
Today I listened maybe for for the first time to the John Johnson half of this CD. I think Genov is a bit matter of fact in this music, if he is doing any major poetic embellishment they sounded so natural to me that I hardly noticed. From my point of view that’s a positive in fact!
The real interesting thing is the music, because it’s apparent that John Johnson wrote a sequence of pavans and galliards which is significant and largely unexplored on record at least - like Bull’s pavans and galliards they’re a hidden gem of English music I think.
There’s an enormous contrast between Johnson and Holborne, by the way - and given that they were contemporaries from the same milieu that makes the recording even more valuable. A glimpse into the variety of styles in English lute music from the mid 16th century.