As I listened to the first track, “Awake sweet love thou art returned”, memory returned to the long-vanished pre-war 78rpm recording of the same song by Cecile Dolmetsch, a model of ‘pure’ passionlessness. Thank goodness no one does it that way now, virtually ignoring the burden of the text! Paul Agnew certainly doesn’t. He is light of step in the quicker songs, and would sound even lighter if his enunciation were as crisp as that of Rufus Muller, who also shared a fine Dowland recording with Christopher Wilson (ASV, 10/93), and he languishes longer than most over the variously sorrowful ones; it says much for his artistry, that in “Flow my teares” and “I saw my Lady weepe” he protesteth neither too much nor too long. Many of his choices now enjoy ‘pop’ status, but his inclusion of the beautiful ‘trilogy’ of which “Tymes eldest sonne” is the first part, commonly neglected in cross-sectional programmes, is particularly welcome. Agnew is adept at shading his timbre as befits the mood of the text, notably to the benefit of the songs of sadness in which it reaches a doleful, scarcely breathed emptiness. Like Muller, he receives the most sensitive of support from Wilson, clearly articulated, warm in tone, and perfectly complementary in completing the contrapuntal textures – neither intrusively nor coyly balanced with the voice. Dowland’s lute songs have generated many fine recordings, as they richly deserve, and here is one more, beautifully presented, with a booklet containing first-class annotation and all the texts.
Love is a familiar peg on which to hang a song recital, and if there is a further focus it is usually on the composer of the music; Agnew and Wilson turn the tables, for once, by spotlighting the writers of the texts, namely Sir Philip Sidney and John Donne. Their poems are set by Tessier, Dowland, Morley, Coprario, Alfonso Ferrabosco II, Corkine, John Hilton and the ever-present Anon, the last being recovered from a variety of sources. Of the songs, only those by Tessier and Dowland, and one by Anon have any other current recording. Sidney’s sonnets Astrophel and Stella, written between 1581 and 1983, may have been addressed to the daughter of the Earl of Essex but she was unwillingly married to Lord Rich in 1581, so Sidney may have had in mind the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, whom he married in 1583. The emotional range of Donne’s Songs and Sonets may also mirror the fluctuating fortunes of his own, basically happy marriage. In both cases the operative word is ‘may’.
To the good features of the recording of the Dowland songs are to be added notably clearer diction and some graceful embellishments (trippingly lithe in Dearest love I doe not goe) from Agnew, and two well-chosen lute solos by way of interludes from Wilson. There is no respect in which this is not an outstanding issue, save that of the difficulty of extracting the jewel-case from the slip cover in which it and the invaluable booklet are housed.'