Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Dowland: Lachrimae
Brilliant Classics

Dowland: Lachrimae

$13.99

Details

Composer
DOWLAND, JOHN
Artist
Opera Prima Consort, Contadin
Format
CD
Label
Brilliant Classics
Released
Nov 01, 2019
Catalog #
BRI95699
UPC
5028421956992

About

The seven Lachrimae Pavan of 1604 are widely held to mark not only the high point of Dowland’s work but the entire genre of viol consort music. Dowland takes a lamenting pavan that he had written some years earlier and develops its theme into a cycle which takes the listener through different states of tearfulness, from loneliness to despair through hope to love and finally joy – the ‘true tears’ of the final pavan. In its contrapuntal mastery and its ingenuity in the treatment of a single theme, the Lachrimae cycle stands alongside The Art of Fugue composed by J.S. Bach a century and a half later. Most recordings of the Lachrimae use the standard instrumentation of a consort of viols, ranging from treble to bass and accompanied by a lute. For his second recording of the cycle, however, the Italian violist Cristiano Contadin has boldly created a broken consort performance which mixes the recorder and also early violin and viola in with the uniquely grainy timbre of the viols. Such an instrumentation exploits the long association of the recorder with music of lamentation, and makes a historical connection with, for example, the cantatas of Bach. Contadin explains with a booklet essay that his aim in performance is to recover the ‘passionate’ nature of this music as Dowland envisaged it in his own written preface to the score, and indeed there is nothing dry or constricted about the performance he directs from the treble viol. Now, with three generations of period performance research and practice under their belts, musicians are beginning to play this music with the kind of freedom and spontaneity and emotion they would accord (in other ways) to Brahms, and this new recording deserves comparison with the most distinguished accounts from the recent past.

Tracklist 21 tracks

  1. 1 I. Lachrimae Antiquae 04:12
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Lachrimae Antiquae
    Duration
    04:12
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  2. 2 II. Lachrimae Antiquae Nouae 03:45
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Lachrimae Antiquae Nouae
    Duration
    03:45
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  3. 3 III. Lachrimae Gementes 03:48
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Lachrimae Gementes
    Duration
    03:48
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  4. 4 IV. Lachrimae Tristes 04:20
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Lachrimae Tristes
    Duration
    04:20
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  5. 5 V. Lachrimae Coactae 03:40
    Track
    5
    Title
    V. Lachrimae Coactae
    Duration
    03:40
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  6. 6 VI. Lachrimae Amantis 03:54
    Track
    6
    Title
    VI. Lachrimae Amantis
    Duration
    03:54
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  7. 7 VII. Lachrimae Verae 04:07
    Track
    7
    Title
    VII. Lachrimae Verae
    Duration
    04:07
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  8. 8 VIII. Semper Dowland semper dolens 06:04
    Track
    8
    Title
    VIII. Semper Dowland semper dolens
    Duration
    06:04
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  9. 9 XII. Sir Henry Umptons Funerall 04:29
    Track
    9
    Title
    XII. Sir Henry Umptons Funerall
    Duration
    04:29
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  10. 10 XV. M. John Langtons Pavan 03:56
    Track
    10
    Title
    XV. M. John Langtons Pavan
    Duration
    03:56
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  11. 11 XXI. The King of Denmarks Galiard 01:48
    Track
    11
    Title
    XXI. The King of Denmarks Galiard
    Duration
    01:48
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  12. 12 XIX. The Earle of Essex Galiard 01:18
    Track
    12
    Title
    XIX. The Earle of Essex Galiard
    Duration
    01:18
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  13. 13 XI. Sir John Souch his Galiard 01:21
    Track
    13
    Title
    XI. Sir John Souch his Galiard
    Duration
    01:21
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  14. 14 XX. M. Henry Noel his Galiard 01:49
    Track
    14
    Title
    XX. M. Henry Noel his Galiard
    Duration
    01:49
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  15. 15 X. M. Giles Hobies Galiard 01:20
    Track
    15
    Title
    X. M. Giles Hobies Galiard
    Duration
    01:20
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  16. 16 IX. M. Nicholas Gryffith his Galiard 01:47
    Track
    16
    Title
    IX. M. Nicholas Gryffith his Galiard
    Duration
    01:47
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  17. 17 XVII. M. Thomas Collier his Galiard with 2 Trebles 01:20
    Track
    17
    Title
    XVII. M. Thomas Collier his Galiard with 2 Trebles
    Duration
    01:20
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  18. 18 XVIII. Captaine Digorie Piper his Galiard 02:38
    Track
    18
    Title
    XVIII. Captaine Digorie Piper his Galiard
    Duration
    02:38
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  19. 19 XVI. M. Buctons Galiard 01:21
    Track
    19
    Title
    XVI. M. Buctons Galiard
    Duration
    01:21
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  20. 20 XIV. Mistresse Nichols Almand 01:12
    Track
    20
    Title
    XIV. Mistresse Nichols Almand
    Duration
    01:12
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin
  21. 21 XIII. M. George Whitehead his Almand 01:12
    Track
    21
    Title
    XIII. M. George Whitehead his Almand
    Duration
    01:12
    Composer
    John Dowland
    Ensemble
    Opera Prima Ensemble
    Conductor
    Cristiano Contadin