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Review
"I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy," explained Robert Burton, author of The Anatomy of Melancholy, published in 1621. The music of John Dowland invited and indulged the then fashionable state of melancholy, and Andreas Scholl here explores that most rewarding area of repertoire. His plaintively light counter-tenor voice hauntingly negotiates the swells and swoons in the eloquent company of lute and viols. Scholl includes pieces by John Ward, Robert Johnson, William Byrd, John Bennet, Patrick Mando, Alfonso Ferrabosco II and Richard Mico, and the disc includes instrumental numbers as well as songs. Listen out for the whistling on track 11. The bonus DVD offers a 20-minute documentary on the recording sessions. --MICHAEL DERVAN, The Irish Times, 13 June 2008
Last year, it was Sting who surprised us all with a recording of lute-accompanied songs by Elizabethan composer John Dowland. Now the outstanding German countertenor Andreas Scholl sets the record straight with a generous helping of songs and instrumental interludes by Dowland, Byrd and contemporaries such as Robert Johnson, John Bennet, Alfonso Ferrabosco and dear old Anonymous. The exquisite melancholy pervading the disc, and its companion DVD, is the perfect balm to beguile you through a wistful summer evening. --Anthony Holden, The Observer, 25 May 2008
Thanks in part to Sting s musically less than satisfactory accounts of Dowland lute songs in 2006, the doleful English composer (motto: semper Dowland, semper dolens always Dowland, always lamenting) is newly fashionable. Andreas Scholl is back at Harmonia Mundi with a second disc devoted to Dowland and his contemporaries (Robert Johnson, William Byrd, John Bennet, Patrick Mando and Alfonso Ferrabosco, an Italian violist at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I). While the German countertenor can t rival the British pop star s English diction, his singing is more technically accomplished and vocally alluring. There is surely no voice more ethereal-sounding among contemporary falsettists than Scholl s, and he lavishes a ravishingly beautiful sound on the Dowland hits : Go, crystal tears; Now, oh now, I needs must part; From silent night; Come, heavy sleep. The danger of monotony is averted with the interspersing of viol Fantasias by John Ward and Richard Mico, and of Dowland s lute solos, Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens, The Lady Rich, Her Galliard and A Fancy, exquisitely played by Julian Behr. For fans of both Dowland and Scholl, this is a collector s item. --Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, June 26th 2008
Last year, it was Sting who surprised us all with a recording of lute-accompanied songs by Elizabethan composer John Dowland. Now the outstanding German countertenor Andreas Scholl sets the record straight with a generous helping of songs and instrumental interludes by Dowland, Byrd and contemporaries such as Robert Johnson, John Bennet, Alfonso Ferrabosco and dear old Anonymous. The exquisite melancholy pervading the disc, and its companion DVD, is the perfect balm to beguile you through a wistful summer evening. --Anthony Holden, The Observer, 25 May 2008
Thanks in part to Sting s musically less than satisfactory accounts of Dowland lute songs in 2006, the doleful English composer (motto: semper Dowland, semper dolens always Dowland, always lamenting) is newly fashionable. Andreas Scholl is back at Harmonia Mundi with a second disc devoted to Dowland and his contemporaries (Robert Johnson, William Byrd, John Bennet, Patrick Mando and Alfonso Ferrabosco, an Italian violist at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I). While the German countertenor can t rival the British pop star s English diction, his singing is more technically accomplished and vocally alluring. There is surely no voice more ethereal-sounding among contemporary falsettists than Scholl s, and he lavishes a ravishingly beautiful sound on the Dowland hits : Go, crystal tears; Now, oh now, I needs must part; From silent night; Come, heavy sleep. The danger of monotony is averted with the interspersing of viol Fantasias by John Ward and Richard Mico, and of Dowland s lute solos, Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens, The Lady Rich, Her Galliard and A Fancy, exquisitely played by Julian Behr. For fans of both Dowland and Scholl, this is a collector s item. --Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, June 26th 2008
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Delightful, exquisite. Some echo, but otherwise lovely sound. It took me a while to accept the countertenor sound as anything other than a good party trick. But I now love the sound as much as the output from any decent tenor, baritone, saoprano or mezzo.
There's been some criticism that Scholl might be overstylised for this material - but that is just Scholl's wonderful technique. If you want a more informal style, then try Sting's take on Dowland. Personally - I like both.
There's been some criticism that Scholl might be overstylised for this material - but that is just Scholl's wonderful technique. If you want a more informal style, then try Sting's take on Dowland. Personally - I like both.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I'm not so sure as the other reviewers that this recital by Andreas Scholl and colleagues really hangs together. I do like Scholl's voice, but I feel that his diction is a shade to cool and perfect for this very English (and their European friends) music. Perhaps the old records by Rooley et al offer up more variety of tone than this CD.
It's not bad, as such, but not very good either. Produced to Harmonia Mundi's usual exemplary standards, I'd try and have a listen prior to purchase.
It's not bad, as such, but not very good either. Produced to Harmonia Mundi's usual exemplary standards, I'd try and have a listen prior to purchase.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The CD sleeve notes of this recording open with a quote from the full title of William Byrd's Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets of 1611: 'Framed to the life of the words' and then goes into a very convincing argument for the music to play a supporting role to the poetry. Unfortunately, this philosophy has not carried over into the production of this album with the sumptuous viol consort and the purity of Scholl's counter-tenor entirely usurping the text.
This recording is beautiful but I found myself straining to hear the one in five intelligible English words. Whilst I am not against singers performing in languages beyond their native tongue, the music and poetry of John Dowland are so interlinked that Scholl's linguistic shortcomings really do make nonsense of the music for my ears.
If you don't mind losing the viols, I would recommend Robin Blaze & Elizabeth Kenny's wonderful English Lute Songs. The sparser backdrop of Kenny's solo Theorbo and Blaze's clarity of tone and diction produce a much more immediate experience.
This recording is beautiful but I found myself straining to hear the one in five intelligible English words. Whilst I am not against singers performing in languages beyond their native tongue, the music and poetry of John Dowland are so interlinked that Scholl's linguistic shortcomings really do make nonsense of the music for my ears.
If you don't mind losing the viols, I would recommend Robin Blaze & Elizabeth Kenny's wonderful English Lute Songs. The sparser backdrop of Kenny's solo Theorbo and Blaze's clarity of tone and diction produce a much more immediate experience.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beautiful sludge
Dowland's songs must be amongst some of the most beautiful ever written, imaginative settings of intelligent, imaginative poetry. But who would know that from this recording? Read more
Published 13 months ago by Hector Warrington
Marmite
Scholl's voice is pure Marmite - many clearly like it, other's not, and I place myself firmly with the latter. Read more
Published 15 months ago by David Mac
Andreas Scholl: Crystal Tears
A lovely collection of English renaissance songs, some quite familiar, some less so. Although in one or two of the songs the melancholy is so well expressed that only a resolute... Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2009 by T. Mason
Perfection +
All I can of this remarkable recital is...Flawless ! Scholl is one of the greatest artists of our time. Buy it now !!
Published on 6 Aug 2009 by Walter Fawcett Geoffrey
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