Dowland - Lachrymae; Benjamin: Upon Silence

The Guardian 80

Sit Fast/Breton/Nyhlin
(Evidence)

Nobody did melancholy like John Dowland. This disc, of two hugely different yet complementary works, is dominated by his Lachrymae, published in 1604. All seven movements – or “seaven teares” – follow, increasingly freely, the outline of his song Flow My Tears, and the effect of hearing them one after another is mesmeric. Yet there’s enough vibrancy in the playing of the five-strong viol consort Sit Fast to keep drawing the attention afresh, with the “voices” of the instruments ebbing and flowing, and with Karl Nyhlin’s lute providing extra articulation for their smoothly delivered harmonies.

Writing nearly four centuries later, George Benjamin uses the viols almost like a string orchestra in his Yeats setting Upon Silence, exploring their sonorities: together they sound now like an accordion, now like an Indian flute. Sit Fast are mercurial in their responsiveness to Benjamin’s busily shifting textures and to Sarah Breton’s low, urgent singing.