I love John Dowland, but… I don't know the reason for this low diapason (fragility of old instruments on which it is played, I guess) , but it's a tear for my eardrums. By the way, there was nothing such as a baroque diapason, as it was fully documented by Gérard Zwang in his book "L'Oreille absolue et le diapason dit baroque" (1984) (I don't know if it has been translated in english ; he later wrote on the same subject "LE diapason" (1998), then ""La musique baroque et son diapason - le classique confisqué" (2014) at L'Harmattan editions, maybe quite known abroad France, and therefore more proned to get translated…). He demonstrates that there were an important variety of diapasons during that period, depending more on local habits than a clear reflexion, and those from as low as 430 Hz or even less for the A, to as high as over 440 Hz (can't remember exactly, but maybe up to 445 Hz…). Whatever, though the phrasing of this performance seems fine (the little I could hear), it sounds terribly false to my ears. Sorry people, these musics with a said baroque diapason are a historical misunderstanding, and a cultural awfullness.
