Amidst the Shades

‘That strain again! It had a dying fall,’ says Orsino in Twelfth Night. The 2026 Stour Music Festival opens with such sweet 17th-century melancholy on the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland.

His music and melancholy (‘semper dolens, semper Dowland’) are tempered by more upbeat songs of his contemporaries and further up to Purcell, from artists that bring truly daring colours to their performance.

‘Ruby Hughes is increasingly proving to be a key singer of the 21st century.’ – Klassik Musik Magazine

Programme:
John Dowland Flow my tears
Time stands still
Sorrow stay
Semper Dowland semper dolens
Can she excuse my wrongs
The Frog Galliard
Now oh now I needs must part
In darkness let me dwell
Robert Johnson Full Fathom Five
Mrs Winter’s Jump
Where the bee sucks
Henry Purcell Amidst the shades
Oh Solitude
Here the deities approve

Performers:
Ruby Hughes soprano
Jonas Nordberg lute

Sponsored by David Green, Martin & Caroline Goodier.