"Crystal Tears": John Dowland and his contemporaries

There are few pleasures more delightful than musical melancholy, especially when it flows from the pen of the finest Elizabethan poets and a composer whose name will be forever associated with that emotion: John Dowland. His lute songs and consort songs form the backbone of Andreas Scholl’s latest recital. The countertenor has gathered his favourite partners around him in the service of this sublime vocal art, elegantly distilling its fragile instants of grace. The songs are adroitly interspersed with instrumental pieces by Dowland’s contemporaries. Bonus DVD: a performance of the Song ‘Venus’ birds’ and a ‘beyond the microphones’ documentary on the making of this recording.