Recording
Title: Lute Songs
Performers: Steven Rickards (Countertenor), Dorothy Linell (Lute)
Year: 1996
Length: 1 hour 10 minutes
Review
Thomas Campion gives us 28 Lute songs which are collected in this recording, and although it does have the merit of having been both written and composed by Campion they do not hold any kind of candle to John Dowland's equivalent works.
There are a couple of stand-outs here particularly in the first ten tracks of the album but either through exhaustion of the listener or actual quality, the tracks soon begin to blend onto each other and there is no Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire! to bring your attention back.
So this is actually a pretty unnecessary addition to anyone's library, and I do think this list has a bit too many British composers in it... it never was the Mecca of music until the mid 20th century so there is little need to pretend otherwise by cramming sub-par crap down our throats. With some exceptions (Purcell, Handel etc.) , give me some Italians until you give me some Germans and then give me Frenchies. But Dowland made some hot tracks...
Final Grade
6/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Early dictionary writers, such as Fétis saw Campion as a theorist. It was much later on that people began to see him as a composer.
Why?
Thomas Campion... the album version are considerably better:
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