PHILIP ROSSETER

 

WHEN LAURA SMILES

Lute solos and songs from Elizabethan England

 

1.  Sweet come again    

2.  And would you see

3.  A fantasie

4.  No grave for woe

5.  Reprove not love

6.  What then is love

7.  Pavan in F minor

8.  Galliard in F minor

9.  Galliard in F major 

10. Though far from joy

11. When Laura smiles

12. Kind in unkindness   

13. Prelude

14. Pavan in G minor                 

15. Galliard in G minor   

16. Almayne

17. If she forsake me    

18. Shall I come if I swim                      

19. Whether men do laugh         

20. What heart's content

 

Matthew Wadsworth - lute, James Gilchrist - tenor

 

Recorded May-June 2005, St. Martin’s Church, East Woodhay, Newbury, UK

Producer: Jonathan Freeman-Attwood

Engineer: Patrick Naylor

 

Gramophone Editor’s Choice artist Matthew Wadsworth presents the first ever recording devoted entirely to Philip Rosseter’s music. A timely tribute to one of the great masters of the lute and English song, When Laura Smiles features twelve of Rosseter’s most beguiling songs, including What then is love but mourning, If she forsake me, Sweet come again as well as the title track. It also includes all of Rosseter’s surviving lute solos, including an epic chromatic fantasy, two weighty pavans and several charming dances. When Laura Smiles continues Matthew’s series of recordings exploring music by John Dowland’s contemporaries, the first being the critically acclaimed Away Delights with soprano Carolyn Sampson (AV2053) featuring the music of Robert Johnson. On tour with English Touring Opera’s Alcina throughout the autumn, Matthew performs selections from When Laura Smiles with tenor James Gilchrist at the Wigmore Hall on 6 January 2006.

 

Listening to this enjoyable disc of lute songs and solos, it seems extraordinary that it is the first recording entirely devoted to Rosseter, and that such delightful music is not far better known.

The songs, while reflecting his preference for a straightforward style of word-setting, with accompaniments free from contrapuntal elaboration, are beautifully crafted. The voice and lute parts are artfully interwoven to produce a succession of simple but exquisite miniature gems.

None of them plumbs Dowlandesque depths of despondency, but only the exuberant When Laura Smiles is completely carefree. The prevailing tone is of gentle melancholy, as in the simple yet touching No Grave for Woe, or What then is Love but Mourning?, with its catchy refrain.

James Gilchrist and Matthew Wadsworth perfectly capture the delicately understated charm of these pieces, and the complete expressive rapport between them creates just the right atmosphere of meditative intimacy, as if the listener were eavesdropping on private music-making.

The lute solos combine similar intimacy with greater emotional intensity, especially in the Pavin by Rossesters, with its hints of Dowland's Lachrimae.

Elizabeth Roche, Telegraph

 

Avie AV2074