Purcell: Music for a while, Z583 - CD

“Britten's underrated United Nations anthem Voices for Today makes it onto disc at last, together with vintage recordings of artists the composer chose to work with.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ****

“John Hahessy has a splendid strong tone, almost brassy in forte, and a blessedly unaffected style: none of those cautious hoots and beautifully modulated vowels that are the bane of the English choirboy tradition. What is more he evidently has a real natural musicality, to judge by his moulding of phrases throughout this disc.” Gramophone Magazine (Friday Afternoons)

“admirably read by the author, with a delightful mixture of sardonic humour and delicate description. The atmosphere is heightened by the music of Benjamin Britten, which brilliantly sharpens the word-pictures. […] It is all charming and will give great pleasure to young and old, for its story and the way it is told and for Britten's delicate score.” Gramophone Magazine (The Sword in the Stone)

“Britten's songs were written in 1947 for Nancy Evans, and it might be thought that they need rather more mezzo than contralto tone. But Miss Bowden sings them with no apparent strain, and her characterisation of each one is [very] successful … Her voice is not yet as opulent as Kathleen Ferrier's, but her dramatic sense is possibly more developed.” Gramophone Magazine (A Charm of Lullabies, Purcell)

“In advance of Britten’s centenary, a deep draught of the strong wine of his sensibility. The items are mostly first releases on CD, from the margins of his recorded oeuvre...The boy alto John Hahessy is sumptuous in songs from Friday Afternoons” Sunday Times, 22nd July 2012

“Bejun Mehta certainly can't be faulted on his eclecticism in his whistle-stop tour of English song...Mehta's singing is so heart-stoppingly beautiful and musically perceptive that you wish he had recorded whole cycles rather than just representative songs.” The Guardian, 1st September 2011 ****

“Mehta's gift for mood and atmosphere is heard in the light beauty of Quilter's "It was a lover and his lass", the sweet melancholy of Gurney's "Down by the Salley Gardens" or the veiled mystery of Lennox Berkeley's "The Horseman". Pianist Julius Drake provides customary alert, expressive accompaniment.” The Observer, 11th September 2011

“Mehta is a technically excellent singer; with a firm well-supported line; an unusually resonant lower range; and fine expressive diction, well equal to Julius Drake's sturdy accompaniment. And he's hardly more bloodless than genteel English tenors of the era...he exploits his thinner tone deftly for unusual, even eerie effects, especially in Stanford's chilling La belle dame snas merci” BBC Music Magazine, November 2011 *****

“Any suspicion that these songs might sound lukewarm or tentative in the hands of a countertenor is soon dispelled by Mehta's invigorating singing of Quilter's 'Blow, blow, thou winter wind' and the keen way he dramatises Stanford's 'La Belle Dame sans merci'. The verbal point he brings to a handful of Purcell songs in arrangements by Britten and Tippett is also appreciated.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2011

“Mehta may not possess the most extensive of vocal paintboxes but he does gradate the shades at his disposal to good effect: pastels rather than oils. In Drake he has a partner who draws suitable sounds from the piano.” International Record Review, November 2011

“This reissue of recordings by the Deller Consort (founded in 1950) reminds us of his wonderfully pure and supple, if undramatic, voice, and his firmness and intensity of line (a quality absolutely required in Purcell’s songs, but too often missing)...April Cantelo’s performance of The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation, that miniature cantata of genius, is a delight.” Sunday Times, 3rd April 2011 ***

“Ethereal yet visceral, Scholl's voice is the dream vehicle for Purcell...Stefano Montanari coaxes thrilling playing from Accademia Bizantina, who dance and swagger, throb and pulsate with true Latin passion. Their continuo realisations - here delicate and intimate, there audaciously jazzy - are an unceasing delight.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2011 *****

“that famously otherworldly tone [is] often breathtakingly in evidence...His decision to tackle Dido's lament has generated controversy: in fact, his performance is extraordinarily haunting...O Dive Custos is arguably the disc's high point. The Academia Bizantina, meanwhile, are on fine form for Stefano Montanari” The Guardian, 13th January 2011 ****

“Scholl understands the importance of words and remains the countertenor of choice: it’s not so much the intelligence and grace that make his artistry so instantly recognisable, as the hypnotically soothing quality of his voice...Among the many joys of this exceptional recital are the accompaniments by Accademia Bizantina.” Financial Times, 21st January 2011 *****

“Few counter-tenors maintain the width of repertoire or vocal acumen of this artist...his Cold Song from “King Arthur” [is] a shivering, juddering triumph, and the entire package pleases.” The Times, 22nd January 2011 ****

“his way with words has strengthened...the two countertenors combine marvellously in O dive custos” Gramophone Magazine, March 2011

“There's no doubt about the theatrical intent driving Scholl's interpretations and the flamboyant work of Italian period instrument band, Accademia Bizantina. The latter's lively continuo group and multi-hued sounds certainly catch the full flavour...few singers...can match him for style and intelligent musicianship in this repertoire.” Classic FM Magazine, March 2011 ****

“[The disc] contains much in the way of sympathetic vocal and instrumental colouring, not to mention some very fine singing and playing, full-stop...Stefano Montanari's stylish violin-playing [in Fairest Isle], as elsewhere, is a treat in itself...Scholl [brings] an animated, urgent quality to his performance, the tone rich and resonant, the diction razor-sharp.” International Record Review, April 2011

“Koningsberger's singing is sensitive, expressive in arioso, rhythmical in measured songs. 26 delightful songs but better sampled than absorbed in one go.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ****

“…Koningsberger's innate musicality and subtle intelligence are evident in every phrase. …one has only to listen to the delicate vocal colourings in "Music for a while", the skilfully realised connotations of melancholy and vanitas in "If music be the food of love" and the semantically apposite executive of the ornamentation in "I attempt from love's sickness to fly" to realise the extent of Koningsberger's interpretative gifts. Add to all... Jacob's utterly sympathetic theorbo accompaniments and you have one of the best Purcell recitals to have hit the shelves in years.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2009