Seven tears upon silence

Description

In composing the seven pavans that make up his famous Lachrimae, John Dowland offers instrumental music one of his first masterpieces. The ensemble Sit Fast, a consort of viols led by Atsushi Sakaï, delivers here a precious version of these timeless pages. But who said that the viol was confined to ancient music? In reality, the pure sound of this instrument, a privileged vehicle of the contained pain of the melancholics of the late Renaissance, has also inspired George Benjamin. Upon Silence, written in 1990 for five viols and mezzo-soprano to a text by Yeats, extends and updates the poetry of Dowland's tears. Four centuries separate the two compatriots, but the polyphonic writing and the search for a refinement of feelings unite them in this record, elegantly interpreted by the beautiful ensemble Sit Fast.