John Dowland (1563-1626)
"A Fantasie", P 1a
"The Most High and Mighty Christianus the Fourth, King of Denmark, His Galliard", P 40
"Melancholy Galliard", P 25
"Lady Hunsdon's Puffe", P 54
"Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard", P 19
"Forlorn Hope Fance", P 2
"The right Honourable Ferdinando Earl of Derby, His Galliard", P 44a
"The Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth, Her Galliard", P 41
"A Fancy", P 6
"The right Honourable Earl of Essex, His Galliard", P 42a
"Tarleton's Riserrectione", P 59
"Dowland's First Galliard", P 22
"A Fancy", P 73
"Fortune", P 62
"My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home", P 66a
"Mignarda", P 34
"A Fancy", P 5
"Mr. Dowland's Midnight", P 99
"Lachrimae", P 15

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
"Nocturnal" d'après John Dowland, op. 70

Pascal Boëls, guitare

John Dowland, Benjamin Britten : 350 ans exactement séparent ces deux compositeurs britanniques, mais ils partagent un même "mood", la mélancolie. L'un et l'autre ont dû choisir l'exil pour quelques temps, inquiétés, l'un pour son catholicisme dans un pays protestant, l'autre pour son homosexualité et son objection de conscience dans un pays en guerre. L'un et l'autre obtinrent, tardivement mais de leur vivant, reconnaissance et consécration dans leur patrie, applaudis comme les plus grands compositeurs britanniques de leur temps. Britten s'est toujours tenu à l'écart des musiques atonales de ses contemporains, préférant rendre hommage aux musiques anciennes. C'est donc tout naturellement qu'il se tourne vers son illustre prédécesseur quand le grand guitariste Julian Bream sollicite de lui une œuvre pour guitare. Il compose en 1963 son "Nocturnal" op. 70, un ensemble de variations sur un air de luth de Dowland, "Come, Heavy Sleep", extrait d'un recueil publié en 1597. Chez Britten, le thème original n'est exposé qu'en conclusion de huit variations très contrastées, en rythme et en tonalité. C'est donc un programme cohérent, faisant précéder l'œuvre de Britten d'une sélection d'œuvres pour luth de Dowland, dont les célèbres Fantaisie "Forlorn Hope" et "Pavane Lachrymae", que nous propose le guitariste français Pascal Boëls, spécialiste de la guitare à dix cordes, qui permet de reproduire les sonorités plus graves du luth. Un bel album, traduisant bien l'aimable mélancolie qui imprègne ces œuvres. (Marc Galand)

Pavans and galliards by the Elizabethan master of melancholy, complemented by a new recording of Benjamin Britten’s magnificent Nocturnal inspired by both Dowland’s music and by the playing of Julian Bream. After the success of ‘The Golden Age of the Guitar in Europe’ (2CD, 96157), Brilliant Classics releases a second album by the French guitarist Pascal Boëls, a unique collection of music by 17th and 20th-century English masters. In a booklet introduction, the guitarist explains how he sees Dowland as ‘a universal genius, eternal wanderer who – already! – knew how to rub shoulders with all facets of the human soul.’ Pascal Boëls plays a personal selection of Dowland’s piece originally written for solo lute, pieces which embody a spirit of introversion such as the ‘Forlorn Hope’ Fancy and the ‘Lachrymae’ Pavan which became famous across Europe, much imitated and adapted by other composers of the day. Lightening the mood are also the kind of courtly dances and romances which delighted the composer’s aristocratic patrons such as the Earl of Essex and King Christian of Denmark. The English guitarist Julian Bream played Dowland’s pieces on the guitar from an early stage of his career, and made a best-selling album of them for RCA. It was this antique palette of gentle, musing expression that inspired Benjamin Britten to write a Nocturnal for guitar which builds as a sequence of eight variations towards (rather than away from) the Dowland song on which they are based. The resulting work, according to Bream, was the greatest solo work ever written for guitar, exploring a slippage between wakeful and dream states with a subtle ambiguity between major and minor harmonies and a language that bridges the divide between the 17th and 20th centuries.