Tim Mead, La Nuova Musica & David Bates - Beauteous Softness (2023) [CD-Rip]

Countertenor Tim Mead presents Beauteous Softness, a programme containing restrained yet profoundly moving songs by seventeenth-century English composers such as Purcell, Blow, Humfrey and Webb, in collaboration with La Nuova Musica and David Bates. The album also showcases the rich musical context that provided the foundation from which Purcell rose to prominence.

Tim Mead is one of today’s most in-demand countertenors, and returns to Pentatone after having starred in a complete recording of Handel’s Messiah (2020). La Nuova Musica and its artistic director David Bates are among the most exciting Baroque ensembles of today. Their Pentatone debut with Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice was both BBC Music Magazine’s Choice and Gramophone Editor’s Choice in December 2019, while Handel’s Unsung Heroes (2021) was BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month and selected among the Best Classical Music Albums of 2022 by Gramophone.

“In an elaborate Baroque landscape of ornament and flamboyance, the songs of Henry Purcell are often models of restraint. This isn’t music that shouts to make itself heard or uses tricks to impress, yet still profoundly impacts its listener. This subtlety has always drawn me to this repertoire. It seems as if all emotion has been distilled into perfectly crafted gestures in which music and text are as one. A slight turn of phrase or small harmonic detail can be heavy with meaning. It is in this rich vein of material that the rewarding interpretive work in this repertoire really lies. The title ‘Beauteous Softness’ (taken from a solo verse from the ode ‘Now does the glorious day appear’) seems to perfectly encapsulate these glorious subtleties.

While the world was still in lockdown, David Bates and La Nuova Musica invited me to collaborate on their Purcell video series. It was the perfect music with which to collectively emerge from the silence. Inspired by these sessions we committed to exploring further songs together, as well as the best work from Purcell’s contemporaries: John Blow, Pelham Humfrey and William Webb. The resulting collection contains old favourites alongside the less familiar and fulfils a long held dream to follow in Alfred Deller’s hallowed footsteps and record the astonishing Plaint from Purcell’s ‘The Fairy Queen’.“

Tracklist
01. If Music Be the Food of Love, Z. 379a
02. Lovely Selina
03. The Yorkshire Feast Song ("of old, when heroes thought It base"), Z. 333: The pale and purple rose
04. A Hymn to God the Father ("Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin")
05. Venus and Adonis: Overture
06. In the Black Dismal Dungeon of Despair, Z. 190
07. Fly, bold rebellion (Welcome song for Charles II), Z. 324: Be welcome then, great Sir
08. Powerful Morpheus
09. Arise, my muse (Birthday ode for Queen Mary), Z. 320: Arise my muse
10. The Yorkshire Feast Song ("of old, when heroes thought It base"), Z. 333: So when the qlitt’ring queen of night
11. An Ode on the death of Mr Henry Purcell: So ceas’d the rival crew when Purcell came
12. Te Deum and Jubilate, Z. 232: Vouchsafe, O Lord
13. King Arthur, Z. 268: Chaconne – First Music
14. The Fairy Queen, Z. 629: O let me weep (The Plaint)
15. Now does the glorious day appear, Z. 332: By beauteous softness
16. Poor Celadon, He Sighs in Vain (Loving Above Himself)
17. Celebrate This Festival (Birthday Ode for Queen Mary), Z. 321: Crown the altar
18. Sleep, Downy Sleep, Come Close Mine Eyes (Anthem for the Evening)
19. Now That the Sun Hath Veiled His Light (An Evening Hymn)