Composer: John Wilbye
Performer: I Fagiolini
Conductor: Robert Hollingworth
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Coro
Catalogue: COR16190
Release: 2022
Size: 1.14 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Draw On, Sweet Night
02. Weep, O Mine Eyes
03. Adieu, Sweet Amaryllis
04. Sweet Honey-Sucking Bees / Yet, Sweet, Take Heed
05. Thou Art but Young
06. Cruel, Behold My Heavy Ending
07. I Live, and Yet Methinks / There is a Jewel
08. I Love, Alas, Yet Am Not Loved
09. Oft Have I Vowed
10. Down in a Valley / Hard Destinies
11. When Shall My Wretched Life
12. O What Shall I Do?
13. Love Not Me for Comely Grace
14. Happy, O Happy He
15. There Where I Saw
16. Lady, Your Words Do Spite Me
17. O Wretched Man
18. Ye Restless Thoughts
19. Lady, When I Behold
20. Thus Saith My Cloris Bright
21. Weep, Weep, Mine Eyes
22. Flora Gave Me Fairest Flowers
23. All Pleasure is of This Condition
24. Of Joys and Pleasing Pains / My Throat is Sore
25. Where Most My Thoughts / Despiteful Thus
British ensemble I Fagiolini puts aside its beloved Monteverdi to uncover its own national heritage: the best of John Wilbye’s classic Golden Age madrigals. Whilst his oeuvre may have been small (just 75 works that we know of and most just a couple of minutes long), time and again, in these exquisite cameos, Wilbye delivers what might be reckoned the ultimate madrigal experience. The plangent dissonance of ‘Draw on, sweet night’ and ‘Weep, weep, mine eyes’ perfectly evoke English melancholy, while ‘Sweet honey-sucking bees’ and ‘Adieu, sweet Amaryllis’ are such sheer pleasure to sing that many listeners will scrabble to unearth old scores. This album is, in a nutshell, 75 minutes of madrigalian bliss! Rediscover or enjoy anew this central part of English choral culture, strangely out of fashion for so long, sung by a group that has matured into the repertoire like a good wine.