The Dowland in Sweden project from 2024 has finally landed with a release on Deux-Elles. Like the carol book it has an inspired cover, and there’s a certain symmetry in the album being about a book, A Treatise of Melancholie, whereas my book is about music. The playing by Stefan Östersjö and his team is truly inspired (as is the singing by the Erik Westberg Chamber Choir) but I suspect some critics may be puzzled by David Gorton’s sometimes exquisite ‘interventions’. 

 

 

Bizarrely, the Sound and Fury Obrecht recording from 2009 (which all of us had forgotten about) has just been released on Fra Bernardo and has been longlisted for a Deutschen Schallplattenkritik nomination.  Both the four voice Missa Salve diva parens which is the name track, and the six-voice Salve Regina which follows it sound absolutely amazing. Like all S&F recordings, it's close to live with only minimal edits and none of us had seen the music befofe we arrived at Kloster Mauerbach. There was something magic about the adrenaline and the stunning building that we sang in. We were all well-versed in C15 Franco-Flemish music so we knew what to expect and yet it was completely new.  This must have been very close to what Obrecht experienced when he created the piece (which he then sang). The 2009 incarnation of S & F was a great team: David Erler, Gerhardt Hölzle  and me, Richard Wistreich and Colin Mason, with founder Thomas Bauer. Great days at Mauerbach, thanks to Muntean/Rosenblum and the legendary Bernhard Trebuch. 

Meanwhile, back in real life, Yale have produced a very elegant Christmas card based on the book cover, and Carols has had a nice review in the Arts Fuse (‘Boston’s premier online arts magazine’). It briefly outsold the Book of Common Prayer on Amazon last week...