Sweeter than Roses: Songs by Henry Purcell - Anna Dennis (soprano), Sounds Baroque & Julian Perkins (director) - Resonus Classics - RES10235

Sweeter than Roses: Songs by Henry Purcell

£12.99
Total playing time [67:43]

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Anna Dennis (soprano)
Sounds Baroque
Julian Perkins (director & keyboards)

Director and keyboardist Julian Perkins and his acclaimed ensemble Sounds Baroque join soprano Anna Dennis for this celebration of the songs of Henry Purcell.

Known for his undisputed mastery in setting the English language, Purcell also absorbed influences from both French and Italian styles, and the programme is complemented with close contemporaries who also worked in London – a guitar suite from Italian Francesco Corbetta, performed by James Akers, and a harpsichord suite from Giovanni Battista Draghi, along with two songs from the earlier Stuart court composer Henry Lawes.

Album Booklet (PDF)

Tracklist

Henry Purcell (1659–1695)
1. Sweeter than roses, Z. 585/1
2. Cupid, the slyest rogue alive, Z. 367
3. On the brow of Richmond Hill, Z. 405
4. She loves and she confesses too, Z. 413

Henry Lawes (1596–1662)
5. No Reprieve
6. A Lover’s Legacy

Francesco Corbetta (1615–1681)
Suite in C major for guitar
7. Caprice de Chacone
8. Gigue
9. Menuet
10. Autre Chacone

Henry Purcell
11. Urge me no more, Z. 426
12. In the black, dismal dungeon
of despair, Z. 190
13. Now that the sun hath veil’d his light
(An Evening Hymn), Z. 193

Giovanni Battista Draghi (1640–1708)
Suite in E minor for harpsichord
14. Prelude
15. Allmand
16. Corrant
17. The Complaint
18. Aire
19. Jigg

Henry Purcell
20. Love arms himself in Celia’s eyes, Z. 392
21. Celia’s fond, too long I’ve lov’d her, Z. 364
22. I came, I saw, and was undone
(The Thraldom), Z. 375
23. Oh! fair Cedaria, hide those eyes, Z. 402
24. How blest are shepherds (from
King Arthur, Z. 628, arr. Sounds Baroque)

“

'Dennis’s lower centre of vocal gravity anchors a wonderfully brooding and inky ‘In the black, dismal dungeon of despair’ and brings warmth and weight to Henry Lawes’s ‘No Reprieve’, with its heartbreakingly desolate refrain ‘Alas! Undone to fate, I bow my head’, and the soprano’s superb diction and attention to text bring a lovely lightness to the vivacious ‘Cupid, the slyest rogue alive’

- Gramophone

'Anna Dennis is wonderfully alive to the shifting moods and ideas expressed in order to tell a story or to evoke intense emotion [...] Sounds Baroque, under Julian Perkins’s direction (switching among harpsichord, spinet and chamber organ) further endows these settings with great alacrity, but by no means upstaging the singer'
Classical Source

'Dennis’s lower centre of vocal gravity anchors a wonderfully brooding and inky ‘In the black, dismal dungeon of despair’ and brings warmth and weight to Henry Lawes’s ‘No Reprieve’, with its heartbreakingly desolate refrain ‘Alas! Undone to fate, I bow my head’, and the soprano’s superb diction and attention to text bring a lovely lightness to the vivacious ‘Cupid, the slyest rogue alive’
Gramophone

'Anna Dennis sings Purcell with chaste beauty, dignified and cool as marble'
BBC Music Magazine

'This varied but coherent selection makes for a very enjoyable disc'
Lark Reviews

'The accompaniments from the three members of Sounds Baroque are well-judged and well-played'
Andrew Benson-Wilson (andrewbensonwilson.com)

'There is a strength and a vibrancy to these performances that I enjoyed, and Anna Dennis gives a striking performance which is well away from a light skimming over the surface. She is well supported by Julian Perkins and Sounds Baroque'
Planet Hugill

Credits
© 2019 Resonus Limited
Ⓟ 2019 Resonus Limited
Catalogue No. RES10235
Producer, Engineer & Editor: Adam Binks
EAN: 5060262791424
Cover image: Rose by Lobo Studio Hamburg (pixabay.com)
Release date: 1 Feburary 2019