Composer: Henry Purcell
Performer: Ben Davies, George Pooley, Daniel Collins, Katy Hill, Mark Dobell, Kirsty Hopkins, Jeremy Budd
Orchestra: The Sixteen
Conductor: Harry Christophers
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Coro
Release: 2019
Size: 1.25 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Hear my prayer, O Lord, Z15
02. O solitude, my sweetest choice, Z406
03. Lord, how long wilt thou be angry?, Z25
04. Pavan for Three Violins and Bass in G minor – Z752
05. Plung’d in the confines of despair, Z142
Welcome to all the pleasures (from Ode for St Cecilia’s Day 1683), Z339
06. Symphony
07. Welcome to all the Pleasures
08. Here the Deities Approve
09. While Joys Celestial
10. Beauty, Thou Scene of Love
11. In a Consort of Voices
12. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust, Z16
13. From silent shades (‘Bess of Bedlam’) Z370
14. Of all the instruments that are, Z263
From hardy climes and dangerous toils of war (for the wedding of Prince George and Princess Anne, 1683)
15. Symphony
16. From Hardy Climes
17. Fame, Great Sir
18. Wake then, my Muse!
19. The Sparrow and the Gentle Dove
20. So all the Boons
On this release, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen continue their exploration of Purcell’s stunning music written for royal occasions on the third album in their acclaimed series. King Charles II liked to project a strong, stable, divinely legitimated image. Whilst that image had no basis in reality, the scale of his deception and financial skulduggery did not emerge until 19th-century historians discovered secret treaty documents between Charles and King Louis XIV of France. Purcell had no idea of course, and so all of the music on this album celebrates the political triumphs that he and his colleagues thought they had witnessed. It includes the quite brilliant Welcome Songs ‘Welcome to all the pleasures’ (with its superb six-part fanfares to St Cecilia in the final chorus) and ‘From hardy climes’.