MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS


John DOWLAND (1563-1626)
Ayres
Can she excuse my wrongs [3:40]
If that a sinner's sigh [2:20]
From silent night [3:42]
Come again [2:09]
Flow my tears [4:07]
Come away, come, sweet love [1:38]
In darkness let me dwell [4:03]
Thou mighty God [8:54]
Go crystal tears [3:25]
Fine knacks for ladies [1:58]
Clear or cloudy [1:42]
Shall I strive with words to move [1:57]
Come heavy sleep [2:31]
Sorrow come [3:27]
Prelude for lute [1:13]
If my complaints [3:51]
In this trembling shadow [2:41]
Lasso vita mia [3:55]
Tell me, true love [4:18]
Now, O now I needs must part [3:34]
Awake, sweet love [1:08]
Gérard Lesne (alto)
Ensemble Orlando Gibbons
(Kaori Uemura (treble viol), Sylvie Moquet (tenor viol), Emmanuel Balssa, Anne-Marie Lasla (bass viol), Jacob Heringman (lute))
rec. October 2002, Priory of Froville, France. DDD
NAÏVE E8919 [65:54]
Experience Classicsonline

Gérard Lesne is a distinguished and distinctive artist. His voice is very recognizable and nobody would confuse him with anyone else. He is also a very sensitive artist who clearly feels most at home in intimate and refined music, like solo songs and chamber cantatas. Many years ago he participated in operas, and some of these have been recorded. But after a while he concluded that opera was not his thing, and that he didn't really feel comfortable in that genre. That makes him pretty unique: not every singer - or artist in general - has the intelligence or sense of self-criticism to take such a decision, in particular as performing in an opera brings considerably more attention than restricting oneself to the smaller-scale.
 
But Lesne's recordings, both with his own ensemble Il Seminario Musicale and with other musicians, as on this disc, prove him right. Not only has he made a whole string of admirable and always tasteful recordings, he also has time and again delved into unknown but first-rate repertoire. He also seems to have a good ear for first-class singers and players as the people he works with are never out of step with his line of interpretation.
 
Gérard Lesne mostly sings baroque repertoire from France or Italy, and only on rare occasions does he make forays into other repertoire, like music of the renaissance or English and German material. Listening to this disc one could probably argue that it is a good thing that he doesn't perform English repertoire on a regular basis. There is certainly reason for criticism in regard to his pronunciation of the English texts. It is not that there is a specific French flavour about it. If one didn’t know that he was French, one wouldn't guess. But one would immediately sense that he is not a native English speaker. In particular the vowels sometimes sound a bit weird. But what is even more problematic is that his pronunciation is inconsistent. This is a difficult issue, as there is a variety of opinion on how to pronounce music from the Elizabethan era. Some singers use a pronunciation which is assumed to be 'authentic', others play safe and use a modern pronunciation. Whatever one chooses, it should be applied with consistency. That is lacking here, as the various pronunciations of the "r" or the "a" prove. The assistance of a language coach would not have gone amiss.
 
If one is willing and able to accept the shortcomings in the linguistic department, one is richly rewarded. Lesne gives splendid interpretations of Dowland's songs. His approach is different from that of most of his British colleagues in that he performs them in a generally more declamatory manner. He doesn't do so only in those songs which show the influence of the Italian monodic style - 'In darkness let me dwell' and 'Lasso vita mia' - but also in others. His expression of elements in the text is outstanding, as in the third stanza of 'Fine knacks for ladies'. Equally impressive is his subtle use of dynamics, as in 'From silent night'. One could argue that sometimes he misses the depth of a song. I admit that I was a little disappointed by his performance of 'Flow my tears'. At the same time he avoids overdoing its melancholic character. Another point of criticism is that Lesne is a bit too sparing in his use of ornamentation.
 
Apart from Lesne's singing one can also enjoy the playing of the Ensemble Orlando Gibbons which not only support the singer but also give instrumental performances of some songs. This is in line with the practice of Dowland's days as Elizabeth Kenny argues in the booklet. That can also be said of the decision to perform most songs with viols rather than with lute only.
 
The programme has been well put together. Most songs are well-known: the popularity of Dowland's music is such that it is difficult to find anything which hasn't been recorded a number of times before. On this disc it is probably the splendid and moving song-cycle 'Thou mighty God' which is relatively little-known. It gets a very expressive performance here.
 
This disc presents a cross-section of the various books of songs published during Dowland’s lifetime. If one is able to accept the pronunciation shortcomings one gets superior performances which I have thoroughly enjoyed.
 
Johan van Veen
 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.