Not just Dowland Songs for soprano and lute

Carolyn Sampson Matthew Wadsworth Carolyn Sampson soprano Matthew Wadsworth lute & theorbo Recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London, on 7 December 2008

01 Philip Rosseter Prelude solo lute 01.30 02 Robert Johnson Away delights 03.18 03 Oh, let us howl 02.36 04 Care-charming sleep 03.58 05 Alfonso Ferrabosco Pavan IV solo lute 03.48 06 Anonymous Galliard solo lute 02.20 07 Fortune my foe 06.32 08 Robert Johnson Pavan in C minor solo lute 06.02 09 John Dowland Can she excuse my wrongs 02.52 10 In darkness let me dwell 04.55

11 Quel sguardo sdegnosetto 02.18 DDD WHLive0034 12 O quam tu pulchra es 04.02 C 2010 The Wigmore Hall Trust P 2010 The Wigmore Hall Trust 13 Alessandro Piccinini Toccata XIII solo theorbo 03.16 Made & Printed in England 14 Partite Variate Sopra La Folia solo theorbo 05.25 All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, hiring, lending, public performance and 15 Giulio Caccini Amarilli mia bella 02.53 broadcasting prohibited. 16 Giovanni Kapsberger Toccata arpeggiata solo theorbo 02.54 LC 14458 17 ‘Kapsberger’ solo theorbo 04.31 Wigmore Hall 18 spirituale sopra alla nonna 09.22 36 Wigmore Street London W1U 2BP www.wigmore-hall.org.uk John Gilhooly Director encore The Wigmore Hall Trust 19 announcement 00.06 Reg. Charity No. 1024838 20 Robert Johnson Have you seen the bright lily grow? 03.03

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NOT JUST DOWLAND — SONGS FOR SOPRANO AND LUTE The days were becoming shorter, the nights ever one of John Webster’s most grisly plays, The darker and, at the end of a particularly cold St Duchess of Malfi. Webster, according to T.S. Eliot, Nicholas Day, December 2008, crowds swarmed was ‘much obsessed by death, And saw the skull into Wigmore Hall for a warm and intimate beneath the skin’. It certainly shows in this mad- evening of seventeenth-century music for voice song, with the improvisatory, skeletal chords and and lute. Matthew Wadsworth, who devised the declamatory style for which Johnson was famed. evening, told us it was the culmination of many After a return to the more sombre, lute-ayre years of work, from his earliest student days style of ‘Care-charming sleep’, Wadsworth enjoys listening to the recordings of Julian Bream. his second solo spot of the evening. The Pavan Wadsworth had switched from guitar to lute the by Alfonso Ferrabosco was included in Robert minute he discovered the theorbo – the entirely Dowland’s popular 1610 compilation, A Varietie irresistible long-necked lute, which features in the of Lute Lessons, and is a sedate, courtly dance of second half of this programme. Italian origin, written for the court of Elizabeth I. Wadsworth drew his audience in with a gently The Pavan, in ’s words, ‘staid intimate Prelude by the English court musician music, ordained for grave dancing’ was frequently and theatrical manager, Philip Rosseter (1567– coupled with the lively Galliard (from the Italian 1623), lutenist at the court of James I. Then, cosily ‘gagliardo’, meaning ‘vigorous’ or ‘robust’) – and remaining in the same key, he turned to another this anonymous example is typical of the triple- man of the theatre, Robert Johnson, the last of the metre courtly dance in which kicking, leaping and great lutenists, and musician to The King’s Men jumping were not unknown. Players, the foremost theatre company in London, The shadows return with the appearance of which performed at the Globe and at Blackfriars. one of the greatest English song-writers of all Johnson is the only composer known to have time: John Dowland. ‘Semper dolens, semper provided music for Shakespeare – his ‘Full fathom Dowland’ was his tag: this not only gives us a clue five’ and ‘Where the bee sucks’ are still performed as to the pronunciation of his name, but and loved. But here, with Carolyn Sampson sitting epitomizes his love of pathos and of melancholy at his side in story-telling mode, Wadsworth in his poetry and his music. It was a conceit of the introduces us to a song from Beaumont and time, yes – a pose for a certain fashionable affect Fletcher’s play The Captain. ‘Away delights’ and affectation – but Dowland had indeed known adopts the fashionable melancholic tone of the sorrow in his long exile from England: as a time, less theatrical, and more intimately ayre-like Catholic he had been unwelcome at court. But his in its alternating long and short lines and sighing sojourns on the Continent equipped him with

