John Dowland - a dream Hopkinson Smith
Dowland speaks. In many ways. The viols whose crossing voices and passing dissonances slide lachrymoneously by each other like eels in a bucket; his "dwell" set to languish in infinite stillness at the end of "In darkness let me."; his lighter pieces full of energy, subtlety, wit and charm. He must have had wide swings of mood: on one side, the tortured professional recluse only just surviving the deepest despair, on the other, his laughter and masterfully constructed frivolity or his contrapuntal energy inspiring one section of an improvisatory fantasy after another like an soccer player weaving in and out of adversaries as he goes alone for the goal. And Dowland speaks to us. One can't help but be fascinated by the lyrical world of melancholy and mirth. His message is intensely personal, - we all find something of ourselves therein. The pavin called "A Dream" is certainly worthy of Dowland. A dream can be many things: the passage to another world, hope, a whole spectrum of sensations between darkness and light. Giving this title to the program is meant as an invitation to penetrate the world of the inner senses that is the domain of the lute in general and has an added personal intensity in the music of Dowland.Hopkinson SMITH
Ref. E8896
"Maître du luth, Hopkinson Smith sublime les airs de John Dowland. A de rares et très heureuses occasions, un concert peut révéler le rapport fusionnel existant entre le compositeur et son interprète. Ce récital en a été une." Le Temps (à propos d'un concert Dowland) "Hopkinson Smith puise en orfèvre et en magicien dans ce trésor élégiaque, comblant et l'ouïe et l'imaginaire" Roger Tellart - Radio France (à propos d'un concert Dowland) "The finest lute player in the world today" (San Francisco Chronicle) "Hopkinson Smith is the supreme 'poet' of the lute." (Gramophone)
CD 1 - 69:16
John Dowland 1-20 a dream 69:16 eight-course lute Joel van Lennep, 2002
frogg galliard
1 - 2:47
a dream
2 - 4:04
three feminine portraits
3 Lady Hunsdon's allemande 1:37 4 la mia barbara 5:01 5 Lady Clifton's spirit 3:19
a galliard
6 - 5:03
melancholy galliard
7 - 2:14
Sir John Smith's almain
8 - 2:35
lacrimae pavin
9 - 4:10
a fantasie
10 - 3:51
Dowland on the continent
11 Mauritius / Dowland pavin 4:10 12 the King of Denmark's galliard 3:03 13 farwell 4:27
Elizabeth and Essex
14 Queen Elizabeth's galliard 2:07 15 the earl of Essex's galliard 1:54
Dowland's lamentation: semper Dowland, semper dolens
16 - 5:44
a fancy
17 - 2:34
Lady Rich's galliard
18 - 1:41
Fortune my foe
19 - 4:32
Mrs White's nothing
20 - 4:23
Hopkinson Smith (lute)
