This suite of symphonic poems retraces musically one of the stories contained in Cervantes' Don Quixote, whose plot was brought to the stage by William Shakespeare. 

It’s a poignant point of contact between two giants of Spanish and British culture. A bridge that I feel close to my personal life journey.

The story begins when Don Quixote decides that he will be staying in the mountains of Sierra Morena to do penance for his lady Dulcinea at which point he meets Cardenio, who has lived there since his friend Don Fernando betrayed him. A meeting full of complicity and empathy. Later Dorotea, cross-dressed to go unnoticed, is also found after being deceived by Don Fernando who abandoned his promise of marriage as soon as he saw Luscinda, Cardenio's love. 

Cardenio's movement describes his impossible love, his consequent loneliness and madness. Don Fernando glimpses at his reckless betrayal. Luscinda's composition is inspired by her unwavering conviction to resist Don Fernando’s marriage proposal, to the point of killing herself. Dorotea is centred around her character’s complex emotional state after having escaped an attempted rape. The story ends with an apparent reconciliation of the characters; a bitter-sweet triumph of love as expressed by Shakespeare: “What is it else? A madness most discreet, a choking gall and a preserving sweet.”

This album is kindly supported by the Wavendon Foundation, which was founded by John Dankworth. A serendipitous connection with Kenny Wheeler’s Windmill Tilter, also commissioned by Dankworth; both albums inspired by characters of Cervantes’ Don Quixote.