melismas. In ‘Oh, let us howl’, Johnson turns to first-hand knowledge of the latest French and 3 2 b0034.qxd 18.11.2009 13:28 Page 3

Italian musical fashion which enriched his music Johnson's minor-key Pavan, elegantly turned in and made it entirely distinctive. The melody of the hands of Wadsworth. ‘Can she excuse my ‘Fortune my foe’, for example, is thought to bear wrongs’, from The First Booke of Songs and Ayres resemblances to a French Pavan called ‘Belle qui of 1597 is the epitome of Dowland’s skill tiens ma vie’. This song, with its major-minor in creating an exquisite piece of both artifice ambivalence, is the perfect example of how a and tenderness. Sampson recreates with great sense of the power of fate, in both private love sensitivity Dowland’s minute care for the ever- and in the politicking of Elizabethan courtly life, is shifting metre and inflection of the English transmuted by music into a broader expression of language. ‘In darkness let me dwell’ (from A pain and melancholy. Alliteration and repetition Musicall Banquet of 1610) is Dowland at his slow and numb the verse and its setting, and darkest and his greatest: both voice and fingers return the listener to a mood of sobriety for Robert relish the dissonances and lurching harmonies

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which incarnate the ‘hellish, jarring sounds’ of the innovatory of composers. Born to a Bolognese consciousness of the insomniac with his repeated family of lutenists, his Intavolatura di Liuto e plea to ‘let me living die, till death do come’. Chitarrone of 1623 encourages the use of After the interval, Wadsworth put his lute aside, ornament, vibrato, rubato and many changes of and took up a beautifully crafted long-necked tone colour – something exploited to the full by theorbo. It was time for the masters of the Italian Wadsworth in his Toccata and his Variations on air and , starting with the master of them the endlessly popular ‘La Folia’. all, Claudio Monteverdi. From his many collections After giving an airing to Caccini’s ‘Amarilli mia of for any number and combination of bella’, one of the most popular arie antiche, voices and instruments, Wadsworth chooses a late beloved of students and singing-teachers even piece called ‘Quel sguardo stegnosetto’ – a perfect today, Wadsworth turns to the less well-known example of the more declamatory, freely Giovanni Kapsberger, -born son of a composed, almost improvisatory style which so German nobleman. He was known as ‘Il Tedesco seduced English composers. Even in a strophic della Tiorba’, and acknowledged as ‘the finest song (with each verse set to the same music), master of the theorbo in Rome’. Quite an act for Monteverdi relished the opportunities for word- Wadsworth to follow; but he relishes the painting and for variation. Here, the repeated bass complexities of the ‘Toccata arpeggiata’ – writing patterns, drawn out so cunningly by Wadsworth’s as wayward and tricksy as though it had been theorbo, discover almost endless new harmonic improvised spontaneously. progressions, as Sampson’s soprano, resisting the This winter evening ended, as it began, temptation to be over-coy, teases, leaps and sighs warmly and gently, with a lullaby sung by Mary to its way through to the final, improvised cadence, Jesus: the ‘Canzonetta spirituale sopra alla celebrating the healing power of laughter. nonna’ by Tarquinio Merula. Wadsworth claims to Next, a setting of the Biblical Song of Songs by have rehearsed this in the presence of his then Monteverdi’s pupil Alessandro Grandi, who was three-month old son: the mesmeric repetition of to die of the plague before his master’s madrigal just two notes in the bass evokes the movement had even been published. With its gasping sighs of a foot rocking a wooden cradle, or perhaps the of ecstasy, and its ever shortening sequences beat of the somnolent human heart. It’s up to the leading to the words ‘Surge, surge, veni, veni’ singer to make what she will of the song as it (‘Rise, rise, come, come’) O quam pulchra es was grows more impassioned, and ends in recitative – considered too erotic to be performed in church, by which time one can only hope the baby, if not and was forthwith banned. this audience, will have fallen, irresistibly and Alessandro Piccinini, a contemporary of happily, fast asleep. Monteverdi, was considered one of the most Notes by Hilary Finch © 2010 5 4 b0034.qxd 18.11.2009 13:28 Page 5

