Hopkinson Smith's latest collection, 'A Dream', invites the listener '...to penetrate the world of the inner senses that is the domain of the lute'.
An elegantly constructed programme (built around groups of Hilliard-like portraits and melancholy flights of fancy) tropes sonnet-like at the wonderful Farwell, a magical, troubling fantasy that treats its chromatically rising theme contrapuntally while somehow tying all the preceding emotional strands in the programme together. This propels the listener lachrymoneously (sic – Smith's word) into an even darker dwelling-place than was expected. In fact, this is the genius of the disc, and what makes it a genuinely moving experience.
Smith's playing, too, is elegant rather than overtly virtuosic, although he has technique to burn, as anyone who's familiar with his numerous recordings will tell you. He prefers a more suggestive, diffuse approach to Dowland's music (compared with, say, Paul O'Dette). As a result, the numerous diminutions serve to intensify the character of each piece in a profound and subtle way.