Amidst the Shades review – Ruby Hughes’s Dowland tribute

John Dowland died 400 years ago, and this tribute from soprano Ruby Hughes, lutenist Jonas Nordberg and viola da gamba player Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann is exceptionally captivating. The recording is not all Dowland: it takes its title from a Purcell song and includes a spellbinding version of the Corpus Christi Carol as set by Britten, yet the performances are steeped in the Elizabethan melancholy Dowland distilled so effectively.

Hughes’s voice keeps a natural quality even as it is refined, and the close recording lets her be soft and confiding while preserving a sense of space. She colours each word — in Dowland’s Flow, My Tears her delivery of "fear, and grief, and pain" makes each emotion distinct — and she, Nordberg and Brinkmann sustain a persuasive line so the expressivity reads as communication rather than indulgence.

ruby hughes, jonas nordberg, mime brinkmann, john dowland, purcell, corpus christi, britten, elizabethan melancholy, soprano, lutenist