PHILIP ROSSETER (1567–1623) 4 Care-charming sleep Care-charming sleep, thou easer of all woes, 1 Prelude Brother to Death, sweetly thyself dispose. On this afflicted wight, fall like a cloud ROBERT JOHNSON (1583–1633) In gentle show’rs; give nothing to it loud Or painful to his slumber. Easy sweet 2 Away delights And as a purling stream, thou son of night, Away delights, go seek some other dwelling, Pass by his troubled senses; sing his pain For I will die. Like hollow murmuring wind, or silver rain. Farewell false hope; thy tongue is ever telling Into thyself gently, oh gently slide Lie after lie. And kiss him into slumbers like a bride. For ever let me rest now from thy smart; John Fletcher (1579–1625): Valentinian (1614) Alas, for pity stay, and fire their hearts. That have been hard to thee; mine was not so. Never again deluding love shall know me, ALFONSO FERRABOSCO (1543–1588) For I will die; 5 Pavan IV And all those griefs that think to overflow me, Shall be as I: For ever will I rest, whilst poor maids cry. ANONYMOUS Alas, for pity stay, and let us die With thee; men cannot mock us in the clay. 6 Galliard Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) and John Fletcher (1579–1625): The Captain (c.1612) JOHN DOWLAND (1563–1626) 7 Fortune my foe 3 Oh, let us howl Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown on me? Oh, let us howl some heavy note, And will my favours never greater be? Some deadly, dogged howl, Wilt thou, I say, forever breed my pain? Sounding as from the threatening throat And wilt thou not restore my joys again? Of beasts and fatal fowl. As ravens, screech owls, bulls, and bears Fortune hath wrought my grief and great annoy; We’ll bell and bawl our parts, Fortune hath falsely stole my love away. Till irksome noise hath cloyed our ears My love and joy, whose sight did make me glad; And corrosiv’d our hearts: Such great misfortunes never young man had. At last, when as our choir wants breath, In vain I sigh, in vain I wail and weep, Our bodies being blest, In vain mine eyes refrain from quiet sleep; We’ll sing, like swans, to welcome death, In vain I shed my tears both night and day; And die in love and rest. In vain my love my sorrows do bewray. John Webster (c.1580–c.1634): If wisdom eye’s blind fortune had but seen, The Duchess of Malfi (1613) Then had my love, my love forever been, Then love farewell, though fortune favour thee, No fortune frail shall ever conquer me.

