Composer: Henry Lawes, William Lawes, John Wilson
Performer: Silvia Tecardi, Julian Behr, David Munderloh
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Passacaille
Catalogue: PAS1041
Release: 2018
Size: 1.02 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Lawes H: Amarillis, by a spring
Lawes H: I’ll Tell You How the Rose Did First Grow Red
Wilson: Prelude No. 9 in C Minor
Lawes H: In Celia’s Face a Question Did Arise
Lawes H: Dear, Turn Away Thine Eyes so Bright
Lawes H: Come, Cloris, Hie We to Thy Bow’r
Wilson: Prelude No. 11 in D Minor
Lawes H: Slide Soft, Ye Silver Floods
Lawes H: Sweet Lady and Sole Mistress of my Love
Lawes H: A Willow Gardland
Wilson: Prelude No. 8 in C Major
Lawes H: Sabrina
Lawes H: How Cool and Temp’rate I Am Grown
Lawes H: Sweet Death, Come Visit My Sick Heart
Lawes W: Almain
Lawes W: Courant 1
Lawes W: Courant 2
Lawes H: Hither We Come into this World of Woe
Wilson: Prelude No. 13 in G Minor
Lawes H: I Burn
Lawes H: Did I Once SayThat Thou Wert Fair
Lawes H: Hence, Vain Intruder
Wilson: Prelude No. 7 in C Minor
Lawes H: Sorrow, in Vain Why Dost Thou Seek to Tempt
Wilson: Prelude No. 3 in A Minor
Lawes H: Keep on Your Vail and Hide Your Eye
Lawes H: Oh, Let Me Still and Silent Lie
Lawes H: I rise and grieve
Lawes W: Allemande for the Viol
Lawes H: Unto the Soundless Vaults of Hell Below
Lawes H: Pale Ink, Thou Art Not Black Enough of Hue
Wilson: Prelude No. 20 in B-Flat Major
Lawes H: My Wand’ring Thoughts Have Travelled ‘Round
Henry Lawes (1595-1662) and John Wilson (1595-1674) – friends and colleagues at Oxford, both members of the King’s Musick and working at the Chapel Royal – are a perfect twosome for this album. Closely following the thoughts and emotions of a young man, perhaps the unfortunate lover of a woman of low birth, this dramatic programme presents twenty two songs by Henry Lawes and combines them with the enigmatic and enchantingly beautiful preludes of John Wilson. This recording, with its resolutely sober casting (the voice of David Munderloh, the twelve-string lute of the now-famous Julian Behr and Silvia Tecardi’s viola) offers us a unique look at the music of mid-17th century England and treats us to a taste of this rich repertoire. All the more so, as eighteen of the songs on this album are discographic world firsts. Lawes’s life (1595-1662) covers four distinct and turbulent periods in English history: born in the dying days of Tudor England under Elizabeth I, he grew up under Stuart kings; and then, for better and for worse he saw the civil war (1642-1648), the interregnum, and then, more difficult still, the Commonwealth (1649-1653), to say nothing of Cromwell’s dark and ultra-Puritan Protectorate, where music and musicians did well to keep a low profile (1654-1660), and finally the Restoration. The performers have grasped the subtleties of Henry Lawes’s particular musical style, so that these songs can finally enjoy their full lustre as incontestable masterpieces, clear precursors to some of Purcell’s pages.