Pascal Boëls - Dowland & Britten: Melancholy, Nocturnal (2023) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. A Fantasie (P1a)
02. The Most High and Mighty Christianus the Fourth, King of Denmark, His Galliard (P40)
03. Melancholy Galliard (P25)
04. Lady Hunsdon's Puffe (P54)
05. Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard (P19)
06. Forlorn Hope Fancy (P2)
07. The Right Honourable Ferdinando Earl of Derby, His Galliard (P44a)
08. The Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth, Her Galliard (P41)
09. A Fancy (P6)
10. The Right Honourable Earl of Essex, His Galliard (P42a)
11. Tarleton's Riserrectione (P59)
12. Dowland's First Galliard (P22)
13. A Fancy (P73)
14. Fortune (P62)
15. My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home (P66a)
16. Mignarda (P34)
17. A Fancy (P5)
18. Mr. Dowland's Midnight (P99)
19. Lachrimæ (P15)
20. Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70: I. Musingly
21. Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70: II. Very Agitated
22. Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70: III. Restless
23. Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70: IV. Uneasy
24. Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70: V. March-Like
25. Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70: VI. Dreaming
26. Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70: VII. Gently Rocking
27. Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70: VIII. Passacaglia



Pavans and galliards by the Elizabethan master of melancholy, complemented by a new recording of Benjamin Britten’s magnificent Nocturnal inspired by both Dowland’s music and by the playing of Julian Bream.

After the success of ‘The Golden Age of the Guitar in Europe’ (2CD, 96157), Brilliant Classics releases a second album by the French guitarist Pascal Boëls, a unique collection of music by 17th and 20th-century English masters. In a booklet introduction, the guitarist explains how he sees Dowland as ‘a universal genius, eternal wanderer who – already! – knew how to rub shoulders with all facets of the human soul.’

Pascal Boëls plays a personal selection of Dowland’s piece originally written for solo lute, pieces which embody a spirit of introversion such as the ‘Forlorn Hope’ Fancy and the ‘Lachrymae’ Pavan which became famous across Europe, much imitated and adapted by other composers of the day. Lightening the mood are also the kind of courtly dances and romances which delighted the composer’s aristocratic patrons such as the Earl of Essex and King Christian of Denmark.

The English guitarist Julian Bream played Dowland’s pieces on the guitar from an early stage of his career, and made a best-selling album of them for RCA. It was this antique palette of gentle, musing expression that inspired Benjamin Britten to write a Nocturnal for guitar which builds as a sequence of eight variations towards (rather than away from) the Dowland song on which they are based. The resulting work, according to Bream, was the greatest solo work ever written for guitar, exploring a slippage between wakeful and dream states with a subtle ambiguity between major and minor harmonies and a language that bridges the divide between the 17th and 20th centuries.

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