The Schoole of Night

Here come some of the first reviews of our CD with John Dowland’s The Second Booke of Songs (1600)

‘The entire Second Booke of Songs or Ayres has been recorded by the Berlin based Polish soprano Maria Skiba and lutenist Frank Pschichholz. It is an absolutely pure approach to Dowland: straight vibrato-less voice carrying emotions through dynamics and strong rhetoric, and the lute accompaniment also without fuss…. As we can see, for Pschichholz the performance of Dowland and the exploration of the composer has become a life task. In the booklet (…) you can find  his [Pschichholz’s] very interesting essay on Dowland…
Listening to this CD is a great pleasure.’
Dorota Szwarcman

http://szwarcman.blog.polityka.pl/2015/05/26/flow-my-tears/

 

‘DUX records has just released a very thoroughly published CD containing the second of Dowland’s song collections: The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres (1600)… The interpretation of 23 pieces recorded on this disc owes its charm both to the clear vibrato-less  soprano… and to the mastery of the lutenist, for whom following the footsteps of John Dowland has become a life mission and destiny. Frank Pschichholz in a unique and engaging way manages to deliver the spirit of this music… Also Maria Skiba’s soprano has not been subject to interpretative twists and that is why the emotions are set free through pure not theatrically contaminated dynamics…
Despite the enormous amount of CDs released every week it is indeed very rare to find music from a few hundreds of years ago that is so authentic and not tainted with time and interpretative possibilities of the performers. This CD is a real treasure that can transport us in an instant into turbulent times of Old England and Shakespeare.’

Robert Ratajczak

http://longplayrecenzje.blox.pl/2015/06/Maria-SKIBA-Frank-PSCHICHHOLZ-The-Schoole-Of.html