Featuring lute music by John Dowland, this album was recorded in the 13th-century Sainte Chapelle of Paris. Its remarkable gothic interior and superb natural acoustics provide the perfect setting for concerts of medieval and renaissance music. "Raymond Cousté made an excellent case for a Dowland revival..." Bangkok Post. "Dowland is one of those unclassifiable musicians that we never tire of. Raymond Cousté is the ideal performer: he manages to convince us that there is no other way to play Dowland..." Compact Disc Magazine (France). "Several elaborate and elegant Renaissance-period works also displayed the fine delicacy of Cousté's lute, an instrument from which he drew an impressive range of moods as both accompanist and soloist" Kitchener-Waterloo Record (Canada). "An Evening of Pure Pleasure (headline) Cousté the lutenist, (who also served as whimsical translator), displayed a finely honed technique. His ensemble work was balanced and supportive...and his solo work exemplary" The Virginia Gazette, USA The Renaissance virtuoso John Dowland (1563-1626) is universally recognized as England's greatest composer for the lute. This recital by the French lutenist Raymond Cousté features Dowland's most familiar and most important solo works, music displaying remarkable originality, sensitivity and range. In all, Dowland left us approximately 80 magnificent compositions in a variety of vocal and instrumental forms. A very popular composer even today, little is known about Dowland's life apart from the fact that he was one of the most famous musicians of his time. His conversion to Roman Catholicism was perhaps responsible for his rejection as court lutenist in 1594. Following that disappointment he left England to travel on the Continent. In Germany he visited the duke of Brunswick at Wolfenbüttel and the landgrave of Hesse at Kassel and was received with esteem at both courts. His travels also took him to Nürnberg, Genoa, Florence, and Venice, and by 1597 he had returned to England. Dowland published his first collection of music in that year, "The First Booke of Songes or Ayres of Foure Partes with Tableture for the Lute". It attained immense success and was reprinted at least four times. It was the first ever published collection of English lute songs. In 1598 he became one of the highest paid servants of the Danish court. Highly admired and favoured by King Christian, he performed at the Danish court until 1606. During this time he published "Lachrimae", his only collection of consort music. In 1606, Dowland returned to England and was appointed lutenist at the court of James I in 1612. In the same year he published "A Pilgrims Solace", a collection of works for voice and lute. Afterwards, there were few compositions until his death in 1626. He was buried at St Ann's, Blackfriars, London, on the 20th of February, 1626. © Coda Productions