Helen Charlston - If the Fates allow (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/192]

If the title of this outstanding CD gives little away, its appendage is rather more forthcoming – ‘Music by Purcell and his contemporaries’. Even so and although there are several staples from the Purcell recital repertoire (‘O Solitude’, ‘I attempt from love’s sickness’), there are some rather more unexpected inclusions; ‘If music be the food of love’ is included in two of the three settings made by Purcell, but neither is the well-known one (Z. 379b).

Also unusual is the absence of programme notes, foregone in favour of a fascinating conversation between Helen Charlston and Emma Kirkby, in which they express their feelings about Purcell’s songs and what it means to sing them. Naturally, there is much accord, but what is interesting when it comes to performances is just how contrasted the approach is. One need only listen to a little of Emma Kirkby’s wonderful 1983 recital of the songs after this CD to recognise that the objectives of the singers are quite different. Dame Emma’s performances are all about vocal purity, clarity of diction and a near-perfect musical technique, with cleanly articulated ornaments and shaping of phrases.

TRACKLIST

1. Helen Charlston - I love and I must, Z. 382
2. Helen Charlston - No. 2 Music for a While
3. Helen Charlston - Tell me, some pitying angel, Z. 196 "The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation"
4. Sounds Baroque - The Division Viol: Divisions in D Major
5. Helen Charlston - What a sad fate is mine, Z. 428
6. Helen Charlston - If music be the food of love, Z. 379c (Third Version)
7. Helen Charlston - The fatal hour comes on apace, Z. 421
8. Helen Charlston - The History of Timon of Athens, The Man-Hater, Z. 632: No. 10, The Cares of Lovers
9. Helen Charlston - The Indian Queen, Z. 630, Act III: I attempt from Love’s sickness
10. Helen Charlston - She ventures, and he wins: Restless in thought
11. Julian Perkins - Morlake Ground
12. Helen Charlston - If music be the food of love, Z. 379a (First Version)
13. Helen Charlston - Morpheus thou gentle god
14. Helen Charlston - O Solitude, my sweetest choice, Z. 406



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