Songs and Dances of John Dowland HUGUES CUENOD, Tenor JOEL COHEN, Lute; CHRISTIANE JACCOTTET, Virginals Virginals built by PIERRE JACCOTTET, 1969, after an anonymous Flemish instrument of the late 16th century producer: Joel Cohen -- recording engineer: Claude Maréchal cover photo: Hugues Cuénod and Joel Cohen, 1971, by Pierre Jaccottet This recorded program originally appeared, in LP form, on the budget label Vox-Turnabout. It was made, under very happy and convivial circumstances, in 1971 in the Jaccottet family home at Rivaz, Switzerland. This reissue is dedicated to the memories of Hugues Cuénod and Christiane Jaccottet; and in honor of the distinguished instrument maker, restorer, and curator of antique keyboards, Pierre Jaccottet. Joel Cohen, February 2016 John Dowland (1562/3-1626), the great lutenist and composer, was among the handful of English Renaissance musicians to win an international reputation, despite the relative conservatism and insularity of musical life in England at the time. Part of Dowland's fame must be attributed to his penchant for travel: he spent four years (from 1580 to 1584) as lutenist to the English ambassadors at Paris, travelled to Germany and Italy in 1594, served King Christian of Denmark from 1598 to 1606, and returned again to Germany in 1623. It can be surmised that Dowland had a difficult character; contemporary records indicate that he was not the easiest of men to get along with, and his extensive voyaging on the continent may well be connected with a probable tendency to displease one noble patron after another. Dowland's extraordinary musical gift was in any case readily apparent to musicians and music lovers of the time, as the many continental copies and transcriptions of his compositions attest. In England, though he was slow to win favor at the court, receiving an appointment only in 1612, Dowland was a justly celebrated figure. His First Book of Ayres, published initially in 1597, ran through four editions, and began a vogue in England for the solo song with lute accompaniment; | a number of other composers, notably Campion, Rosseter, Morley and Jones, followed suit with songbooks of the same genre. The brief heyday of English lute song came for all intents and purposes to an end in 1612, with Dowland's fourth printed collection, A Pilgrim's Solace. By the time Dowland's last book appeared, fashions had begun to change, and the now middle-aged composer complained bitterly of the younger generation: "Yet do these fellows give their verdict of me behind my back, and say, what I do is after the old manner: but I will speak openly to them, and would have them know that the proudest Cantor of them, dares not oppose himself face to face against me." The corpus of Dowland's work as a composer — songs, lute solos, consort dances — is not large compared to the output of a Byrd or a Lassus, but it is of exceptionally high quality. Dowland,. like Chopin, is essentially a miniaturist, working largely with small forms often derived from the dance — pavans, galliards, almains. A number of Dowland's songs exist as well in versions for flute solo and/or instrumental consort; "Now o now" and the "Frog galliard," for example, are one and the same melody. "Can she excuse," performed here in an anonymous transcription from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, is also known as the "Earl of Essex' galliard," and so forth. Yet Dowland's style owes as much to the court and the university as it does to the street: phrases are finely counterbalanced; inner voices are carefully and delicately worked out; text-painting in the manner of the Italian madrigal frequently appears ("Sorrow Stay," "Weep you no more," "Come again"). Above all, Dowland's music is of a singularly emotional intensity, of a kind rarely found in Renaissance music in the lighter genres. There is probably more depth of feeling in the single page of "Stay, time, awhile," for example, than in a hundred French airs de cour run together — delightful and valuable as those latter may be in other ways. Dowland's works are in certain cases comparable to many important compositions of Mozart — deceptively simple at first hearing, taking on ever richer shades of meaning as one grows with and into the music. (1972) Cuénod: An appreciation. (from the liner notes to the 1972 Turnabout LP, Songs and Dances of John Dowland) Few singers are better qualified to present an all-Dowland recital than Hugues Cuénod, whose early long-playing recordings of the lute song repertoire first introduced a precious corner of our musical heritage to thousands of listeners, myself included. Cuénod's genius in this repertoire is complementary to Dowland's: the ability to explore and realize the countless subtle nuances possible and inherent in these miniatures: it is no accident that he is as well a peerless interpreter of Schubert and of Debussy. During his long career, Cuénod has distinguished himself in every branch of vocal art short of the Heldentenor variety: from the street singer in the Weill-Brecht Threepenny Opera to the Evangelist in the Bach