Gramophone Magazine
March 2026
Editor’s Choice

Ruby Hughes (soprano), Jonas Nordberg (lute), Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann (viola da gamba)

Dowland: Come again, sweet love doth now invite
Dowland: Can she excuse my wrongs?
Dowland: Time stands still
Dowland: Flow, my tears
Dowland: Lord Strangs' March
Dowland: Mrs Winters Jump
Johnson, R: Care charminge sleepe
Johnson, R: Where the bee sucks
Johnson, R: Full fathom five
Holborne: Last will and testament
Danyel: Mrs. M. E. her funeral tears for the death of her husband
Hume, T: Loves farewell
Purcell: Amidst the shades
Purcell: O solitude, my sweetest choice, Z406
Purcell: Welcome to All the Pleasures, Z. 339: Here the deities approve
Purcell: Sweeter than Roses
Britten: Corpus Christi Carol (arr. Jonas Nordberg)
Wallen: The shadow of my sorrow
Pritchard, Deborah: Ophelia's Songs: I. How should I your true love know
Frances-Hoad: They bore him bare-faced on the bier (arr. Jonas Nordberg)
Pritchard, Deborah: Ophelia's Songs: II. Will he not come again

Soprano Ruby Hughes, celebrated for her profound understanding and stylishness, reunites with gambist Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann and lutenist Jonas Nordberg for Amidst the Shades. This recital explores a shared passion for Elizabethan music, using the contemplative and melancholic songs of John Dowland as a foundation. The program weaves through works by Robert Johnson and John Danyel into the intimate vocal pieces of Henry Purcell. To further enrich the repertoire, Hughes commissioned new works from Errollyn Wallen and Deborah Pritchard setting Shakespearean texts, and includes arrangements of works by Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Benjamin Britten. The result is a recital brimming with nuanced expression and delicate sonic colours.

"Shorn of three voices, Dowland's four-part lute songs grow rather than shrink in dramatic stature... Such are the riches of this extraordinary album that one would happily linger amidst such shades for all eternity."
— Gramophone Magazine, March 2026