Recordings

 

 

 

 

 

"That mournful dimension of the music of Dowland which has fascinated many generations, both past and present, culminated in the beautiful In Darkness Let Me Dwell (from the Musical Banquet of 1610) which we can now listen to in a recent and magnificent performance by two musicians of great prominence, countertenor Michael Chance and lutenist Paul Beier. Beier has written an interesting and well documented introductory text to this recording in which he reviews, in detail and with emotional participation, the emblematic story of Dowland, an English composer highly acclaimed in the Denmark of King Christian IV, almost like a Hamlet of music, who then finds himself quite neglected in his homeland where he had always aspired to a position at Court, with entirely unsatisfying results for a long time […]."

Claudio Strinati - Il Venerdì di Repubblica   23 October 2015

"An embittered musician, acclaimed in the greatest courts of Europe but at a certain point criticized and substituted by a new generation of musicians inebriated on the latest musical fashions... This theme is taken up by two performers of the highest caliber, rich in experience and refined in style (the countertenor Michael Chance and lutenist Paul Beier) as the subject of a cd - In darkness- to be listened to repeatedly: because it makes you aware, it makes you reflect, it takes you back - in line with what the program suggests - to the climate of an "early music" that today seems to have been lost... [These are] sublime compositions that express a sweet and at the same time ruthless cosmic pessimism. Beier alternates the songs with works for solo lute also by Dowland, performed with memorable style and empathy."

Massimo Rolando Zegna - Amadeus   December 2015