Elizabethan Lute songs; Purcell: Birthday Odes for Queen Mary - James Bowman, Early Music Consort of London, David Munrow (2 CDs)

Countertenor James Bowman (b.1941) enjoyed a long association with early English song, an interest which bore fruit with this 1972 recording of Elizabethan lute songs, here making it's first appearance on CD. Together with the lutenist Robert Spencer, Bowman arranged the programme to reflect the repertory of the theatre and court and the career of John Dowland, with a final homage to Italy, the cradle of early song. The recordings of Purcell's Birthday Odes date from 1975. Between 1689 and 1694, Henry Purcell produced an annual ode for the celebration of Queen Mary's birthday. The last and best known is Come, Ye Sons of Art, which drew on the composer's recent successes in the theatre by employing a larger orchestra than usual (with trumpets, oboes and recorders) and giving the chorus a more prominent role. From the late 1960s the countertenor James Bowman was at the forefront of the early music revival. He made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1967 and enjoyed a decade of work with David Munrow and the Early Music Consort, later collaborating with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music. In the early 1970s Bowman and the Early Music Consort made ground-breaking recordings of Medieval and Renaissance music, also pioneering historically accurate practice in music of the 17th century, notably with the album 'Monteverdi's Contemporaries' (1976).


- Disc 1 -
1 O Mistress Mine
2 Take, O Take Those Lips Away
3 Gray's Inn Masque
4 Wilson's Wild
5 The Willow Song
6 Melancholy Gailiard
7 Full Fathom Five
8 Where the Bee Sucks
9 Care-Charming Sleep
10 Eliza Is the Fairest Queen
11 The Noble Famous Queen
12 Gaiarda la Royne D'escosse
13 The Queen's Galliard
14 Miserere, My Maker
15 Away with These Self-Loving Lads
16 Lasso Vita Mia
17 Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 21, Mr. George Whitehead His Almand
18 Now, O Now I Needs Must Part
19 In Darkness Let Me Dwell
20 Se L'aura Spira
21 Morto Son Io
22 Fantasia for Lute
23 Tortorella
24 So Ben Mi C'ha Bon Tempo

- Disc 2 -
1 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: I. Symphony (Largo - Allegro - Adagio)
2 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: II. Come Ye Sons of Art (Countertenor, Chorus)
3 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: III. Sound the Trumpet (Countertenors)
4 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: IV. Come Ye Sons of Art (Reprise) [Chorus]
5 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: V. Strike the Viol (Countertenor)
6 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: VI. the Day That Such a Blessing Gave (Bass, Chorus)
7 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: VII. Bid the Virtues (Soprano)
8 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: VIII. These Are the Sacred Charms (Bass)
9 Come, Ye Sons of Art Away, Z. 323: IX. See Nature, Rejoicing (Soprano, Bass, Chorus)
10 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: Symphony
11 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind This Day (Countertenor)
12 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: Those Eyes, That Form (Bass)
13 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: Sweetness of Nature (Countertenors)
14 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: Long May She Reign (Soprano, Chorus)
15 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: May Her Blest Example Chase (Soprano)
16 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: Many Such Days (Countertenors)
17 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: May She to Heaven (Chorus)
18 Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, Z. 331: As Much As We Below Shall Mourn (Soprano, Countertenor, Tenor, Bass, Chorus)