This collection of post-Elizabethan melancholy risks being overly ambitious, for it tries to pursue two innovative goals. First, it mixes songs and poetry of the period; it is not the only recording to have done so, but it is likely to be the first one that attendees at the Stratford Festival, say, run across on the rack. Second, it tries to uncover some lesser-known songs: eight pieces on the disc are devoted to the comparatively little-known Robert Jones, along with works by Dowland and Robert Johnson and poetry by ...
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This collection of post-Elizabethan melancholy risks being overly ambitious, for it tries to pursue two innovative goals. First, it mixes songs and poetry of the period; it is not the only recording to have done so, but it is likely to be the first one that attendees at the Stratford Festival, say, run across on the rack. Second, it tries to uncover some lesser-known songs: eight pieces on the disc are devoted to the comparatively little-known Robert Jones, along with works by Dowland and Robert Johnson and poetry by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Thomas Campion, Sir Walter Raleigh, and others. Fortunately, it all hangs together beautifully. A good deal of the credit goes to the performer who will no doubt be the disc's strongest drawing card -- actor Ralph Fiennes, who reads the poetry in a direct, immensely appealing style. Sample his reading of Raleigh's love poem "In the grace of wit, of tongue, of face," track 9, and you may be instantly hooked on the disc. The two countertenors involved, England's...
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