Purcell: The Fairy Queen; Songs And Arias

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Vyvyan’s admirers will doubtless have already gone for the earlier ‘pure’ version of The Fairy Queen, yet there is just so much here to enjoy from both Vyvyan and a splendid roster of British... — Opera, August 2019 More…

Release Date: 15th Feb 2019
Catalogue No: ELQ4825063
Label: Eloquence
Length: 2 hours 16 minutes

Purcell: The Fairy Queen, Z629

Work length1:35:52

$37.40

$51.00

Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano), James Bowman (countertenor), Peter Pears (tenor), Mary Wells (soprano), Ian Partridge (tenor), John Shirley-Quirk (baritone), Norma Burrowes (soprano), Alfreda Hodgson (mezzo-soprano), Charles Brett (countertenor), Owen Brannigan (bass)
English Chamber Orchestra, Ambrosian Singers
Benjamin Britten
Recorded: 1970-09-18
Recording Venue: The Maltings, Snape, Suffolk

Symphony

Track length6:53

$1.10

$1.50

"Now the Night Is Chas'd Away"

Track length2:42

$1.10

$1.50

"Let the Fifes and the Clarions....Dance"

Track length2:05

$1.10

$1.50

"When a Cruel Long Winter"

Track length2:50

$1.10

$1.50

"Hail! Great Parent Of Us All" (Reprise)

Track length2:16

$1.10

$1.50

"Thus the Ever Grateful Spring"

Track length2:48

$1.10

$1.50

"Here's the Summer, Sprightly Gay"

Track length1:14

$1.10

$1.50

"See, My Many-Coloured Fields"

Track length3:01

$1.10

$1.50

"Next, Winter Comes Slowly, Pale"

Track length2:58

$1.10

$1.50

"Hail! Great Parent Of Us All"

Track length2:22

$1.10

$1.50

Prelude..."Come, All Ye Songsters Of the Sky"

Track length2:32

$1.10

$1.50

"The Songsters...May the God Of Wit Inspire"

Track length1:57

$1.10

$1.50

"Echo...Now Join Your Warbling Voices All"

Track length2:14

$1.10

$1.50

"Fill Up the Bowl"

Track length6:37

$1.10

$1.50

"See, Even Night Herself Is Here"

Track length5:24

$1.10

$1.50

"I Am Come To Lock All Fast"

Track length0:42

$1.10

$1.50

"One Charming Night"

Track length2:15

$1.10

$1.50

"Hush, No More"

Track length4:04

$1.10

$1.50

Dance For the Followers Of Night

Track length1:32

$1.10

$1.50

Overture

Track length1:44

$1.10

$1.50

"If Love's a Sweet Passion...I Press Her Hand"

Track length2:40

$1.10

$1.50

"O Let Me Weep, For Ever Weep"

Track length7:50

$1.10

$1.50

"Now the Maids and the Men Are Making Of Hay"

Track length3:43

$1.10

$1.50

A Dance Of Haymakers

Track length0:55

$1.10

$1.50

"A Thousand, Thousand Ways"

Track length3:06

$1.10

$1.50

Hornpipe and Rondeau

Track length2:33

$1.10

$1.50

Symphony

Track length1:28

$1.10

$1.50

"Hark! Hark the Echoing Air"

Track length2:29

$1.10

$1.50

"Sure the Dull God Of Marriage"

Track length2:25

$1.10

$1.50

"See, I Obey"

Track length1:50

$1.10

$1.50

"Turn Then Thine Eyes"

Track length1:10

$1.10

$1.50

"My Torch Indeed...They Shall Be As Happy"

Track length2:57

$1.10

$1.50

Chaconne

Track length3:33

$1.10

$1.50

"They Shall Be As Happy"

Track length1:03

$1.10

$1.50

Purcell: The Tempest, Z631

Work length22:23

$5.50

$7.50

Hervey Alan (bass), William Herbert (tenor), Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)
Philomusica of London
Anthony Lewis

"Arise ye subterranean winds"

Track length3:09

$1.10

$1.50

"Aeolus, you must appear"

Track length3:47

$1.10

$1.50

"Your awful voice I hear"

