There is a fine selection of performances of John Dowland's music by English musicians available, and it may be that few listeners outside Germany will be attracted to this recording of his music by German viol group Hamburger Ratsmusik and its leader, Simone Eckert, with tenor Jan Kobow. That would be a shame, for there is plenty to distinguish this album from other Dowland releases on the market. The program is unique: the "contemporaries" mentioned in the title are not the usual English suspects, but a group of mostly ...
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There is a fine selection of performances of John Dowland's music by English musicians available, and it may be that few listeners outside Germany will be attracted to this recording of his music by German viol group Hamburger Ratsmusik and its leader, Simone Eckert, with tenor Jan Kobow. That would be a shame, for there is plenty to distinguish this album from other Dowland releases on the market. The program is unique: the "contemporaries" mentioned in the title are not the usual English suspects, but a group of mostly German (or Danish) instrumental composers. Some such as Michael Praetorius, are well known, but others like Dane Melchior Borchgrevinck are obscure. This makes a good deal of sense inasmuch as Dowland spent a good deal of his career outside England, with his music becoming known across much of the European continent. The case for treating Dowland as characteristically British rests partly on the strain of sheer melancholy in his music, something that was seen as associated with English...
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