Passions, via Monteverdi, Couperin, Mozart, and Stravinsky, who composed his 1952 Cantata for Cuénod's tenor. Working with Cuénod is an education: he combines the utmost integrity and dedication to his art with an evident and infectious sense of fun; he is clearly a man who loves to make music. The Dowland recital was recorded at the Jaccottet's home in Rivaz, Switzerland, in an ambiance more nearly resembling a late-summer garden party than the near-surgical solemnity often manifest at recording sessions. The first session lasted lasted well into the night; we had recorded eight songs, and the engineer, the Jaccottets, and I were beginning to flag. Cuénod, within hailing distance of his seventieth birthday, expressed every intention of going on, and enthusiastically suggested we sight-read a couple of things that hadn't been originally programmed. We eventually persuaded him to go home for night's sleep, more for our sake than his. Hugues Cuénod is a major artist and an extraordinary human being — and in truth those two facets of his person are interdependent and inseparable. (1971) Remembering a Young Tenor (written in 2010 for Norman Lebrecht's online journal, Slipped Disc) He was a young man for most of his life, including most of the years I knew him personally. Let's see, I first ran into him chez Nadia Boulanger, in 1965, when he was a youth of, I think, 63. But I'm thinking back right now to the early 1970's. Hugues Cuénod and I and the late harpsichordist Christiane Jaccottet had recorded, about a year earlier, a program of lutesongs and instrumental pieces by the great Elizabethan master John Dowland. The recording was made in Christiane's living room in Rivaz, Switzerland, and the sessions were documented in photography by her husband, Pierre. A sound man from Radio Lausanne, Claude Maréchaux, recorded and edited (in situ) the raw takes. The energetic Cuénod had worn us out the first night of sessions, simply refusing to stop, and tearing through one Dowland masterpiece after another. At age sixty-nine, he was burying us all. I took the finished, reel-to-reel master tapes from Switzerland to New York, where the unforgettable Georges Mendelssohn of Vox had agreed to release them. The recording appeared, with one of those tacky Turnabout covers, but it was still of good quality, and how satisfying it was to have it out.... It's hard to remain youthful forever; nonetheless, the vital energy inside Cuénod had an extraordinarily long run. The next-to-last time I saw him, at his home in Vevey's market square, it was about a quarter century later than sessions I have just evoked. And yet he was the same Huguie. At age ninety-five, he trotted down two flights of stairs to open the door of his home, served sherry to his guests, spoke frankly and almost cheerfully about what was going to happen to the ancestral estate after his death, and made a few semi-malicious comments about various people in the music business, before ushering my small party (including Pierre, who had made the session photos way back when) back into the winter night. Fast forward, another ten years. He had changed by that last visit, but who would not have at one hundred and five? Still living at home on the Place du Marché, he seemed happy with his companion Alfred, and they were clearly a devoted couple. I never in my life met anyone who stayed so young so long. And there are still plenty of stories to tell! Even better than the stories: His singing gave me and countless others endless, enduring pleasure. The example of his undying love for and joy in music is unparalleled in my experience. What a great existence he had; may his soul rest in peace. Joel Cohen (Amesbury, Ma. 9 December 2010) Christiane Jaccottet The late Christiane Jaccottet's marvelous keyboard playing, as accompanist, duettist, and soloist, here on an instrument built by her husband Pierre, is heard to good advantage in this reissue of Dowland's music. Christiane had a special affinity for the music of J.S. Bach, and undertook, for a Swiss label, a set of CD's including all that master's harpsichord music. She was born in Lausanne, into a family of musicians, and trained in Switzerland and at the Vienna Academy, where at the age of 19 she obtained the “Reife Prüfing” in harpsichord, the first of many such distinctions. Madame Jaccottet spent many years teaching at the Lausanne Conservatory, all the while performing regularly throughout Europe, North America, and Asia, both as soloist and ensemble member. She was a frequent associate of distinguished musicians, including, among others, Hugues Cuénod, Eric Tappy, Aurèle Nicolet, and Heinz Holliger who composed his Recitando in 2002, in memory of his friend and colleague Christiane. Joel Cohen Joel Cohen, director of the Boston Camerata from 1968 to 2008, and currently (2016) Artistic Director of Camerata Mediterranea, was a frequent associate of Hugues Cuénod during the 1970's in lutesong recitals, and in this recording. This reissued recital provides the most extensive record of his activity as soloist and accompanist on the Renaissance lute.