G0100031097062 A Song for my Lady JOHN DOWLAND 17 All ye, whom Love or Fortune hath betrayed 4.26 Lute and Consort Songs 18 Go crystal tears 3.24 THOMAS CAMPION 19 Follow thy fair sun (II) 0.39 JOHN DOWLAND (c. 1563–1626) · WILLIAM BYRD (1543–1623) JOHN DOWLAND 20 Weep you no more, sad fountains 3.46 THOMAS CAMPION ( 1567–1620) · THOMAS FORD (c.1580–1648) ROBERT JOHNSON (c.1583–1633) JOHN DOWLAND 21 Awake, sweet love (arr. Cutting) 1.30 22 Can she excuse my wrongs 2.20 ROBERT JOHNSON 1 Tell me, dearest, what is love? (I) 1.26 WILLIAM BYRD 23 Ambitious love 2.36 JOHN DOWLAND 2Aloe 1.07 JOHN DOWLAND 24 Come again 4.42 JOHN DOWLAND 3 Come away 2.29 JOHN DOWLAND 25 Mignarda 2.56 4 Fie on this feigning 1.44 ROBERT JOHNSON 26 Tell me, dearest, what is love? (III) 0.41 5 Were every thought an eye 2.22 WILLIAM BYRD 27 The match that’s made 8.06 6 Mrs. Vaux’s Gigge 0.59 THOMAS CAMPION 7 Follow thy fair sun (I) 3.21 JULIAN PODGER Tenor LEE SANTANA Lute 8 O never to be moved 2.28 9 Harden now thy tired heart 1.40 SIRIUS VIOLS ROBERT JOHNSON 10 Tell me, dearest, what is love? (II) 1.12 HILLE PERL · FRAUKE HESS · JULIA VETÖ · MARTHE PERL Viola da gamba JOHN DOWLAND 11 Can she excuse my wrongs 1.31 Recording: February 5–8, 2013, St. Marien-Kirche, Colnrade 12 Flow not so fast, ye fountains 3.20 Producer, engineer and editor: John Hadden 13 If my complaints 2.22 Design: Christine Schweitzer · www.schweitzer-design.de THOMAS FORD 14 Fair sweet cruel 2.29 (Photos: Lario Tus/shutterstock (Cover) Elisa Meyer) P & g 2014 Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH WILLIAM BYRD 15 Thou poet’s friend 2.10 JOHN DOWLAND 16 La mia Barbara 5.22 2 3 “An Equal Yoke” Reeling from his woes our character is next scene with the instrumental Awake, granted a dreamlike moment of respite. sweet love, with the clear-headed reasoning in Seemingly transported by an ensemble of the indignant Can she excuse my wrongs, when Finding love has of course always been one lowing first ‘scene’ has our imagined pro- angelic viols in Thou poet’s friend he seeks a rich, assured aura is provided by the viols of the greatest contenders for human pre- tagonist in a state of pure bliss (Come away), guidance from Clio, one of the Greek god- in the daring Ambitious love, and dissolving occupation, and music a celebrated vehicle which he gradually, though still playfully dess muses of music, song and dance, to finally in time for the playful Come again. for expressing the many facets, controversies, starts to question in Fie on this feigning, and draw on the healing power of divine har- Blackness now banished and strength re - pains and delights of this delicate and yet Were every thought an eye, the set ending with mony. The lute then ‘returns’ him, gently gained, a celebration follows, solemnly in tro- overt pursuit. Whether a virelai of courtly the whimsical, teasing Mrs. Vaux’s Gigge. By empathizing with the singer’s predicament duced in the lute solo Mignarda, with further th admiration by 14 century Machaut or a the second scene, we must assume love has in La mia Barbara, with its darker moments reflection on the ‘what is love’ question by plaintive ballad of romanticized German been banished, as darkness and disillusion- hinting at the remaining hardship yet to be an unworded answer from the viol, before lore by Schubert, the great wealth and variety ment enter our songster’s heart. Follow thy passed through. the illuminating Latin refrain “pari jugo of musical treasures it has inspired seem to fair sun may still express hope, and O never to Leaving this moment of repose our dulcis tractus” (with an equal yoke sweet is be infused alike with a common flavour. No be moved appeal for pity, but Harden now thy singer must now face his bleakest state in the pulling) gives us a worded one in the exception with the lute and consort songs tired heart, with its many rhetorical questions the wailing ‘my woe wants comfort’ at the triumphantly frolicking finale The match and their instrumental counterparts on this to the lost lover, finally introduces re si g n ed end of All ye, whom Love or Fortune hath that’s made. recording. Easily available to the emotional grief. The ‘what is love’ question is then betrayed, and finally reaches it – a sense of On this recording most of the music is by grasp of the listener, it was possible to echoed by a tranquil viol, maybe re pre sen t - complete abandonment – in the icy second the celebrated John Dowland (1563–1626), arrange them into imagined scenes of love ing a wiser part of the singer, but