John Dowland In Darkness Let Me Dwell

The past cross-fertilises with the present on In Darkness Let Me Dwell, and the result is music-making of profound beauty. Tenor John Potter, a core member of the Hilliard Ensemble, here sets out to "reclaim" for today's audience the music of John Dowland. Even considering the Elizabethan penchant for melancholy, the saturnine Dowland stands out as an artist preoccupied with death and intimate with despair in all its varieties. Music--as against our postmodern antidepressants--was the perfect anodyne, to which Dowland devoted himself both as performer (he was a famous lutenist) and composer; with his collection Lachrimae ("Tears"), he produced one of the single greatest landmarks of Western instrumental music predating the high baroque, centring around the famous melody Dowland gave Исполняют: John Potter, Stephen Stubbs, John Surman, Maya Homburger Композитор: John Dowland Dowland's songs, in which Potter becomes so steeped in each mood that it tells in wonderfully plaintive phrasing. Dowland originally wrote for lute and a consort of viols, but it's typical of this disc's innovatory spirit to hybridise baroque violin and lute with a quasi-"jazzy" double-bass, saxophone, and bass clarinet, inspiring a high order of improvisatory gestures. Sometimes the whole ensemble takes on a gritty, darkly reedy cast, while it can change to sunnier colours in the more radiant moments of "Lachrimae Amantis". These performances highlight the songs' directness and universality, drawing you in deeper with each hearing, and replaying the eternal paradox of sadness turning to solace. --Thomas May

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