Purcell: I attempt from love's sickness to fly in vain (from The Indian Queen)

“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 ***

“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

“Carolyn Sampson's luminescent soprano, with its easeful enunciation, seemingly instinctive ornamentation, and total lack of self-consciousness captures the bittersweet 'affects' of 'Sweeter than Roses', relishes the shifting tones of voice in the long nocturnal, 'From silent shades', and glows against a single theorbo accompaniment in the great 'Evening Hymn'. The instrumental palette, though limited, is exquisitely tuned to Sampson's voice and to the character of each piece.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 ****

“It is immediately obvious from the first few songs that this disc is truly special. Carolyn Sampson's singing is deliciously enjoyable for its sweet tuning, flawless intonation, impeccable stylishness, shapely phrasing of melodic lines and textural awareness.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2007

“Her tone is extraordinarily beautiful: natural, warm and unforced, with almost superhuman vocal athleticism” American Record Guide

“It is immediately obvious from the first few songs that this disc is truly special. Carolyn Sampson's singing is deliciously enjoyable for its sweet tuning, flawless intonation, impeccable stylishness, shapely phrasing of melodic lines and textual awareness. Each of these 19 songs, mostly taken from Purcell's operas and music for theatre plays, are given judicious performances.
The programme admirably shows the variety of characteristics and styles in Purcell's writing, and Sampson achieves the perfect degree of joyful radiance, seductiveness, witty comment or bittersweet melancholy in each song. 'Sweeter than roses' is an old warhorse for early music singers, but the poetry has seldom seemed so personal as it does in Sampson's heart-rending rendition. The Plaint from TheFairy Queen is beautifully done and the line 'he's gone and I shall never see him more' is remarkable for its stylish precision and emotional truthfulness (the performance is also notable for Sarah Sexton's superb solo violin-playing).
The supporting players always sound as if they are fully interested in the subtle nuances of the music. Well known favourites such as 'Music for a while', 'Fairest isle' and 'I attempt from love's sickness to fly' are excellently done, but several of the relatively obscure songs ('The fatal hour' and 'From silent shades') are shown to be equally rewarding and engaging. First-class new recordings of Purcell's music are much too rare, and this one deserves to be an enormous success.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The 16 Purcell songs and airs in this recital, some familiar, some rarely heard, are arranged in a pleasing order for continuous listening but, of course, can be selected or re-arranged at the touch of a CD button. Emma Kirkby's pure white tone is a joy throughout, her diction immaculate and her technique equal to all the demands of Purcell's many notes to a word... with nice decorations in repeated passages.” Gramophone Magazine

“Barna-Sabadus's strikingly high countertenor displays alluring tone rather than clear diction. He's stylishly accompanied” BBC Music Magazine, June 2013 ****

“With his experience in opera one may expect Barna-Sabadus to make the most of this repertoire. That is exactly what he does. He has a beautiful voice with a pleasantly warm timbre and a remarkably wide range...a highly compelling recital of gems from 17th-century England.” MusicWeb International, 18th June 2013

“..this is not a recital restricted to one vocal hue. Each song is looked at and receives relevant response from both singer and pianist. ….he (Mark Stone) introduces so much by way of nuance and colour to make this a very interesting and fulfilling programme, one which is well recorded.” International Record Review, March 2009

“Stone has made an estimable career as a lyric baritone at Opera North and English National Opera, but he is less familiar as a recitalist. His light, airy baritone is well suited to the more easy-going English love songs, but takes on a nasal, pinched quality when a sense of drama is required, as in Frank Bridge’s galloping Love went a-riding. This attractive miscellaneous programme might have made a stronger impression if the order of songs were not so haphazard: Vaughan Williams (Silent Noon and Love bade me welcome) segues uncomfortably into Dowland’s Awake, sweet love, and Purcell, Handel and Haydn are interspersed pell-mell between Quilter and Ireland, Butterworth and Warlock, Finzu and Britten. Stone’s theme and sequence are too loose to be compelling and his diction, mostly clear, rarely achieves the eloquence of a born song interpreter.” Sunday Times, 15th February 2009 ***

“The Evening Hymn is radiantly done, and so are many of the less well-known airs which regularly bring new revelation. Excellent recording, if with the voice forward, given striking extra presence on CD” Penguin Guide ***