Calliope, Volume the First: Songbooks of the 1700s - Emma Curtis, The Frolick (2 CDS)

Emma Curtis, contralto
The Frolick

Emma Curtis & The Frolick invite you back to London, 1739, for an evening of music-making at the height of Handel’s fame. Performing music from Calliope, the era’s most popular songbook, with period instruments and style, more than fifty songs from the opera, theatre, coffee-house, tavern, folk and soapbox, including A Favourite Aire by Mr. Handel in Ariadne, England’s Lamentation on the Loss of Farinelli, Maurice Greene’s The Fly, and many by Signor Animo. Calliope displays a broad and entertaining picture of 18th century London, reflecting the society for which it was collected, allowing us to see and feel the world and the humour in which its songs were born. Each song is its own microcosm of society and style.

London-born Emma Curtis is blessed with a rare, rich voice – “the most contralto Contralto I’ve heard,” according to Marilyn Horne – which couldn’t be better suited to the gender-bending theatricality of the songs on Calliope, her debut recording. Together with period-instrument ensemble The Frolick – variably mixing violin, flute, theorbo, baroque guitar, lute, cello and triple harp – she breathes life and spirit into this true discovery of the 18th century.


CD 1
1. ANONYMOUS Cupid and Venus (2:34)
2. Henry PURCELL (1659 – 1695) Celia has a thousand charms (4:55)
3. Henry CAREY (c.1690 – 1743) The Supplication (1:29)
4. ANONYMOUS [Thomas PHILLIPS] A New Song (2:11)
5. George Frideric HANDEL (1685 – 1759) A Dialogue Between Punch & Columine (3:40)
6. Henry HOLCOMBE (c.1693 – c.1752) The Forsaken Nymph (6:42)
7. George Frideric HANDEL A favourite Aire in Ariadne (2:18)
8. John Frederick LAMPE (c.1703 – 1751) The Coquet (1:40)
9. Francesco GEMINIANI (1687 – 1762) A Song to a Favourite Minuet of Geminiani’s (1:05)
10. ANONYMOUS The Country Girl’s Farewel (3:04)
11. George Frideric HANDEL A favourite Aire in Alcina (2:05)
12. John Ernest GALLIARD (c.1687 – 1749) The Early Horn (4:57)
13. George MUNRO (d. 1731) Dying Swan (3:25)
14. Giovanni Battista PESCETTI (c.1704 – c.1766) The Charmer (2:15)
15. Henry HOLCOMBE (c.1693 – c.1752) The Syren of the Stage (2:38)
16. Henry CAREY Sad Musidora (1:53)
17. John Frederick LAMPE The Dying Nymph (2:29)
18. ANONYMOUS Down the Burn Davie (5:14)
19. Thomas ARNE (1710 – 1778) The Miller of Mansfield (2:39)
20. Sir John VANBRUGH (1664 – 1726) The Coquet (1:34)
21. ANONYMOUS The Forsaken Maid (3:37)
22. ANONYMOUS On Zelinda (1:46)
23. Maurice GREENE (1696 – 1755) The Fly (0:45)
24. David DIGARD (d. 1745) My Jolly Companion (1:45)
25. John Frederick LAMPE Solitary Lover (5:25)
Total time CD 1: 73:26

CD 2
1. John Ernest GALLIARD Oft on the Troubled Ocean (2:08)
2. George Frideric HANDEL The Melancholy Nymph (3:29)
3. Henry CAREY The Lady’s Lamentation for the Loss of Senesino (6:06)
4. John Frederick LAMPE The Wand’ring Lover (3:22)
5. ANONYMOUS Linco’s Advice to Damon (1:44)
Henry CAREY
6. Gen’rous Love (1:44)
7. The Midsummer Wish (4:09)
8. Seignr ANGLOSINI A New Cantata (2:08)
9. ANONYMOUS The Apology (2:49)
10. Allan RAMSAY (1686 – 1758) Corn Riggs are Bonny (2:27)
Henry CAREY
11. A Pastoral (1:24)
12. The Maid’s Husband (2:00)
13. John Frederick LAMPE The Plain Dealer (2:29)
14. David DIGARD The Generous Confession (4:16)
15. ANONYMOUS The Despairing Lover (2:17)
16. Henry CAREY Stand by! Clear the way! (1:36)
17. Maurice GREENE True Love (3:27)
18. Jonathan MARTIN (c.1705 – 1737) The Address to Sleep (2:16)
19. Henry BURGESS (fl.1738 – 1765) England’s Lamentation for the Loss of Farinelli (3:37)
20. John Frederick LAMPE On Gallant Moor of Moorhall (1:44)
21. ANONYMOUS Dumbarton’s Dream (2:32)
22. Henry CAREY A Song (2:31)
23. John Frederick LAMPE The Maid’s Request (1:53)
24. William BOYCE (1711 – 1779) The Modest Petition (1:30)
25. Maurice GREENE The Flea (1:15)
26. ? John BORMAN (c.1651 – 1739) The Thirsty Toper (4:21)
27. Arcangelo CORELLI (1653 – 1713) The Praise of Bacchus (3:02)
Total time CD 2: 73:33