John Dowland has several songs that would alone guarantee him a place among the greats. "Come, heavy sleep" from his First Booke of Songes or Ayres (1597) is certainly one of them. English composers were masters of combining memorable, naturally balanced melodies with expressive and at times daring harmonies - a trait which is very much in evidence here. But even so, we feel that here Dowland achieved a rare perfection, even for him: we get the feeling that maybe Downland just woke up one morning, perhaps after a night spent mostly not asleep, and the song was found fully formed in his mind - like Dowland's 20th century counterpart's, Paul McCartney's Yesterday.
Performed by NOI: Maikki Säikkä, soprano & Tuomas Kourula, lute
16 сен 2024
