Description
ECM New Series: Monika Mauch & Nigel North — A Musical Banquet (Robert Dowland, 1610) — Audio CD
Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!
Product Details:
- Product Type: Audio CD
- Brand / Label: ECM New Series
- Artists: Monika Mauch (soprano), Nigel North (lute)
- Source: A Musical Banquet, anthology compiled by Robert Dowland, London, 1610
- Composers: John Dowland, Giulio Caccini, Pierre Guédron, Guillaume Tessier, Daniel Batchelar, and others
- Release Year: 2008
- Catalog Number: ECM New Series 1938 / 476 6397
- UPC: 028947663973
- Label Code: LC 02516
- Producer: Manfred Eicher
- Genre: Classical
- Style: Renaissance, Early Baroque, Lute Song
Product Features
- Format: CD
- Discs: 1
- Total runtime: approx. 72:54
- Tracks: 24
- Languages sung: English, French, Italian, Spanish
- Recording: Propstei St. Gerold, May 2005
- Engineer: Peter Laenger
- Booklet: 24-page illustrated, with essay by Nigel North
- Made in: Germany
- Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed
Overview
In 1610 a 19-year-old named Robert Dowland — son of the far more famous John — published an anthology of lute songs drawn from England, France, Italy and Spain. It was the first printed collection of its kind to hold four languages and four song styles side by side. This recording brings that book back to life, song by song.
Monika Mauch's soprano is the draw. Clear, finely scored, with little vibrato, she moves through four languages without forcing any of them, and her diction lands every word of text. Nigel North's lute sits with her rather than under her — precise, unhurried, stepping forward only in the solo galliards and pavans that break up the program.
The sequence is rearranged from the original, weaving the national groups together so the contrasts do the work: a melancholy English ayre against an Italian monody, a French air against an anonymous Spanish song. John Dowland's shattering "In darkness let me dwell" sits near the close, and the whole thing ends with the resigned "Far from triumphing court."
This is the sealed 2008 ECM New Series edition, produced by Manfred Eicher and spaciously engineered at Propstei St. Gerold. Nigel North's ECM debut, and a record Gramophone shortlisted for its pick of the year.
Interesting Facts
- A Musical Banquet (1610) was the first printed songbook to gather lute songs in four different languages and national styles in a single volume.
- Robert Dowland was only 19 when the anthology appeared; scholars believe it was largely a collaboration with his father, John Dowland.
- Only about six of the 24 pieces are by John Dowland himself — Robert pointedly avoided including any of his own work.
- Several songs set verse from Sir Philip Sidney's "Astrophil and Stella," his sequence about unfulfilled love for Penelope, Lady Rich.
- Monika Mauch was previously heard on ECM's internationally successful Bach album "Morimur" alongside the Hilliard Ensemble.
- This is lutenist Nigel North's ECM debut; he also contributes the booklet's liner essay.
Track Listing
- Passava Amor su arco desarmado (Love walked by unarmed) — 2:28
- Lady if you so spite me — 2:18
- Dovrò dunque morire? (Must I then die?) — 2:03
- Amarilli mia bella (My fair Amaryllis) — 2:43
- Si le parler et le silence (If words and silence) — 4:09
- Se di farmi morire (If you think to cause my death) — 1:47
- O eyes, leave off your weeping — 3:02
- Vuestros ojos tienen d'Amor (Your eyes hold I know not what of Love) — 1:28
- In a grove most rich of shade — 4:05
- Lady Rich, her Galliard — 1:57
- Go my flock, go get you hence — 3:49
- O bella più che le stelle (Oh fairer than the stars of Diana) — 1:40
- My heavy sprite — 2:41
- Galliard — 1:46
- To plead my faith — 2:11
- Ce penser qui sans fin tirannise ma vie (This thought which endlessly governs my life) — 3:39
- O dear life, when shall it be? — 3:00
- Sir Robert Sidney, his Galliard — 2:29
- Change thy mind since she doth change — 2:41
- Sir Thomas Monson, his Pavin and Galliard — 7:56
- Vous que le Bonheur rappelle (You whom Happiness recalls) — 1:39
- In darkness let me dwell — 4:06
- Sta notte mi sognava (Last night I dreamed) — 2:25
- Far from triumphing court — 6:40
Publishers
Released by ECM Records GmbH (Munich) on 20 May 2008 under the ECM New Series imprint, catalog 1938 / 476 6397. Produced by Manfred Eicher; engineered by Peter Laenger. Printed in Germany.
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