The English String Festival opens with a Galliard by the lutenist composer John Dowland, a musician who failed to gain a position at the court...

The English String Festival opens with a Galliard by the lutenist composer John Dowland, a musician who failed to gain a position at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, but won recognition and accumulated debts instead in the service of King Christian IV of Denmark, before returning to serve the new Scottish King, James I of England, in 1612. Dowland matched the spirit of the turn of the century with his most famous composition, the song “Flow my teares”, the epitome of melancholy, the fashionable humour of the day, “Lachrimae” or “Seaven Teares” later became the basis of seven sorrowful pavans, interspersed with livelier contrasting galliards. Dowland himself punned on his name, using for one of the solemn pavans the title “Dowland semper dolens”, Dowland always grieving. In fact he seems to have been a man of remarkably cheerful temperament. The Lachrimae theme was much admired and imitated, both in England and abroad.

Elgar's position as a leading composer of his day, quite in accordance with the continuing Romantic traditions in German-speaking countries, must be clear from the three works included in the present Festival.

Frank Bridge has been the subject of undeserved neglect as a composer, in spite of the attempts of his loyal pupil Benjamin Britten to give him the honour he deserved. Trained as a violinist, he was distinguished as a chamber-music player, serving for a time as violist in the Joachim Quartet and later in the English String Quartet. He appeared frequently as a conductor and wrote a considerable amount of music. His later work, after the war of 1914-1918, was nearer in manner to contemporary music on the continent of Europe. The Lament was written in 1915 in memory of a child drowned in the Lusitania.

Hubert Parry, a product of Eton and Oxford, exerted a powerful influence over music in England, as a teacher, composer and scholar. In the first capacity he combined for some years the positions of Professor of Music at Oxford and Director of the Royal College of Music, while in the second he was prolific, with a particular gift for vocal writing. His scholarship is evident in his study of the music of the 17th century for the old Oxford History of Music and his work on the music of J.S. Bach. An English Suite was published three years after Parry's death, in 1921. It is a charming re-creation of an earlier period of music, in form a Baroque suite. Lady Radnor's Suite, of similar inspiration, was completed in 1894 and published in 1902. It consists of a series of dance movements, a translation of Baroque tradition into a more nearly contemporary idiom, ending with the customary Gigue.

The Capella Istropolitana was founded in 1983 by members of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, at first as a chamber orchestra and then as an orchestra large enough to tackle the standard classical repertoire. Based in Bratislava, its name drawn from the ancient name still preserved in the Academia Istropolitana, the orchestra works in the recording studio and undertakes frequent tours throughout Europe.

Adrian Leaper studied conducting with Maurice Miles at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was trained also as a horn-player, later appearing with the London Sinfonietta and the English Chamber Orchestra, as well as serving eight years in the Philharmonia Orchestra, five of them as co-principal. At the same time he undertook a variety of conducting engagements with amateur and professional orchestras. He had recently been named Assistant Conductor with the Halle Orchestra at the time of this recording.