Track length4:46

$1.10

$1.50

"Halcyon Days"

Track length5:47

$1.10

$1.50

"See, see the heavens smile"

Track length4:54

$1.10

$1.50

Purcell: Sonata for Trumpet & Strings, Z.850 - ed. Thurston Dart & Michael Tilmouth

Work length4:39

$1.10

$1.50

Dennis Egan (trumpet)
Philomusica of London
Anthony Lewis

Purcell: The Virtuous Wife or Good Luck At Last - incidental music, Z611

Work length4:15

$1.10

$1.50

Philomusica of London
Anthony Lewis

March (Hornpipe) - Minuet I - Minuet II

Track length4:15

$1.10

$1.50

Purcell: Prophetess or The History of Dioclesian, Z627

Work length4:42

$1.10

$1.50

Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)
Philomusica of London
Anthony Lewis

"What shall I do?"

Track length4:42

$1.10

$1.50

Purcell: Ciaccona in G Minor, Z.730

Work length5:04

$1.10

$1.50

Philomusica of London
Anthony Lewis

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Several Eloquence releases have celebrated the pellucid timbre and vivid characterisation of the British soprano Jennifer Vyvyan. ‘A treasury to treasure’ was the BBC Music Magazine’s verdict on ‘Songs of England’ (4825045), a L’Oiseau-Lyre recital from 1953. Four years later she took part in the first complete recording of Purcell’s masque The Fairy Queen (conducted by Anthony Lewis and reissued as 4827449), where again her shapely phrasing and sharply etched tone-painting drew critical praise. As a founding member of the English Opera Group, Vyvyan had by then become a favourite soprano for Benjamin Britten, who created a string of roles for her: ‘Queen of Aldeburgh’, she was called by her colleague, the baritone Thomas Hemsley.

So it was inevitable that Vyvyan should take so prominent a part in the second, (almost) complete ‘Fairy Queen’, arranged and conducted as it was by Britten for Decca in the Snape Maltings of Aldeburgh in September 1970. She was joined by a Who’s Who of British (and Britten-ish) early-music singers, who between them weave a spell of magic and intimacy in this Shakespearean tale such as has hardly been rivalled on record since, especially in the ravishing nocturnal sequence to close Part II, featuring Vyvyan alongside James Bowman, Norma Burrowes and John Shirley-Quirk.

Britten’s sprightly direction encompasses grand and brilliant choruses, bucolic delight in the music for the rude mechanicals and sensuous rapture in moods of both lament and rejoicing.

Hardly absent from the catalogue since its first release, this classic Decca recording is now coupled for the first time with a newly remastered (mono) L’Oiseau-Lyre album from 1958, in which Vyvyan and the tenor William Herbertsing numbers from the incidental music to The Tempest, once attributed to Purcell, now largely acknowledged as the work of John Weldon. Jennifer Vyvyan is at her most beguiling here and in the minuet aria ‘What shall I do’ from Purcell’s Dioclesian, sung with assuaging tenderness and her trademark grace and subtlety of phrasing.

‘A most enjoyable disc, showing two aspects of Purcell at his best ... presented with considerable skill by the singers and with vitality by the conductor and his men.’ - High Fidelity, March 1960 (Incidental Music)

‘The cast and orchestra under Britten’s inspired and inspiring direction certainly give of their best. Jennifer Vyvyan and Peter Pears took part in the L’Oiseau-Lyre recording of the 1950s under Anthony Lewis, and now as then are perfect Purcell stylists.’ - Opera, April 1972 (The Fairy Queen)

‘Britten has a clear concept of this music and manages to convey it to all concerned, with a resultant remarkable stylistic unity ... this beguiling music comes through gloriously - there is not one dull moment in it.’ - High Fidelity, July 1973 (The Fairy Queen)

Reviews

August 2019

Vyvyan’s admirers will doubtless have already gone for the earlier ‘pure’ version of The Fairy Queen, yet there is just so much here to enjoy from both Vyvyan and a splendid roster of British singers that I would urge anyone with even a passing interest to hear this set, which has been well transferred in good sound.

Purcell: The Fairy Queen; Songs And Arias

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