DOUBLE DOWLAND
Anne Magouët : soprano
Bruno Helstroffer : theorbo
David Chevallier : guitars, arrangements
Regarded as the greatest lutenist of his time, John Dowland is best known today for his unique talent as a composer. The splendours of his songs have come to us through the ages, for us to be moved, happy, intrigued .
Double Dowland is a game of mirrors.
On the one hand, it consists in pieces for voice and lute, in their original versions.
On the other hand, a composer and improviser presents his own way of interpreting these pieces and transfigures music of yore to lead to a sheer-recreation, even though you can still hear Dowland’s omnipresent music.
Such a game of mirrors, with reflections jostling and merging together, allows us to say that, in music, time can just vanish.
And that works composed over four hundred years ago can interplay with what a contemporary musician expresses, with coherence and imagination.
(...) I find Chevallier's record extremely attractive, his re-harmonizations of Dowland (mainly in the accompaniments), always as musical as they are intriguing, his extensions of these pieces through improvisations and his way of interpreting them .
(...) His extensions of these pieces by improvised daydreams on the melodies of Dowland: precious in themselves. The fact that he accompanies a singer with a beautiful, full-bodied voice, a singer who is generally faithful to what Dowland wrote and who is nevertheless never shaken by the peregrinations of her accompaniment, contributes to this.
This disc is an unexpected pleasure.
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Michael Ullman
(...) David Chevallier took hold of early music to adapt it to modern times and not the other way around. (...) The 'hybrid form' between jazz and the Renaissance is well interpreted by the three musicians gathered around David Chevallier in a very thoughtful way and at the highest technical and musical level.
Of the highest quality. Highly recommend!
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Musik an Sich