Tag Archives: dowland

Mr. Dowland’s Dream

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So following on from Ruby Hughes’ Dowland heavy album Amidst the Shades we have soprano Clara Brunet and lutenist Bor Zuljan with Mr. Dowland’s Dream.  It’s similar in some ways but very different in others.  For a start Zuljan is playing an orpharion; which sounds a bit like a lute with a reverb pedal.  Mostly he’s using a nine course instrument by Bruce Brook, after a 1617 instrument by Francis Palmer, and sometimes he’s playing an electric orpharion of ten courses by César Arias with magnetic pick ups.  Net result, the sound world is rather different from the Hughes album. Continue reading →

Amidst the Shades

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Amidst the Shades is a new album from British soprano Ruby Hughes accompanied by Jonas Nordberg on lute and archlute and Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann on viola da gamba.  It’s a very beautiful record starting, as one might expect, with a selection of English song from the 16th and 17th century plus some pieces for solo lute.  There are songs by John Dowland, including the well known Can She Excuse My Wrongs (possibly to a text by Robert Devereux; if so clear who “she” is).  Robert Johnson makes an appearance with three songs including two Shakespeare settings.  John Danyel also features along with instrumental music by Anthony Holborne and Tobias Hume. Continue reading →

Interesting arrangements of Dowland And Purcell

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Songs of Passion is a new recording from mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre with the Jupiter Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble and their director and lutenist Thomas Dunford.  It’s ninety minutes of music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell arranged for various combinations of voices plus the instruments; violins, viola, double bass, viola da gamba, recorders, lute, harpsichord and organ.  They are interesting and varied arrangements and suit the range of emotions of the music well. Continue reading →

freezing

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freezingI guess I’ve learned never to expect the predictable from Emily D’Angelo (except for the black clothes and boots).  Her new album; freezing, is as unexpected as enargeia was four years ago.  This album is even less “classical”.  The seventeen tracks cover a range of genres.  I think I’d classify them as contemporary art song, traditional folk song, singer/songwriter covers and English renaissance.  All in all there is a total of 47 minutes of music. Continue reading →

Alchemical Processes

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alchemical processesThe second concert in this year’s West End Micro Music Festival took place at Redeemer Lutheran Church on Friday night.  Titled Alchemical Processes it featured a mix of early and modern works written or arranged for some combination of string quartet (Jennifer Murphy, Madlen Breckbill – violins, Laila Zakzook – viola, Philip Bergman – cello), harpsichord (Alexander Malikov) and clarinet or bass clarinet (Brad Cherwin).

It started out with Bach’s Concerto in A Major BWV 1055 arranged for string quartet, harpsichord and clarinet.  It was enjoyable.  Originally written for harpsichord and string orchestra, any loss of richness in the strings by only having one player on a part was compensated by the additional colours of the clarinet.

Continue reading →