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This well devised programme brought out the best of The Sixteen in first rate performances under the charismatic Harry Christophers.     

Inhibited by a cold and unable to give a full 100%, Andreas Scholl pulled off a solid 99 in a recital of early English music with harpsichordist Tamar Halperin.

There comes a stage in every countertenor’s career when he feels himself ready to tackle the exposed repertoire of John Dowland, and hence the need to find himself a talented lutenist.

The intimate Vancouver Playhouse was nearly full to hear Iestyn Davies and Thomas Dunford. Consisting of lute songs by John Dowland and his contemporaries, in addition to the Canadian premiere of Nico Muhly’s Old Bones, it’s hard to imagine a more artistically satisfying and entertaining way to spend an afternoon.

The symbolism of plants and images of the garden are abundant in medieval and renaissance art, and this evening’s Musicon concert by Jacob Heringman and Faye Newton celebrated not just the imagined gardens of Elizabethan poetry, but also a real garden.

If one had idly wondered how a programme of English love songs, sung by a German, would be received by a Norwegian audience, in a wet and windy Bergen, the answer came loud and clear at this week's International Festival.