James Bowman may not have been Britain’s first prominent countertenor in the modern era – that distinction is usually accorded to Alfred Deller – but he was a major force in popularising the voice. A ubiquitous and genial presence on the early music scene in the last three decades of the 20th century, he combined a warmly expressive tone with a keen musical intelligence, setting new standards and helping to define the role of the countertenor voice in both early and contemporary repertoire.
Bowman, who has died aged 81, had a voice of considerable amplitude yet developed a soulful, plangent tone with a mournful edge ideal for Elizabethan lute songs, Handel opera and much more. A 1987 recording of Handel’s Ombra Mai Fù from Serse with the King’s Consort (one of many he made with the ensemble) exemplifies the clean, focused tone, with minimal vibrato, that he championed. The immaculately controlled crescendo on the opening note, from barely perceptible vibration of vocal cords to full-throated lyricism, heralding an exquisitely shaped first phrase, is spine-tingling.
