Reviews for Go from My Window
 (Linn Records CKD 176) |
Dear reader,
It is interesting to read that the GRAMOPHONE reviewer (John Duarte)
acknowledges that there are several pieces on this CD which (for the lute) are
wonderfully rich, long, intense and complex. Yet - the BBC reviewer (Kate
Bolton) - says that she longs for "something of greater musical substance and
complexity." Does anyone out there know of any Jacobean Lute music more rich,
complex or of greater substance than Dowland's "loth to depart" or Batchelar's "une
jeune fillette" ? Comments are most welcome - to me at
enquiries@nigelnorth.net.
Thanks,
Nigel North
GRAMOPHONE (Awards Issue, November 2003)
James Jolly - Editor's choice
"There's something wonderfully engaging about Nigel North's lute playing, not
surprising perhaps from someone who claims to be largely self-taught. There is
an ease about his approach to this repertoire that speaks of long and detailed
study of the period and its musicians, but with never a hint of the academic or
desk-bound. In North's hands, this music speaks so directly that the messages
implicit on so many of these pieces emerge with a clarity of poise that really
draws the listener in."
John Duarte - Review
"An entire disc of Renaissance lute music, especially one that includes no
fantasias, can easily be the aural equivalent of a fast changing kaleidoscope.
Nigel North avoids this risk with items of high musical quality; only four of
the 17 last for less than three minutes and two play for over six minutes.
Not only is the programme sagely chosen, it is also magnificently played. There
are many lutenists who play this music in correct style but few who present it
in such "human" fashion. With his lines shaped by finely controlled rubato and
subtly shaded dynamics, North deserves his place among the finest living
lutenists. The recording captures his splendid "three-dimensional" tone and his
avoidance of unwanted ghostly sounds from the movements of the left-hand
fingers, and his annotation is a model if its kind. If you should wish to
install a love of lute music in a friend, you could not do better than by
beginning with this lovely recording."
THE INDEPENDENT , London (August 2003)
North's collection of variations on Jacobean ballads, in which Dowland and Byrd head a list of more minor composers, displays his skill and taste as a lutenist to the full. Integral to this music is the ability to weave seamless lines around an original theme: North makes even the most challenging of these delightful pieces sound deceptively simple.
MUSICAL POINTERS (September, 2003)
This is an immaculate sequence of Elizabethan and Jacobean tunes, many well known, others less so, subjected by virtuoso lutenists to elaborate variations. All the lute versions have come down in tablature from unknown Elizabethan lutenists and they have been edited by Nigel North, a leading English lutenist now based in Indiana University.
Many of these would have been improvised, but Nigel North believes that some
collected here are too complicated and extended for that to have been feasible.
My preference is for mixed vocal and instrumental CDs in this repertoire, but
this is undoubtedly a bench-mark recording which should serve as a model to
young lutenists, and it is a pleasure to listen to, if better a few at a time.
BBC Music Magazine (September 2003) - Kate Bolton
" Popular ballad tunes were a rich source of inspiration for Elizabethan and Jacobean musicians and were used as the basis for countless sets of variations by the finest composeres of the day, including Dowland, Byrd and John Johnson, in whose hands the melding of simplicty and artifice could produce some beguiling results. This selection includes tunes which are still familiar favourites, like "Greensleeves" and "Go from my window", along with once-popular numbers that have been long forgotten. It is interesting to compare variation sets on the same tune by different composers, which Nigel North has grouped in pairs on this recording.
North is now something of an èminence grise of the lute, and his expertise in early music as well and his evident affinity with jazz and rock makes him an ideal exponent of this repertoire. He negotiates even the most intricate of these pieces with disarming ease and plays with a winning combination of freedom and rigour. The recorded sound is excellent - detailed yet with a resonant bloom. My only caveat is that after an entire disc of such pieces, one longs to hear something of greater musical substance and complexity."