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ROBERT JOHNSON CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567–1643) 8 Pavan in C minor 11 Quel sguardo sdegnosetto Quel sguardo sdegnosetto JOHN DOWLAND lucente e minaccioso, quel dardo velenoso 9 Can she excuse my wrongs vola a ferirmi il petto Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue’s cloak? Bellezze ond’io tutt’ardo Shall I call her good when she proves unkind? e son da me diviso Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke? piagatemi col sguardo, Must I praise the leaves where no fruit I find? Sanatemi col riso. No, no; where shadows do for bodies stand, That haughty little glance, That may’st be abus’d if thy sight be dim. bright and menacing, Cold love is like to words written on sand, that poisonous dart Or to bubbles which on the water swim. is flying to strike my breast. Wilt thou be thus abused still, O beauties for which I burn, Seeing that she will right thee never? by which I am severed from myself: If thou canst not o’ercome her will, wound me with your glance, Thy love will be thus fruitless ever. but heal me with your laughter. Was I so base, that I might not aspire Armatevi, pupille Unto those high joys which she holds from me? d’asprissimo rigore, As they are high, so high is my desire, versatemi su’l core If she this deny, what can granted be? un nembo di faville. If she will yield to that which reason is, Ma ’labro non sia tardo It is reason’s will that love should be just. a ravvivarmi ucciso. Feriscami quel sguardo, Dear, make me happy still by granting this, ma sanimi quel riso. Or cut off delays if that I die must. Better a thousand times to die Arm yourself, O eyes, Than for to live thus still tormented: with sternest rigour; Dear, but remember it was I pour upon my heart Who for thy sake did die contented. a cloud of sparks. But let lips not be slow 10 In darkness let me dwell to revive when I am slain. In darkness let me dwell, the ground shall sorrow be; Let the glance strike me; The roof despair to bar all cheerful light from me; but let the laughter heal me. The walls of marble black that moistened still shall weep; Begl’occhi a l’armi, a l’armi! My music hellish jarring sounds to banish friendly sleep. Io vi preparo il seno. Thus wedded to my woes, and bedded to my tomb, Gioite di piagarmi O let me living, living die, till death do come. in fin ch’io venga meno! E se da vostri dardi io resterò conquiso, feriscano quei sguardi, ma sanami quel riso. 7 6 b0034.qxd 18.11.2009 13:28 Page 7

O fair eyes: to arms, to arms! ALESSANDRO PICCININI (1566–1638) I am preparing my bosom as your target. (from Intavolatura di Liuto e Chitarrone, Libro Primo, Rejoice in wounding me, Bologne 1623) even until I faint! And if I remain vanquished 13 Toccata XIII by your darts, 14 let your glances strike me - Partite Variate Sopra La Folia but let your laughter heal me. GIULIO CACCINI (1551–1618) ALESSANDRO GRANDI (1586–1630) 15 Amarilli mia bella (published 1602) Amarilli mia bella, 12 O quam tu pulchra es Non credi, o del mio cor dolce desio, O quam tu pulchra es D’esser tu l’amor mio? amica mea, Columba mea, Credilo pur, e se timor t’assale, formosa mea Prendi questo mio strale; oculi tui columbarum Aprimi il petto, e vedrai scritto in cuore: capilli tui sicut greges caprarum «Amarilli è ’l mio amore.» et dentes tui sicut greges tonsarum. My fair Amaryllis, Oh, how beautiful you are Do you not believe that you are my heart’s sweet desire, my lover, my dove That you are my beloved? my beautiful one Believe it, and if you are doubtful, your eyes are like the doves Take this arrow of mine; your hair like a herd of goats Open my breast, see written on my heart: And your teeth as herds of shorn sheep. ‘Amaryllis is my beloved.’ Veni, veni de Libano, Giovanni or Alessandro Guarini veni amica mea, columba mea English translation by Andrew Huth formosa mea Surge, propera, surge sponsa mea surge dilecta mea GIOVANNI KAPSBERGER (c.1580–c.1651) surge Immaculata mea. Surge veni, 16 Toccata arpeggiata quia amore langueo. 17 ‘Kapsberger’ Come, come from Lebanon come, my love, my dove, my beautiful one. Rise up, hasten, rise up my betrothed, my chosen one, rise up, my immaculate one. Rise up, come because I am weak with love. English translation by Clifford Bartlett

