Elizabethan Lute songs; Purcell: Birthday Odes for Queen Mary - James Bowman, Early Music Consort of London, David Munrow (2 CDs)

Countertenor James Bowman (b.1941) enjoyed a long association with early English song, an interest which bore fruit with this 1972 recording of Elizabethan lute songs, here making it's first appearance on CD. Together with the lutenist Robert Spencer, Bowman arranged the programme to reflect the repertory of the theatre and court and the career of John Dowland, with a final homage to Italy, the cradle of early song. The recordings of Purcell's Birthday Odes date from 1975. Between 1689 and 1694, Henry Purcell produced an annual ode for the celebration of Queen Mary's birthday. The last and best known is Come, Ye Sons of Art, which drew on the composer's recent successes in the theatre by employing a larger orchestra than usual (with trumpets, oboes and recorders) and giving the chorus a more prominent role. From the late 1960s the countertenor James Bowman was at the forefront of the early music revival. He made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1967 and enjoyed a decade