No question, Thomas Campion (1567-1620) wrote beautiful poetry and often provided ideal music to go with the texts. On this disc countertenor Robin Blaze adds just the right vocal color and interpretive inflection and phrasing and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny completes the congenial collaboration with tasteful accompaniments (and a few solos). Blaze’s lovely legato, sweet tone, and a technique that allows easy, graceful shaping of lines allows a pleasurable 66 minutes of listening that never grows dull or tiresome. Campion led a colorful life, studying law and medicine, associating with many illustrious figures of the day, and along the way wrote volumes of lyric poetry and lute songs (more than 100), as well as dramatic works in the form of masques. This recording includes some of Campion’s more famous songs as well as lesser-known ones, along with instrumental settings of several songs and dances. Most notable–both for the beauty of the songs themselves and for Blaze’s elegant, sensitive performances–are “Now hath Flora robbed her bowers”, “Move now with measured sound”, “The cypress curtain of the night”, and the little masterpiece “Never weather-beaten sail”, a tune and text that inspired a number of later composers (including Hubert Parry) to recast it for chorus. The sound is intimate and true to voice and lute–as well as to the occasional accompanying viols.
