Iestyn Davies reviews
Handel: Rodelinda
Purcell: Royal Odes
Music of the Spheres
Fauré: The Complete Songs, Vol. 3
JS Bach: Soprano Katherine Watson sings in two Mass in B minor sets
Hyperion added a ‘Bach in B minor’ to its catalogue as recently as 2014, and now here comes another – like Arcangelo’s, recorded after the experience of performing the work in concert. There the similarities end. Jonathan Cohen mustered a choir of 20.
Choir of Trinity College and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment perform JS Bach: Mass in B minor
Hyperion added a ‘Bach in B minor’ to its catalogue as recently as 2014, and now here comes another – like Arcangelo’s, recorded after the experience of performing the work in concert. There the similarities end. Jonathan Cohen mustered a choir of 20.
La Nuova Musica set the bar in Gluck's Orfeo ed Eurydice
Lost is My Quiet: Duets and Solo Songs sung by Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies
The art of vocal duetting is exemplified at its best in this recital by two of today’s finest British singers, working with an accompanist of equal merit. The title track, Lost is My Quiet, is a Purcell setting heard here (as with the remaining five items by the composer) in Benjamin Britten’s clever realisation: applying considerable judgement to their task, the voices of Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies are well matched here in terms of colour and vibrancy – an accomplishment they deliver throughout.
Flow My Tears
Themes of love and loss pervade this varied sequence of English lute songs both past and present. Theatre ditties by the Virgin Queen’s court lutenist Robert Johnson give way to funeral laments by his contemporary John Danyel epitomising the melancholy spirit of the age, while wistful love songs and lute solos by Dowland contrast with playful militaristic viol pieces by the quirky soldier-composer Tobias Hume.