Gramophone Magazine
Awards Issue 2025
Editor's choice
Lea Desandre (mezzo), Thomas Dunford (lute, theorbo), with Alex Rosen (bass-baritone), Jess Dandy (contralto), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Huw Montague Rendall (baritone)
Dowland: First Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 1, Come Again! Sweet Love Doth Now Invite
Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 10, Semper Dowland, semper dolens, P. 9
Dowland: First Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 9, Go Crystal Tears
Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 12, The King of Denmark's Galliard, P. 40
Dowland: First Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 5, Can She Excuse My Wrongs?
Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 2, Lachrimae antiquae
Dowland: A Dream
Dowland: Second Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 3, Sorrow, Stay
Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 14, The Earl of Essex Galliard, P. 42
Dowland: Second Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 2, Flow My Tears
Dowland: Frog Galliard, P. 23
Dowland: First Book of Songs or Ayres: No. 6, Now, o Now, I Needs Must Part
Purcell: The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III: If Love's a Sweet Passion
Purcell: Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: V. Strike the Viol
Purcell: O solitude, my sweetest choice, Z406
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.
"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 Magazine, Awards Issue 2025
