Elegy – Countertenor duets by Purcell & Blow - Vivat: VIVAT118 - CD or download

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Davies is the headline artist on the cover; but in fact he duets with James Hall on notably equal terms, the two voices subtly differing in timbre but compatible in articulation and expressivity.... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2019, 5 out of 5 stars (Performance ) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording) More…

Release Date: 27th Sep 2019
Catalogue No: VIVAT118
Label: Vivat
Length: 77 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

Awards Issue 2019

Editor's Choice
International Classical Music Awards

2019

Nominee - Baroque Vocal
Gramophone Awards

2020

Shortlisted - Recital

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Purcell: Hark! How the Songsters (from Timon of Athens, Z. 632)

Work length3:00

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Hall (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Purcell: In vain the am'rous flute (from Hail, Bright Cecilia!, Z328)

Work length6:20

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Hall (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Purcell: O solitude, my sweetest choice, Z406

Work length5:40

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Purcell: Chaconne (Two in One Upon a Ground) (from Dioclesian, Z. 627)

Work length2:44

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

King's Consort
Robert King

Blow: Ah heav'n, what is't I hear?

Work length3:31

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Hall (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Purcell: Sound the trumpet (from Come Ye Sons of Art, Z323)

Work length2:23

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Hall (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Purcell: Since the Toils and the Hazards of War (from Dioclesian, Z. 627)

Work length4:09

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Purcell: Sing, sing, ye druids (from Bonduca, Z. 57)

Work length2:36

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Hall (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Blow: Paratum cor meum

Work length2:22

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Hall (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Purcell: Incassum Lesbia, incassum rogas (from The Queen’s Epicedium)

Work length7:37

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Iestyn Davies (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Blow: No, Lesbia, no, you ask in vain

Work length7:07

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Iestyn Davies (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Purcell: O dive custos Auriacae domus, Z504

Work length6:26

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Hall (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

Blow: Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell

Work length23:27

$7.00

$9.10

$12.25

Iestyn Davies (countertenor), James Hall (countertenor)
King's Consort
Robert King

No. 1, Mark How the Lark and Linnet Sing

Track length3:52

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2, But in the Close of Night

Track length4:57

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 3, So Ceas'd the Rival Crew When Purcell Came

Track length2:55

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 4, We Beg Not Hell, Our Orpheus to Restore

Track length1:51

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 5, The Pow'r of Harmony Too Well They Knew

Track length2:35

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 6, The Heav'nly Quire, Who Heard His Notes from High

Track length4:28

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 7, Ye Brethren of the Lyre, and Tuneful Voice

Track length2:49

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

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Interview, James Hall on Elegy

11th December 2019

The young British countertenor talks to Katherine about his career to date and his recent album of duets by Purcell and Blow with Iestyn Davies and The King's Consort.

 World-renowned countertenor Iestyn Davies, partnered by outstanding young countertenor James Hall and The King’s Consort, turns his attention to the music of Henry Purcell and his colleague John Blow.

 This beautifully themed programme of solos and duets centres on elegies, and concludes with Blow’s magnificent ‘Ode on the death of Purcell’. Rarely heard together on one recording are a set of three substantial elegies composed by Purcell and Blow to commemorate the untimely death of the much-loved Queen Mary. Two of these ingeniously take the same text, one in English (by Blow – a particularly fine work), the other in Latin (Purcell). Another highlight is Iestyn’s seraphic rendition of the melancholy masterpiece, ‘O solitude’. Around these come duets both famous and less familiar, including ‘Hark how the songsters’, Blow’s ravishing ‘Ah, heav’n, what is’t I hear?’, the deliciously languid ‘In vain the am’rous flute’ and, of course, ‘Sound the trumpet’.

 The death of Queen Mary, which spurred London’s two leading composers into doleful elegiac action, was soon to be followed by a greater musical calamity: the loss of Henry Purcell. John Blow’s outstanding ‘Ode on the death of Mr Henry Purcell’ is not only a heartfelt tribute to his colleague, but one of the most outstanding English works of the era.

 Iestyn Davies shows himself to be a true master of this repertoire, beautifully partnered by James Hall and by an ensemble which has dominated the world of Purcell recordings for more than thirty years.

 Recorded in world-class new recording venue, Alpheton New Maltings, demonstrating its exceptional acoustic of striking clarity and warmth.

 Extensive presentation includes 52 page booklet with liner note in three languages, full texts and translations, and six pages of session photos.

Reviews

December 2019

Davies is the headline artist on the cover; but in fact he duets with James Hall on notably equal terms, the two voices subtly differing in timbre but compatible in articulation and expressivity. The signers are backed by a similarly well-matched pair of recorders and a supportive continuo section with an imaginatively changing choice of instruments.

Awards Issue 2019

Absolutely on point: with two wonderfully matched countertenors and superb recorder-playing, bound together in the intimate acoustic of Alpheton New Maltings, Suffolk…The big draw is, of course, countertenor Iestyn Davies, and for me his performance of Purcell’s ‘O solitude’ is a clear standout…This is surely one of the best countertenor performances on disc…This whole disc is a trove of bittersweet delights.

1st September 2019

They duet ravishingly in Purcell’s Hark! How the songsters and Sound the Trumpet, and in less familiar pieces by Blow, whose Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell is the album’s moving climax.

1st September 2019

Worthy successors to James Bowman and Michael Chance, who also recorded these duets with the King’s Consort, Davies and Hall bring a chamber-music intensity to Blow’s sublime elegy on Purcell’s death, though nothing on the disc quite beats the spine-tingling last bars of Purcell’s duet O dive custos.

Videos

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Elegy – Countertenor duets by Purcell & Blow

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Interview, James Hall on Elegy

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