Customer Reviews

Andreas Scholl - English Folksongs & Lute Songs (17th Century)

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The CD starts with Behold a Wonder Here (Dowland) and for people familiar with Emma Kirby's rendering, it's a bit of a surprise. Nothing namby-pamby about this: it suits Andreas's range perfectly and he lets go with plenty of oomph.

The unaccompanied King Henry is a showcase for his purity of tone. I doubt that other countertenors could pull this song off so well, of those one thinks of at the present time.

His expression in My Love Hath Vow'd (Campion) is very varied and playful, but it is so very much a woman's song that I found it hard to take from Andreas Scholl, albeit sung so so well. I had to imagine the composer singing with his own lute, and remind myself over and over again that the singer is quoting the woman in the song ...

The preoccupation with sorrow and death of the English composers of the period seems to amuse Andreas somewhat, when he is asked about it, but you would never know it from listening to him sing these sad songs. His steady, pure voice is like a rope drawing you right into the pain. The highlights IMHO are All Ye Whom Love or Fortune Has Betrayed and I Saw My Lady Weep. Heartbreaking.

Andreas Scholl describes himself as a singer in the English tradition - despite what others say of him and his German/Swiss musical background. In these archetypal English songs, he proves his point. It is a beautiful, beautful collection.

I am not a fan of the sound of a counter-tenor. I would prefer to hear much of the same repertory sung by a mezzo, say Marilyn Horne or Rise Stevens. That said, Andreas Scholl continues to surprise me. His is not the whiny, nasal sound I associate with a counter-tenor. He has a bright, expressive voice of great passion. And this album does not disappoint. Most of the songs were new to me although I'd heard a few of them in modern arrangements for voice and guitar on other albums such as the superb "Elizabethan Lute Songs" on RCA Gold Seal sung by Sir Peter Pears accompanied by Julian Bream. Also it must be noted that Scholl's command of English is absolute. One would never imagine that English were not his first language.

I have a stack of Andreas Scholl's CDs, but this one's my favorite! His voice is both sweet and masculine, capable of great vigor and great tenderness. And the minimal accompaniment on this recording allows him to sing with equal subtlety and calm. Put this disc on and wallow in the luxury of Scholl's first-class sound.

this is one of the best renaissance cds that ive ever had. it captures in the performance all the great characteristics of the renaissance art.

must pieces are simple in structure as most folk renaissance music. but the elegance, clear and total control of the interpretation of andrea scholl takes the music to another dimetion.

must of the songs are short melodies that are repited. but each repetition by scholl is made with and incredible perfection and musical conscience.

the pieces for lute solo are wanderfull and well perform.

bravo andrea

I love it ... very relaxing pace throughout. It's definitely a keeper I'll play it over and over.

This is a collection of incredibly beatuful English medieval songs, which Andreas Scholl sings with serenity so perfect that it sounds mechanical. Scholl has a vocal timbre of remarkable consistency and clarity; his voice is angelic in tone, yet somehow it fails to satisfy when more earthly emotions are called for. I couldn't help thinking that I liked these songs better when sung by others. For example, Deller and Chance recorded some of this repertory, and even though their voices are more tremulous than Scholl's, the overall expressiveness of their singing (and their more transparent masculinity) seemed far superior to Scholl's genderless and immaculate singing. Likewise, I relished much more the singing of this repertory by Paul Agnew, whose spectacular high tenor is so conducive to the exposition of the subsurface emotiveness of English early music. Perhaps, I just like the English vocal tradition better. Scholl is a Rene Jacobs pupil, so I shouldn't be surprised that he sounds a lot like his teacher: effeminate, mannered, angelic and ultimately boring.