Ophelia's Garden: English Lute Duets (DXL 1224) Digital Booklet

Ophelia’s Gardenis the much anticipated duo album of two of our finest lutenists, Michał Gondko and Nigel North, exquisitely recorded in the glorious acoustic of St Andrew's Toddington. It features popular lute duets from Elizabethan England by John Dowland, John Johnson, Thomas Robinson and their contemporaries, in new arrangements and reconstructions by Nigel North. The title piece of the album, Ophelia’s Garden, is a new lute duet by Welsh composer Stephen Goss, based on Ophelia’s harrowing mad scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet.These pieces, old and new, willdelight the listener as much today as they did 400 years ago.

Michał Gondko is founder and artistic co-director of La Morra, an ensemble widely recognised for its renditions of the late medieval and early Renaissance repertoire, as confirmed by such marks of musical distinction as the Diapason d’Or, the Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the American Musicological Society’s Noah Greenberg Award, as well as Gramophone and International Classical Music Award nominations. He is also in demand as soloist and regularly performs lute duets with Nigel North. Concert tours have taken him to most European countries, as well as to the USA, the countries of the Middle East, China and Japan.

Born in London, England, Nigel North has been Professor of Lute at the Historical Performance Institute (formerly Early Music Institute), Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) 1999-2024, The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London (1976-1995), Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (1993-1999) and the Royal Conservatory, Den Haag (2006-2009). Nigel wrote Continuo Playing on the Lute, Archlute and Theorbo (Faber, 1986 and Indiana University Press). More recently in 2024, Le Luth Doré (Paris) published Bach on the Lute, Volumes 1 & 2 (transcriptions for baroque lute of BWV 1001-1006, 1007-1012 and the complete works for lute, BWV 999-1006a). In 2026, Playing with Patterns on the Lute: A Study and Method for Playing Sixteenth- Century Divisions (Oxford University Press) and a new edition of the complete lute works of John Dowland (Le Luth Doré).

Catalogue No: DXL1224
Title: Ophelia’s Garden: English Lute Duets
Artists: Michał Gondko and Nigel North, lutes
Barcode: 0666283122428
Playing Time: 65:10
UK Release: 10th April 2026
UK Distribution: RSK, Tel: 01488 608900
Packaging: CD Digipak; Box 35

Track List:

JOHN DOWLAND (1563-1626)
1 Paduan* 5:45
2 Round Battle Galliard* 1:32
3 Complaint* 2:17
4 My Lord Willoughby’s Welcome Home 1:35

JOHN JOHNSON (fl. 1579-94)
5 Flat Pavan and Galliard: I. Pavan 2:05
6 Flat Pavan and Galliard: II. Galliard 1:31
7 Sellinger’s Round (treble: MG) 1:52

THOMAS ROBINSON (fl. 1589-1609)
8 Twenty Ways Upon The Bells (treble: MG) 1:37
9 A Fantasie 2:30
10 A Toy 1:26

11 WILLIAM BYRD (C.1540-1623) The Woods So Wild* 4:37

JOHN JOHNSON
12 La Vecchia Pavan and Galliard: I. Pavan 2:06
13 La Vecchia Pavan and Galliard: II. Galliard 1:30
14 Chi Passa (treble: NN) 3:43

15 THOMAS PRESTON (d. after 1559) Upon Lamire (treble: NN)*2:49
16 ANONYMOUS My Lady Carey’s Dump (treble: NN)* 2:36
17 STEPHEN GOSS (b. 1964) Ophelia’s Garden (2025) 5:35
18 MR. MARCHANT (fl. 1588–1611) A Fancy 2:33
19 JOHN DANYEL (c. 1564-c.1626) A Fancy 1:54
20 ANONYMOUS A Fancy (Drewries Accordes) 1:44

THOMAS ROBINSON
21 A Plain Song 2:04
22 The Queen’s Goodnight (treble: NN) 1:23

23 RICHARD ALLISON (C.1560-C.1614) De La Tromba Pavan 3:18
24 JOHN DANYEL Passymeasures Galliard (treble: MG) 04:09
25 ANONYMOUS La Rossignol 02:43
* arranged or reconstructed by Nigel North