Like the dances in Bach's keyboard suites, these pieces were written not for dancing but for listening. So there's plenty of room for a flexible approach. Consequently, many of the Almains are hardly the heavy dance it was supposed to be – witness the grace and lightness of Lady Laiton's Almain. And the Galliards are not always as brisk and vigorous as you'd expect: compare North's beautiful interpretation of Sir Robert Sidney, His Galliard with the unexpected spring of the Melancholy Galliard. The Battle Galliard, where shakes and other ornaments ring out over drones like cannon and soldiers' cries over a corpse­strewn battlefield, is quite another matter again.

The more lengthy and substantial Pavans which start each suite are especially impressive – like the gorgeous Pavan Sulus Cum sola, which opens the disc in a melancholy-tinged major mode; or its shadow, the minor-key Solus sine sola; or the brooding Pavana Doulant. Needless to say that here, as throughout the disc, North's sweet-toned playing is both unfailingly musical and highly imaginative.

Beyond simply questions of shifting and digital command – these are prerequisites that needn’t concern us as North is so accomplished a player – lies the sheer tonal warmth of his playing. Solus cum sola may have the very occasioanly audible squeak but it’s almost an invariable corollory and is greatly outweighted by the sheer burnished roundness of his tone in a reading that explores its melancholic introspection. Then too we find North enjoying, and making us enjoy, the sprighty and engaging dialogue of Sir John Smith, his Almain. It happens to be an ingenious variation – in effect – but it takes someone such as North to explore its fecundity and fluency of invention.

North has included some especially stately Pavanes here, none more so than The Lady Russell’s Pavan, P. 17, which forms the opening of the second “suite” he has so cannily constructed. To close the suite we have the songful vibrancy of the brief The Lady Laiton's Almain. Additionally we find that North’s editorial work has borne fruit. He has edited Pavana Doulant to sit more comfortably in Dowland’s style by omitting divisions that seem to him to be by the German Johannes Mylius and by “prudently editing the three basic sections.” The result certainly sounds utterly authentic. The Almain P.51 is another problematic piece, which North speculates may be an arrangement of a consort piece – though not necessarily even by Dowland since it sits awkwardly. Some tweaking in respect of tonality ensures that we can hear it in better light.

The martial rhythms of The Battle Galliard resound splendidly and unprobelematically – one pleasure of this recital is to hear the full range of sonorities North can evoke, as in the resounding lower strings of the previously cited Almain. Pavana Johan Douland is the single longest piece – eloquent indeed in this performance, indeed rivetting in its concentration and control.

The high standards set in this series thus far – playing, editorial work, recording, notes – have been outstandingly maintained here.

Der ernste, gemessene Charakter der Pavanen und Allemanden bot sich wie von selbst für die Formulierung eleganter Schwermut an. Souverän verbindet North dabei das Bewegende mit dem Spielerischen, die kunstvolle Geste mit natürlichem Ausdruck. Die Musik gewinnt so eine ansprechende Zeitlosigkeit und erreicht auch den heutigen Hörer unmittelbar. North’ konzentrierte Ausführungen im Beiheft tun das ihrige dazu.