Purcell reviews
A guide to Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and its best recordings
Sonatas for Three Violins
Purcell: Royal Odes
Cello 360
The Mad Lover
Purcell: Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II, Vol. 3
Portraits de la Folie
Solitude
Purcell: The Fairy Queen
Purcell: Royal Welcome Songs for King Charles II
Kitgut Quartet: 'Tis too late to be wise – String quartets before the string quartet
Purcell Songs and Dances
Purcell: King Arthur
c1300 – c2000: Works by Binchois, Byrd, Dufay, Glass et al
From Byrd to Byrd
In Nomine II
A glorious convergence of ancient and modern from Fretwork
Royal Fireworks
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.
The Emerson Quartet performs Britten's String Quartets Nos 2 and 3 and chamber works by Purcell
Britten composed his String Quartet No. 2 in 1945 for the 250th anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell, and its earliest recording, by the Zorian String Quartet, included Purcell’s Fantasia Upon One Note as a fill-up, with Britten himself playing the Note on his viola.
Vox Luminis shines in Purcell's King Arthur
‘This King Arthur is a giddy triumph for its artists. Blazing their way through the score, the performers set a new benchmark, delivering a production that’s equally gutsy and gorgeous. Director Lionel Meunier is the real star, with a soaring vision of Purcell’s music in a class of its own.’
Purcell
King Arthur
Stefanie True, Caroline Weynants, Marcus Farnsworth, Zsuzsi Tóth, Sophie Junker, Olivier Berten, Sebastian Myrus, Vox Luminis/Lionel Meunier
Alpha ALPHA 430 97:59 mins (2 discs)
La Risonanza performs Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas might be the first truly great opera in English but the backstory of its early performance history is fraught with speculation. Fabio Bonizzoni has taken the bold decision to model La Risonanza’s live recording on a 1704 production when it was presented – alongside John Eccles’s and Gottfried Finger’s Masque The Love of Mars and Venus – as an ‘afterpiece’ to a farce ‘call’d The Anatomist, or The Sham Doctor’.
Colin Davis conducts Purcell's Dido & Aeneas
Davis’s Dido was one of the livelier mainstream recordings, springily played and sung, although Veasey’s portrayal of Purcell’s Carthaginian queen lacks the fire of her Berlioz one.
Max Loppert
Carolyn Sampson performs Purcell: Come all ye songsters
Writing in the year of the French Revolution, Charles Burney feared for the continuing popularity of the composer he hailed as heir to Orpheus and Amphion. He needn’t have feared: Purcell’s stock has probably never stood higher since the 1690s when London flocked to a string of theatrical hits, and the future Queen Anne made her way by barge to a performance of The Fairy Queen.