Songs of Passion
$45.00
Low Stock
add to cart
JOHN DOWLAND / HENRY PURCELL
Songs of Passion
Lea Desandre (mezzo) Thomas Dunford (lute), with with Alex Rosen (bass-baritone), Jess Dandy (contralto), Laurence Kilsby (tenor)
[ Erato / CD ]
Release Date: Wednesday 10 September 2025
This item is only available to us via Special Import.
With Songs of Passion, a collection of vocal and instrumental music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell - English composers born nearly a century apart - mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, lutenist Thomas Dunford and Ensemble Jupiter have created a companion to their previous Erato albums, Eternal Heaven, Idylle and Amazone. Making guest appearances on Songs of Passion are four further singers of the rising generation: baritone (and Erato artist) Huw Montague Rendall, contralto Jess Dandy, tenor Laurence Kilsby and bass Alex Rosen. Dowland is known for his intimate evocations of amorous melancholy in his writing for voice and for lute, while the music of Purcell - the greatest British-born composer of the Baroque era - encompasses a rich diversity of moods and emotions. To the fore on Songs of Passion are two of Purcell's works for the stage: The Fairy Queen and Dido and Aeneas. Dido's famous lament, 'When I am laid in earth', forms the climax of the album.
"Across two discs, the performers shed any hint of 'whitewashed' English restraint, fathoming Dowland's twilight world and Purcell's exuberant theatricality." BBC Music
"Desandre sings exquisitely, and Dunford plays immaculately, but it's the raw ache infused in these intelligently curated interpretations that deeply moves." The New York Times
"This is an embarrassment of riches, almost overwhelmingly good...the instrumental playing is so vital and responsive it's as if Dunford has Dowland on speed-dial." Gramophone Award Nomination 2026 - Song
International Classical Music Awards 2026
Winner - Baroque Vocal
Tracks:
1 First Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 1, Come Again! Sweet Love Doth Now Invite
2 Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 10, Semper Dowland, semper dolens, P. 9
3 First Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 9, Go Crystal Tears
4 Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 12, The King of Denmark's Galliard, P. 40
5 First Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 5, Can She Excuse My Wrongs?
6 Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 2, Lachrimae antiquae
7 A Dream, P. 75
8 Second Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 3, Sorrow, Stay
9 Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 14, The Earl of Essex Galliard, P. 42
10 Second Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 2, Flow My Tears
11 Frog Galliard, P. 23
12 First Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 6, Now, o Now,
13 Needs Must Part
14 The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act 3: "If Love's a Sweet Passion"
15 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: V. Strike the Viol
16 O Solitude, My Sweetest Choice, Z. 406
17 An Evening Hymn on a Ground, Z. 193
18 The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act 5: Chaconne
19 The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act 5: The Plaint. "O Let Me Weep, For Ever Weep"
20 The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act 4: "Now the Night Is Chased Away"
21 Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626: Overture
22 Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act 1: "Ah Belinda!"
23 Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act 2: Echo Dances of Furies
24 Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act 2: "Thanks to These Lonesome Vales"
25 Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act 3: The Witches's Dance
26 Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act 3: "Thy Hand, Belinda"
27 Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act 3: Dido's Lament. "When
28 Am Laid in Earth"
29 Take Me Back to You
