Byrd - Pavana Lachrymae

[andhow04]

this is a setting, by William Byrd, of john dowland's Lachrymae tune, which he used most famously in the song "Flow my teares..."

it is a contrapuntal keyboard setting, in six parts, arranged in pairs; the first is always simpler in texture than the second.

it was the opening to the second half of a program, and recorded amateurly by me (the series didn't record concerts).

i hope you can enjoy...

[brogers70]

Nice job - Byrd sounds great on the piano. What I liked was that you did not let all the ornamentation and filigree overpower the main line, even in the more ornate repeats.

[birba]

Very fine and exquisite playing.  Haunting music.  Sometimes the piano actually sounded like a lute!
I'm curious to what the rest of your programme was...

[scottmcc]

very nicely played!  I agree with birba, it is indeed quite haunting.  as always, I look forward to more of your recordings.

[andhow04]

Very fine and exquisite playing.  Haunting music.  Sometimes the piano actually sounded like a lute!
I'm curious to what the rest of your programme was...

thanks, yes a lot of those old virginal pieces don't sound great on piano but byrds music has enough complexity and lasting power that it works for me.. it may not be ideal as a concert piece for a mdern audience but i still love the music..

the program was kind of experimental as i usually do, and perhaps a bit on the odd side.  it was:
Grieg : Three pieces from op.72 - Giboens Wedding March; The Goblins Bridal Procession at Vossevangen; Rotnamsknut Halling
Medtner: Two Fairy Tales: Ophelia's Song op.14 no.1 and op.35 no.4 (a piece based on King Lear's mad monologue, "Blow wind and crack your cheeks")
Schumann: Kreisleriana

Byrd: Pavana lachrymae
Ades: Darknesse visible
Prokofiev: Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet


i messed up the recording process during this particular concert, i accidentally pulled the plug on the first half before it was saved, then the battery died partway thru the ades, so the only piece i was able to save was the byrd.

giving the prograom later, i removed Kreisleriana because that part of the program was too long, and replaced it with Brahms Schumann Variations op.9

[birba]

Very very interesting programme.  I don't know the ades, but that Byrd, for some reason, couples wonderfully with the Prokofiev.  I've wanted to do this for a long time now, since I heard Argerich in New york years ago.  I'll never forget the way she did the balcony scene that ends it.  Did it take you a long time to learn it?

[andhow04]

Very very interesting programme.  I don't know the ades, but that Byrd, for some reason, couples wonderfully with the Prokofiev.  I've wanted to do this for a long time now, since I heard Argerich in New york years ago.  I'll never forget the way she did the balcony scene that ends it.  Did it take you a long time to learn it?

the ades is a piece written in the nineties, it is pretty popular these days, it is another setting of a john dowland song (in darknesse let me dwelle).  i put them together to create an "elizabethan" mood before the prokofiev...

i will record the prokofiev sometime this spring and put them up.

i learned it over the summer, i think it takes a while tos ettle in because it is hard to feel like you really have a grip on some of them.  the hardest ones are the first one, young juliet which is #4, and of course the last one.  you have to be so nimble and in control of polyphony that is spread so far apart...

even tho now i have performed them three times i am still settling into #1 and #4