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Track(s) taken from CDA68007

Sorrow, stay, lend true repentant tears

composer
1600; The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres
author of text

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Thomas Dunford (lute)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
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Recording details: April 2013
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: April 2014
Total duration: 3 minutes 8 seconds

Cover artwork: A Young Student in his Study, or The Smoker (c1630-33). Pieter Codde (1599-1678)
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille / Bridgeman Images
 

Other recordings available for download

Mark Padmore (tenor), Elizabeth Kenny (lute)
James Bowman (countertenor), David Miller (lute), The King's Consort, Mark Caudle (viol)

Reviews

‘A song recital disc from the English countertenor of the moment … the main strength of Iestyn Davies’s singing lies in its straightforward lyrical beauty, certainly a sound fit for Dowland’s classic melodic grace. When his songs are performed as purely musically as this, the battle is already half-won, and indeed Davies seems to see no need for overdeliberate interpretation. His diction is clear (impressively quick in ‘Can she excuse?’) but his phrases are touched by naturalness … Davies’s accompanist is Thomas Dunford, a lutenist still in his twenties but already making people notice him with his strongly projected resonant tone, wide range of touch and dynamic, and effortlessly attentive musicianship. His five solos are a strong plus; ‘Lachrimae’ and ‘Fortune my foe’ are both seriously slow and free. This is Dowland to treasure’ (Gramophone)

‘Sophistication and refinement inform every note of lestyn Davies and Thomas Dunford’s recital, which moves from Jacobean blockbusters such as In darkness let me dwell and Flow, my tears to the complex poetry of Time stands still. Nothing is taken for granted. I saw my lady weep is delivered with chilly hauteur, in contrast with the hot emotionalism of All ye whom Love or Fortune hath betrayed and Burst forth, my tears, and a luxuriously slow Lachrimae. Most striking is the urgency of Can she excuse my wrongs? and rhythmic flexibility in Come again, sweet love doth now invite’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

‘Iestyn Davies's voice is clear, full and plangent, with crisp diction and unassuming eloquence. (These are qualities the young lutenist Thomas Dunford has, too.) Mr. Davies saves the best for last on this disc of Dowland songs: a wrenching rendition of Now, oh now I needs must part’ (The New York Times)» More
The tendency of singers to add quantities of ornamentation was not one that found favour with Dowland, but a tantalizing fragment of Sorrow, stay! exists in the same manuscript, including up-to-the-minute Italianate ornaments of the kind that professional singers were using in this sort of theatrical context.

from notes by Elizabeth Kenny © 2008

La propension qu’avaient les chanteurs à ajouter quantité d’ornements n’était pas du goût de Dowland, mais un alléchant fragment de Sorrow, stay! figure dans le même manuscrit, avec les ornements italianisants alors les plus récents, de ceux que les chanteurs professionnels utilisaient dans ce genre de contexte théâtral.

extrait des notes rédigées par Elizabeth Kenny © 2008
Français: Hypérion

Die Neigung der Sänger, zahlreiche Verzierungen hinzuzufügen, fand bei Dowland keinen Zuspruch. Allerdings gibt es im gleichen Manuskript ein verlockendes Fragment von Sorrow, stay! („Kummer, bleib!“), das die damals neuesten italienischen Verzierungen von der Art enthält, die Berufssänger im Rahmen solcher Theateraufführungen verwendeten.

aus dem Begleittext von Elizabeth Kenny © 2008
Deutsch: Elke Hockings

Other albums featuring this work

Dowland: Awake, sweet love
CDH55241Download only
Dowland: Lute Songs; Britten: Nocturnal
CDA67648
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