Joel Frederiksen is a singer and lute player who specializes in performing centuries-old songs. But his new project, “Requiem for a Pink Moon: an Elizabethan Tribute to Nick Drake,” is something new and unprecedented. He joins David Garland to present highlights from this new album. 

In “Requiem for a Pink Moon” Frederiksen and his Ensemble Phoenix Munich intermix songs by 16th Century masters such as John Dowland and Thomas Campion, with songs by Nick Drake, the 20th Century British songwriter who died in 1974 at age 26. Drake’s music wasn’t well appreciated during his brief life, but in the last few decades his mysterious, beautiful songs have been more widely heard and have been increasingly influential. Frederiksen and his ensemble have created an almost seamless album in which Dowland and Drake illuminate one another, and the sonorities of lutes, theorbos, and viola da gamba unite with the lush low register of Frederiksen's voice and the nimble tenor voice of Timothy Leigh Evans, to weave a multi-colored sonic tapestry of thoughtful, timeless songs. This show first aired June 10, 2012.