John Dowland: Mister Dowland’s Midnight / The Forlorne Hope Fantasy /  A Fancy / Lady Clifton’s Spirit
Anthony Holborne: Pavan  – Galliard to the Pavan Before / Mad Dog / As it Fell on a Holy Day / Heigh Ho Holiday!
John Johnson: Carman’s Whistle Variations
Manuel María Ponce: Suite in Modo Antico
Felix Mendelssohn: Venetianisches Gondellied, aus: Lieder ohne Worte, op. 19/6

Hopkinson Smith evokes soft night moods from the lute in some of the most beautiful pieces by John Dowland and his contemporaries. The melancholiacs of Elizabethan England knew how to suggestively describe the night side of life, as they did in “Mister Dowland’s Midnight” or in “Days End Pavan”. Authentic renaissance music is followed by a piece of masterly baroque imitation: The Mexican composer Manuel Ponce was so skilled in the style of certain baroque composers that he even published some compositions in their names. His suite in the style of the baroque, for instance, is a perfect imitation of Sylvius Leopold Weiss, friend of Bach and master of the lute from Dresden. When Heitor Villa-Lobos once heard this suite without knowing who its composer was, he said, “You can always tell it’s Bach!”.