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TARQUINIO MERULA (1594–1665) TARQUINIO MERULA (1594–1665) 18 Canzonetta spirituale sopra alla nonna 18Canzonetta spirituale sopra alla nonna Hor ch’è tempo di dormire, dormi mi figlio e non vagire, Queste faccia graziosa rubiconda, hor più che rosa Perchè tempo ancor verrà, che vagir bisognerà. Sputi e schiaffi sporcheranno con tormento e Deh ben mio, deh cor mio fa, fa la ninna ninna na. grand’affano. Now it is time to sleep, sleep my child and do not cry, This pretty face, more ruddy than a rose, For the time will come for weeping, by and by. Will be spat on and bruised, suffering and tormented. Oh my love, o my dear, sing lulla-lullaby. Ah con quanto tuo dolore, sola speme del mio core, Chiudi quei lumi divini, come fan gl’altri bambini, Questo capo e questi crini passeran acuti spini. Perchè tosto oscuro velo priverà di lume il cielo. Oh with what sorrow, only hope of my heart, Deh ben mio, deh cor mio fa, fa la ninna ninna na. Will this head and this hair by sharp thorns be torn! Close those heavenly eyes, as other children do, Ah ch’in questo divin petto, amor mio dolce diletto, For soon a dark veil will cover the sky. Vi farà piaga mortale, empia lancia e di sleale. Oh my love, o my dear, sing lulla-lullaby. Alas, one day this breast divine, my love, my own O ver prendi questo latte dalle mie mammelle intatte, sweet dear, Perchè ministro crudele ti prepara aceto e fiele, Will be rent by the deadly wounds of a cruel and Deh ben mio, deh cor mio fa, fa la ninna ninna na. treacherous lance. Suck this milk at my immaculate breast, Dormi dunque, figliol mio, dormi pur, rendentor mio, For a cruel governor will serve you bitterness and gall. Perchè poi con lieto viso ci vedrem in Paradiso. Oh my love, o my dear, sing lulla-lullaby. So sleep, my son, sleep my saviour, for, with joyful Amor mio, sia qesto petto hor per te morbido letto, face, Pria che rendi ad alta voce l’alma al Padre su la croce. Our tryst we’ll keep, in paradise. Deh ben mio, deh cor mio fa, fa la ninna ninna na. Hor chè dorme la mia vita, del mio cor gioia compita, My love, lay your head softly now upon my breast, Taccia ognum con puro zelo, taccian sin la terra e’l cielo. Before you cry out and surrender your soul to the Father on the cross! Now you sleep, my darling, my heart with joy you thrill Oh my love, o my dear, sing lulla-lullaby. Let all keep watch in silence, let earth and Heaven be still. Posa hor queste membra belle vezzosette e tenerelle, Perchè poi feri e catene gli daran acerbe pene. E fra tanto, io che farò? Il mio ben contemplerò, Deh ben mio, deh cor mio fa, fa la ninna ninna na. Ne starò col capo chino fin che dorme il mio bambino. Now rest these fine limbs, so precious and tender, And meanwhile, what shall I do? My love I’ll watch, For they will be scourged by cruel irons and chains! My head bowed low, as long as my baby sleeps. Oh my love, o my dear, sing lulla-lullaby. Queste mani e questi piedi ch’or con gusto e gaudio vedi, Ahimè, com’in varii modi passeran acuti chiodi. These hands and these feet, all beauty and joy, Alas, will one day be pierced by sharp nails.

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encore 19 Announcement ROBERT JOHNSON 20 Have you seen the bright lily grow? d. Have you seen the bright lily grow, Before rude hands have touch’d it? Have you mark’d the fall of the snow, Before the earth hath smutch’d it? Have you felt the wool of beaver? Or swans’ down ever? Or have smelt o’ the bud of the brier? Or the nard in the fire? Or have tasted the bag of the bee? Oh, so white, oh, so soft, Oh so sweet is she! Ben Jonson (1572–1637): The Devil is an Ass (1616)

www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/wigmore-hall-live

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Produced by Jeremy Hayes Engineered by Tony Faulkner Recorded live at Wigmore Hall, London, 7 December 2008 Director: John Gilhooly Wigmore Hall Live — General Manager: Helen Peate; Head of Sales and Marketing: Claire Hargrove Photographs of Carolyn Sampson, including the cover, by Benjamin Ealovega Photograph of Matthew Wadsworth on p. 11 by Chris Christodoulou Manufactured by Repeat Performance Multimedia, London

