by Dreyfus and Elizabeth Kenny. Dowland characterised his seven pavans as ‘passionate’, and one can sense the true passion of Dreyfus and his performers in what has all the hallmarks of a classic recording.  

1 Lachrimae Antiquae 4:02         
2 Lachrimae Antiquae Novae 3:28         
3 Lachrimae Gementes 3:36         
4 Lachrimae Tristes 3:50         
5 Lachrimae Coactae 3:17         
6 Lachrimae Amantis 3:56         
7 Lachrimae Verae 4:02         
8 Mr Nicholas Gryffith His Galliard 1:47         
9 Sir John Souch His Galliard 1:30         
10 Semper Dowland Semper Dolens 6:20         
11 Mr Giles Hoby His Galliard 1:19         
12 The King Of Denmark's Galliard 1:53         
13 Mr Bucton His Galliard 1:16         
14 The Earl Of Essex Galliard 1:17         
15 Captain Piper His Galliard 1:23         
16 Mr Henry Noell His Galliard 1:58         
17 Mr Thomas Collier His Galliard With Two Trebles 1:22         
18 Sir Henry Umpton's Funeral 4:15         
19 Mr George Whitehead His Alman 1:46         
20 Mrs Nichols's Alman 1:10         
21 Mr John Langton's Pavan 3:55

II. Dowland: “Whose heavenly touch” (Mariana Flores, v./Hopkinson Smith, lute). Naive CD E 8941.

III. Lachrimae Lyrae—Tears of Exile (Sokratis Sinopoulos, Greek lyra/L’Achéron Ensemble/François Joubert-Caillet). Fuga libera CD FUG 753.

Composer Info

John Dowland

CD Info

Linn CD CKR 527, Naive CD E 8941, Fuga libera CD FUG 753