Ian Bostridge & Fretwork perform Dowland

Ian Bostridge - tenor

Kristiina Watt - lute

Fretwork: Emilia Benjamin, Jonathan Rees, Joanna Levine, Sam Stadlen & Richard Boothby

John Dowland was not only the finest lutenist of his age, he was also, along with Henry Purcell, Britten and Lennon & McCartney, one of the all-time greatest song writers in the English language. He died 400 years ago in 1626. In 1604, he published the extraordinary collection of music for viols and lute called ‘Lachrimae’. Before a series of wonderfully lively galliards, many drawn from his songs, Dowland presents a transcendental journey based on his most famous song, ‘Flow my teares’. The falling 4th emblem is subjected to intense scrutiny and transformation, with a sequence that maps a voyage from despair to hope, from falling to rising, from minor to major.

As Dowland says in his dedication to Queen Anne of Denmark: And though the title doth promise teares, unfit guests in these ioyfull times, yet no doubt pleasant are the teares which Musicke weepes, neither are teares shed alwayes in sorrow, but sometime in ioy and gladnesse.

His four books of songs were some of the most popular publications of their day, and the first book in particular contains some of his most famous and memorable songs.

Programme

Flow my tears/Lachrimæ Antiquæ

Lachrimæ Antiquæ Novæ

The King of Denmarks Galiard

Can she excuse my wrongs/The Earle of Essex Galiard

Lachrimæ Gementes

Forlorn Hope Fancy - lute solo

Come again, sweet love doth now invite

Sorrow stay!

M John Langtons Pavan

My thoughts are winged with hope/Souch’s Galliard

INTERVAL

Lachrimæ Tristes

In darkness let me dwell a minor

Lachrimæ Coactæ

Time stands still

If my complaints/Captaine Digory Piper, his Galiard

Lachrimæ Amantis

If floods of tears

Lachrimæ Verae

I saw my lady weep

Shall I strive with words/Henry Noel’s Galliard