SONGS FROM OUR ANCESTORS

Songs by Dowland, Ruan Ji, Britten, Schubert, Xu Changjun, Argento, Chen Yi & Goss

Ian Bostridge (tenor), Xuefei Yang (guitar)

Globe Music GM-001 70:17 mins

Recorded in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the Jacobean auditorium at Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s Bankside, this is the first release on the theatre’s own label. There could scarcely be a more distinguished debut. These ‘ancestors’ speak through two millennia, from Ruan Ji’s Drunken Ecstasy (early third century AD) to 21st-century pieces by Xu Changjun, Chen Yi and Stephen Goss. The programme ranges from some of Dowland’s and Schubert’s greatest hits, such as Flow My Tears and An Die Musik, to more ‘exotic’ recent commissions setting, or inspired by, ancient Chinese poems. Despite the disparate origins and moods of the pieces the recital coheres extremely well, while still providing plenty of stimulating contrast.

Ian Bostridge’s clear tone and exemplary diction maintains a warm, intimate quality (he often seems to be button-holing us personally) and he could not ask for a more responsive partner: Xuefei Yang’s playing is sensitive, agile and graceful, both when functioning as accompanist and on the instrumental solos. Although using various guitars throughout, when appropriate she vividly evokes lute, mandolin and even the Chinese four-stringed pipa and the zither-like guqin, using a modified seven-string guitar to realise the Ming dynasty tune Flowing Water, probably dating from Shakespeare’s time.