Musical Banquet takes its programme from A Musicall Banquet, the songbook that Robert Dowland, son of the lutenist and composer John Dowland, published in London in 1610. According to the booklet it was the first publication of its kind to carry songs in four languages: English, French, Spanish and Italian. Soprano Monika Mauch and lutenist Nigel North perform 24 pieces from it, songs by Giulio Caccini, Pierre Guédron, Daniel Batchelar and many anonymous composers, with lute solos by John Dowland and others between them.
Robert Dowland was 19 when the book appeared, and North's liner notes suggest that his father had a hand in it. The English songs gather around two figures: Sir Philip Sidney, whose Astrophil and Stella supplies several texts, and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who wrote two of the lyrics himself. Mauch had been heard on ECM with the Hilliard Ensemble on Morimur, while North, an early music specialist, made his ECM debut here. The two recorded in May 2005 at the Propstei St. Gerold in Austria, with Peter Laenger as engineer and Manfred Eicher as producer.
In the 1610 print the songs were grouped by nationality. Here they are rearranged so that the languages alternate, and the lute solos are set between them. The sequence opens with the anonymous Spanish song Passava Amor su arco desarmado, on a text by Jorge de Montemayor. Caccini's Amarilli mia bella, on words by Guarini, brings in the new Italian manner of solo song, which Mauch sings with sparing vibrato. The programme closes on John Dowland's Far from triumphing court, to words by Sir Henry Lee and at over six minutes the longest song of the set. Between them come galliards named after the book's patrons and friends, such as Sir Robert Sidney, his Galliard.
Reviewers singled out the clarity of Mauch's diction in all four languages. In Gramophone, Fabrice Fitch praised her "clear but beautifully rounded timbre" and North's stylish solo turns, and put the disc on his short list for pick of the year. David Hill, in Early Music Review, called it "an essential library record for anyone interested in the lute song" and found Mauch's pronunciation of the four languages perfect.
CD edition, ECM New Series 1938, released in May 2008. The booklet includes liner notes by Nigel North.
