Nigel North

Michael Chance is a renowned exponent of this repertoire.

Florilegium has won many awards for its sensitive chamber-music-making in the Barock era.

Spanning his short creative life, Purcell’s Songs are a constant feature in his output. In between official Odes, the semi-operas and instrumental music is a profusion of wonderfully intimate, sometimes bawdy and explicit songs. Written for his circle of friends the texts are from a variety of sources – Shakespeare and Dryden understandably loom large among the poets whose words were set by Purcell. In 1698 his songs were published complete in Orpheus Britannicus .

Purcell composed only one true opera, and the form known as ‘semi opera’ was the most popular in England at the time. In these works the actors did not sing. Musical interludes either of vocal numbers or instrumental music punctuated the action. The second half of this CD contains examples of the instrumental music Purcell provided for Dioclesan and Timon of Athens.

Robert Dowland, son of famous English composer John Dowland, published the collection of lute songs, A Musicall Banquet in London in 1610. Here two exceptional interpreters, German soprano Monika Mauch and British lutenist Nigel North perform its songs, and also virtuoso lute solos, melodic music by John Dowland, Caccini, Pierre Guédron, Anthony Holborne, Daniel Batchelar and others in which serene stillness meets with brooding expressivity.

Michael Chance has established a worldwide reputation as one of the foremost exponents of the male alto voice in all areas of the classical, and is in equal demand as an opera, concert and recording artist.

Michael Chance’s list of recordings is numerous and widespread. He received a Grammy award for his participation in Handel’s Semele for Deutsche Grammophon with John Nelson and Kathleen Battle. He has recorded frequently with John Eliot Gardiner, including the Bach Passions and Cantatas, B Minor Mass, Monterverdi’s Orfeo and L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Handel’s Jeptha, Tamerlano and Agrippina. Other conductors he has recorded with include Trevor Pinnock, Franz Bruggen, Ton Koopman and Nicholas McGegan. On his CD for Deutsche Grammophon, “Michael Chance, the Art of Counter-tenor”, he sings solo alto cantatas by Vivaldi with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert.

There are in all fifteen songs made memorable herein, not only by Purcell’s music, but also by Chance’s unique delivery of each of them. All three accompanists are ‘tuned in’ and highly sensitive to the singer.

The first volume of the music of Weiss (BGS119 ‘The Heart Trembles with Pleasure’) was greeted with much critical acclaim – shortlisted for a Gramophone Award and BBC Music Magazine hailed North’s playing as “scrupulously considered yet spontaneous”. This second volume in a series of four continues the spontaneous nature of Nigel North’s performances.

In an age when thousands of recordings testify to the glorious history of the flute as a solo, chamber and orchestral instrument, and even as a marvelous vehicle for jazz, it is difficult to imagine that the flute did not always have a distinct identity and a dedicated repertoire. In fact, there was no such thing as a ‘flute repertoire’ until the early 18th century. Before this the flute was simply one of the ‘instruments bas’ or ‘soft instruments’ considered suitable mostly for indoor music of all kinds.

In fact, vocal polyphony comprised by far the greatest part of what was played by instrumentalists, for to imitate the human voice – the only instrument made by God – was their humble task. Instrumental music remained in the shadow of vocal music for a long time to come.

One particular development stands out as a feature of 16th century musical practice that seems to point towards the role that instruments would come to have in the future: this was the practice of improvising virtuosic embellishments known as ‘diminutions’ or ‘divisions’ upon a single melody line taken from a polyphonic vocal piece while the remaining parts were played on a lute. The perfect balance between equal parts is lost, but the immense power of a beautifully crafted melody is highlighted. The lute supports the whole with a harmony that is full of life and rhythmic intricacy.