despair verse of Go, crystal tears. But here the en - and would have been composed around the found – love lost – self lost – self found – grows deeper in the next set as various counter in the previous scene starts to take turn of the sixteenth century. The works by celebration, progressively suggesting the emotional avenues are explored: gentle in - effect. A distant voice, probably another William Byrd (1543–1623) are the earliest, inner capture, trial and liberation of a dignation in the lute solo Can she excuse my aspect of our character, offers reassurance written quite probably in the late 1580s and made-up character. wrongs, flowing tears in the heart-broken and encouragement to follow the ‘pure those by Thomas Campion (1567–1620) the Opening with the big question “what is Flow not so fast ye fountains, a direct com- beams’ of light, and in the next song Weep latest, published in the 1610s. In an exciting love?”, the imaginary tableau is set up from plaint to Love himself (If my complaints) and you no more sad fountains we hear that love time of musical change in Europe, we can a distance by the simple dialogue Tell me, an attempt to charm the lost lover into ‘softly lies sleeping’. The darkness begins relate the drive towards word-orientated dearest and the instrumental Aloe. The fol- waiting (Fair sweet cruel). to lift as the lute continues this idea in the writing in Italy – the rapid development 4 5 JULIAN PODGER started singing and directing ensembles whilst still at school in Kassel, Germany, and after taking up a choral award to read music at Trinity College Cambridge. As a singer he is much in demand all over the world. He has specialized in music ranging from mediaeval to baroque, particularly in Dowland’s from the polyphony-based prima pratica to Various ideas have been asserted by lute song repertoire, Monteverdi’s church music the seconda pratica, represented to a large scholars on the precise pronunciation of and operas, and Bach’s evangelist roles. He is a extent by Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) Elizabethan/Jacobean English – not really regular member of the acclaimed single-voice – to the rise in popularity and sophistication surprising given the many regional and ensembles Gothic Voices, I Fagiolini and The Harp of the lute song in England. The performing probably overlapping conventions of the Consort, and has directed his own Trinity Baroque circumstances of these songs and dances may time. The idea here is of course not to own in a recording of Bach’s motets, and at many not be documented in great ab un da n ce, any ‘truth’ of authentic pronunciation – European early music festivals. but it is easy to imagine private chamber impossible anyway – rather to ground the mu sic situations or colourful banquets pro- music in a generic spoken sound world of viding the backdrop, as often portrayed in the time. filmed period costume drama. Julian even as the final refrain rings out its wise words, Podger the means to a good and lasting partnership – a maintained connection, a fitting, balanced, ‘equal’ yoke, sweet it be indeed to ‘pull together’ in this exciting venture of life, riding on far 6 7 LEE SANTANA was born into a musicians‘ family in Florida at the THE SIRIUS VIOLS … Hille Perl gathered the Sirius end of the baby-boomer era. Into his youth he played a lot of jazz- Viols with the intention to have a group featuring rock music, and a little classical on the side, from the age of 16 on, her most beloved instrument with her most favorite classical music grew on him. As a boomer-anything is possible- players, a group that is based on solidarity and on youth, his role models went from fusion composer-players to clas- having pride in each other, rather than on hierarchy sical composer-players. As a guitarist-lutenist these role models and dominance. became earlier and earlier and his attention has rested in a life long Artistic freedom of each individual in the end dynamic discussion with player-composers of the 17th and 18th centu- gives the most satisfying artistic result. Sometimes ries. the Sirius Viols play together with violins, a conti- In order to better ,follow his star‘, Santana moved to Europe in nuo group and singers, or with whoever else they 1984. There he met his partner-in-everything Hille Perl, and has feel fit to meet their high standards. remained in her native Germany ever since. The name of course is chosen to remind us of the After many journeyman‘s years, working for many of the best brightest star of the northern sky.