Songs of Passion

Performances of John Dowland’s music are often shrouded in a haze of all-purpose, Elizabethan melancholy. For lutenist Thomas Dunford, however, Dowland is considerably more multifaceted than that. The recital opener “Come Again! Sweet Love Doth Now Invite,” for example, has four vocal soloists, and takes strikingly different emotional stances from one verse to another. “Can She Excuse My Wrongs?” is likewise sharply temperamental, highlighting elements of anger and frustration in the song’s lyrics. Mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre’s moving accounts of “Sorrow, Stay” and “Flow My Tears” are other standout moments. Desandre features prominently in the second half of this album, devoted to English Baroque composer Henry Purcell. With Dunford, Desandre distills a pure-toned, affecting account of the song “O solitude, My Sweetest Choice,” while her dignified restraint in the aria “When I Am Laid in Earth,” from Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas, brings this richly rewarding recital to a moving conclusion.