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Gudrun Anders, soprano CHRISTOPHORUS - CHE 0134-2 [70'11''] This information, and the list of contents above, comes from diverdi.com, which tells visitors - in English - that "we are working in the conviction that we are building Europe’s most important online source for independent classical music". The singer and commentator, who teaches historical singing in Leipzig, is a passionate soprano with an individual voice and style, one who lives every narrative moment of these vocal works and heightens expression with surprising bending of the tones. The Italian texts (many by D'India himself) are provided - but no translations, a very serious deficiency. There are brief synopses of just a few of the items, but e.g "the writer likens the eyes of his adored to the light of the stars in heaven" really is not enough to sustain an eight minute love letter... The accompaniments on a variety of plucked and bowed instruments (meticulously matched track by track so that we know exactly what we are hearing) are delightful, and there are a few brief instrumental interpositions which are very welcome. For Italian speakers this is a very recommendable disc indeed, but the rest of us deserve more help. Is there any possibility of the record company making the texts and translations available on their website? I have been addressing this perennial problem again earlier this week with the French label timpani, in respect of their important collections of French chansons by Chabrier, Roussel etc: q.v. timpani-overview. John Dowland, Giulio Caccini, Pierre Guédron, Anthony Holborne, Daniel Batchela etc Robert Dowland's Musical Banquet (1610) Monika Mauch & Nigel North ECM New Series 476 6397 We have had to wait three years for this interesting multilingual collection of English, French, Spanish and Italian lute songs collected mainly by John Dowland, published by his son Robert (who was "more of a player rather than a composer") and recorded May 2005 in St Gerold, a venue favoured by ECM. The photos are by the recording engineer; his cover image is so dark I prefer the shot of the artists. To my taste, the pure, boyish soprano of Monika Mauch is a shade cool and uninvolving, albeit scrupulously accurate. Nigel North, as always, cannot be faulted, and his few solos, four Galliards and one Pavin, are exquisite. One criticises ECM presentation with hesitation - inscrutable cover images are an idiosyncratic feature of the label, and the documentation is efficient even though some of the liner notes are less than helpful (not so Nigel North's here). Full texts and translations are provided, but awkwardly printed sequentially rather than parallel across the page, so you sometimes have to turn overleaf to see the words in the language of your choice... And the printing is pale, unkind to those of us with less than perfect eyesight. I think it has to be a matter of taste whether one goes for Monika Mauch's understatement* or (above) Gudrun Anders's emotionalism (lacking translations) in Sigismondo d'India. Peter Grahame Woolf * q.v. - - a superb, understated interpreter of these songs - - Her unaccented pronunciation of all four languages is perfect, and every word of text is perfectly delivered - - beautifully sung - - a jolly good listen as a programme, of course. [David Hill, Early Music Review]
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