Ian Bostridge's collection of Handel arias and recitatives plunges boldly into the familiar repertoire -- pieces done so frequently that they're likely to be greeted with a yawn. It's a measure of Bostridge's confidence that he devotes much of the CD to these warhorses, and of his skill, that they come across as fresh and newly imagined. Bostridge ...
It has taken a surprisingly long time for Hyperion, an English label distinguished in the area of Baroque music, to get to the music of brothers William and Henry Lawes. It forms an indispensable part of the literature that we have from the reign of Charles I, which is typically presented as a period in which the common Englishman lived in ...
This collection of post-Elizabethan melancholy risks being overly ambitious, for it tries to pursue two innovative goals. First, it mixes songs and poetry of the period; it is not the only recording to have done so, but it is likely to be the first one that attendees at the Stratford Festival, say, run across on the rack. Second, it tries to ...
This disc, originally recorded in 1997, has been issued in various forms; the current Arie Antiche (Antique Arias) title is better than the British release that bestowed upon the program the wimpy title of Dmitri Hvorostovsky Sings Classical Arias. Most of the arias are Baroque, not Classical, and a few come from early in the Baroque era -- ...
With one singer to a part and very sparing use of continuo, this 2006 Virgin recording of Divine Hymns by Henry Purcell, William Croft, John Blow, and Pelham Humfrey is both lively and severe. Performed by Les Arts Florissants under the direction of William Christie, the works here express a huge emotional range, and the singers -- tenor Paul ...
Where did the big, imposing, public quality of Handel's English choral music come from? Listening to the music of John Blow (1649-1708) uncovers part of the answer. Blow, organist at the Chapel Royal and later the impressively titled "Composer of the Chapel Royal," was the preeminent church composer of the English restoration. His anthems, 14 of ...
The young English soprano Carolyn Sampson has been heard in ensemble recordings of music by Bach, Handel, and Monteverdi, among other mostly Baroque composers. In Purcell's songs, many drawn from otherwise forgotten theatrical productions, she has strong competition from Emma Kirkby, among other British stalwarts, but she stands up to them and ...
Scots tenor Paul Agnew has an ideal voice for Purcell -- clean, pure, supple, strong across its range, with exceptionally precise intonation. His delivery is natural and unmannered, and he is undaunted by the music's outrageous technical demands, so that even the most ornately embellished lines sound spontaneously imagined and genuinely felt. (His ...
It's hard not to consider this disc of aria selections as an introductory sample of Chandos's whole Opera in English project and to judge it according to one's feelings about the series. But these performances by the charismatic young American soprano Elizabeth Futral deserve to be evaluated on their own merits, insofar as they contribute to the ...
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