Purcell: An Epithalamium (A Wedding Song)

“Rich and quite strange, to paraphrase Shakespeare is the only possible summation of this dazzling, bewildering collection of songs written for and inspired by Shakespeare. Spence is game for anything...Initially, [he] presents himself as a well-groomed, somewhat unoriginal singer...Soon, though, one realises he is indeed original, suggesting that an undercurrent in his disc is a catalogue of singing styles.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013

“not only an opportunity to sample the breadth and variety of Shakespeare settings through the centuries...but also the interpretative range of both artists. It's also a lot of fun...[the Schubert are] particularly well suited to Spence's flexible, fulsome and multi-hued tenor.” International Record Review, May 2013

“Spence’s voice is naturally thrilling, radiant and luminescent in just about every second of this programme, crossing stylistic boundaries with the silvery ease of a born entertainer. If anything, the recording production level is a little in-your-face at times, but there’s no getting away from the charismatic listenability of this ultra-svelte performing duo.” The Scotsman, 11th February 2013 *****

“Listen to the sheer quality of music-making as tenor John Mark Ainsley is alive to every halting breath of a song.” The Times

“wonderfully performed” Barry Millington, Evening Standard

“John Mark Ainsley brings the full range of his formidable musicianship to these hard-wrought but haunting masterpieces. His ringing high register and almost miraculously expressive pianissimo are on fine display and his enunciation is so clear that for most of this disc you barely need the booklet texts.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 *****

“John Mark Ainsley and Iain Burnside make a formidable combination and they are matched here with a formidable programme. Tippett's writing for voice and piano is unremitting in its demands and much less certain in its rewards.
The performers' concentration must be absolute: that is fact. Whether the listener will be proportionately moved is a matter for doubtful speculation.
It goes against the grain to say this, because the Tippett of youthful ecstasy (as in The MidsummerMarriage and the Concerto for Double String Orchestra) exerts a strong allure. But there's no escaping the fact that Boyhood's End and The Heart's Assurance exert a slim hold on the memory – only a few specific phrases, particularly of the singer's music, having stuck.
That is extraordinary, and it is reinforced by the inclusion here of the Canticle by Britten which the mind retains, both in feeling and specific detail.
That work, the setting of Francis Quarles's 'So I my best-beloved's am', presumably has been chosen, as the one item in which Tippett is neither composer nor arranger, because it accords with the line 'Remember your lovers', taken as the title-phrase. I'm not sure it was a good idea, as Britten's mastery suggests just what is so often wanting in Tippett: economy and repose.
The other composer present in force is Purcell and here, curiously, Tippett's self-discipline is impressive, even as against Britten's in his comparable arrangements. Burnside writes in his introductory notes: 'While Britten's dense pianistic approach now jars on ears that have undergone the Early Music revolution, Tippett and [Walter] Bergmann stay light on their feet.' The recording is fine with excellent presence.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010