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CAROLYN SAMPSON Carolyn Sampson has established a reputation as St John Passion with the Hallé Orchestra and one of the most exciting sopranos to emerge in Sir Mark Elder. She has also performed with recent years. Born in Bedford in England, she read City of London Sinfonia, the Royal Liverpool music at the University of Birmingham. Equally at Philharmonic and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. home on the concert and stages, she has Carolyn Sampson has appeared in the BBC enjoyed notable successes both in the UK as well Proms Chamber Music Series, given recitals for as throughout Europe and the US. BBC Radio 3 and at Wigmore Hall. She also Carolyn Sampson’s many roles for English appears regularly in recital at the Saintes Festival, National Opera have included the title role in and made her recital debut at the Concertgebouw Semele and Pamina (The Magic Flute) as well as in 2007. roles in The Coronation of Poppea and The Fairy In Europe her many appearances have Queen. Elsewhere in the UK, she has sung Julietta included Bach’s St Matthew Passion with The (The Tales of Hoffmann) in concert with Richard Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Philippe Hickox at the St Endellion Festival. In France, she Herreweghe, St John Passion with The Freiburg sang First Niece (Peter Grimes) for Opéra de Paris, Baroque Orchestra and Gustav Leonhardt as well Euridice and La Musica (L’Orfeo) with Le Concert as concerts with Orchestre des Champs Elysées, d’Astrée, Asteria (Tamerlano) for Opéra de Lille La Chapelle Royale, Ensemble Baroque de and Morgana (Alcina) in concert at the Beaune Limoges, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Il Giardino Festival with Paul McCreesh. Most recently she Armonico, RIAS Kammerchor, Collegium Vocale had a great success singing her first Susanna (Le Gent, Holland Sinfonia and Sonnerie. nozze di Figaro) for Opéra de Montpellier. Future Carolyn Sampson has toured the US with The opera engagements include Iphis (Jephtha) for King’s Consort as featured soloist and has Opéra National du Rhin and various roles in performed with San Francisco Symphony Purcell’s The Faerie Queen for Glyndebourne Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, St Paul Festival Opera. Chamber Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort Carolyn Sampson’s numerous concert en- and Music of the Baroque, Chicago. In 2007 she gagements in the UK have included Messiah with sang the title role in Lully’s Psyché for the Boston The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Bach’s Early Music Festival and performed with the St St Matthew Passion at the BBC Proms with The Paul Chamber Orchestra. English Concert and Trevor Pinnock, and with the Bach Collegium Japan and Maasaki Suzuki, Britten’s Les Illuminations with Manchester

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MATTHEW WADSWORTH The lutenist Matthew Wadsworth is in great demand as a soloist, continuo player and chamber musician. He has appeared at major festivals in the UK, Europe and North America and can frequently be heard on radio, both in live performance and on disc. Matthew has recorded for Avie, Deux-Elles, Linn, EMI and Channel Classics Records. His CDs ‘When Laura Smiles’ (featuring music by Philip Rosseter), ‘Away Delights’ (Robert Johnson), ‘14 Silver Strings’ (Kapsberger and Piccinini), ‘Masters Of The Lute’ (Dowland, Kapsberger, de Visée) and ‘The Knight Of The Lute’ (music from A Varietie Of Lute Lessons) have received international critical acclaim. Matthew studied lute with Nigel North at London’s Royal Academy of Music, winning the London Student of the Year award in 1997 for his work on the development of Braille lute tablature. He then spent a year at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. Wadsworth was recently made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and was nominated by The Independent as a ‘Rising Star’ in 2005. Recent engagements have included appearances at Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, the Georgian Concert Society (Edinburgh), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and the Opera, The , I Fagiolini, Lufthansa, Beverley, Spitalfields, Budapest, The English Cornett and Ensemble, The Vancouver, Ottawa, Mitte-Europa and Innsbruck Musicians of the Globe, Arion, Constantinople, festivals. Matthew has also worked with The The Theatre of Early Music and Les Violons du Academy of Ancient Music, English Touring Opera, Roy, among others. For more information, visit

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