Dowland Sit Fast

When John Dowland composes the seven pavans that form the famous Lachrimae, he gives the instrumental repertoire one of its first masterpieces. The Sit Fast consort, lead by Atsushi Sakaï, features a precious version of those timeless pages. Who says the viole should be earmarked for early music? In fact, the pure sonority of this intrument, the ideal vehicle for inner grief, inspired George Benjamin too. Upon Silence, written in 1990 for five violes and a mezzo-soprano on a poem by Yeats, extends and updates the poetics tears of John Dowland. Four centuries separate the two composers but their polyphonic writings and their longing for genuine feelings gather them in that disc, smartly recorded by the elegant Sit Fast consort.

John Dowland - The Collected Works - The Consort of Musicke, Anthony Rooley (1997) {Decca–L'Oiseau-Lyre 12CDs}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.83 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 2.07 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 191 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1997 Decca / L'Oiseau-Lyre | 452 563-2
Classical / Renaissance / Vocal Music / Chamber Music / Lute

Both the music and this actual product are masterpieces. John Dowland's collected works here - covering 12 compact discs - exhibit the depth and power of this composer, a composer who many now regard as suffering from clinical depression. I doubt that the issue of the diagnosis of Dowland's depression can ever be settled, however, it is certainly obvious from his music, so completely on display here, that he was a man with very dark depths and corners in his mind. Dowland's various manifestations and "takes" on his own tune, "Flow my tears"/"Lachrimae" are here. This tune has haunted me ever since I first heard it when I was a child. It seems to sum up Dowland's feelings - at least Dowland seems to have thought so.

Over the past three or four decades early music has changed from elitist and hardly known to being widely performed and appreciated. With the growing popularity of early music the recorder has emancipated from that rather ill-reputed “instrument to introduce children to music” to a serious musical instrument in its own right. Several highly successful recorder ensembles and soloists are proof of this change.

The Newberry Consort is one of Chicago's leading early music organizations, building its reputation from its home at the Newberry Library. It records for the Harmonia Mundi label and regularly participates in Harmonia, a nationally syndicated radio program. Among its recording projects is a three-disc project in memory of Brown and drawing on his library materials now in the Library. The second of that series, A Candle in the Dark, was released internationally in autumn, 2000.

The recorders heyday was the early Baroque period. In fact, until the 18th Century the recorder was known simply as flauto (flute), while the instrument we today call the flute bore the specific name flauto traverso (transverse flute), a confusion in terminology that has often led to compositions addressed to the recorder (flauto) being performed on modern flute. Der Fluyten Lust-Hof by Jacob Van Eyck is the most extensive collection of music for a solo wind instrument by a single composer, and a large portion of this set is devoted to a selection of highlights from this monumental work. Although written for amateur players, the compositions attest to the high standard of musicianship in Utrecht, with technical demands that are challenging even by modern standards. The recorders tonal purity and exceptional blend in ensemble makes it marvelously suited for adaptations of music originally written for other instrumental combinations. Examples from the early Italian repertoire include the Palestrina ricercar, capriccios by Frescobaldi and canzonas by Gabrieli, Merula and Trabaci.