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Track(s) taken from CDA66710

Oh, fair Cedaria, hide those eyes, Z402

composer
Orpheus Britannicus II, 1702
author of text

Barbara Bonney (soprano), The King's Consort
Recording details: March 1994
Orford Church, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Ben Turner
Engineered by Philip Hobbs
Release date: March 1994
Total duration: 5 minutes 16 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Paul Esswood (countertenor), Johann Sonnleitner (harpsichord), Charles Medlam (viola da gamba)

Reviews

‘An auspicious launch to a project that will probably have no real competiton for years to come; I recommend it heartily’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘An exceptional recording with consummate singing and playing which is worthy of pride of place in any vocal collection’ (CDReview)
Oh, fair Cedaria is a masterpiece. It was not published until seven years after Purcell’s death, when it appeared in the 1702 second edition of Orpheus Britannicus. It is one of the most perfect of all Purcell’s songs. The opening is exquisite, with a ravishing melisma on ‘Oh’ leading to a series of sighing ‘hide those eyes’ and erotic settings of the word ‘dies’. ‘Such beauty and charms are seen’ is underpinned by a graceful, four-bar ground bass; the tantalizing melismas on ‘charms’ leave us in no doubt of Cedaria’s matchless ‘beauty, wit, and grace’. The last stanza is extraordinary, containing a series of increasingly desolate pleas to ‘pity me’, the last of which is worthy of Dido, as is the magically descending bass line of the last ‘Unless I may your favour have, I can’t one moment live’. Such a song leaves us in no doubt whatsoever as to why Purcell’s contemporaries held him in universal awe.

from notes by Robert King © 2003

Other albums featuring this work

Essential Purcell
KING2Super-budget price sampler — Download only
Purcell: Music for a while & other songs
CDA66070Download only
Purcell: The complete secular solo songs
CDS44161/33CDs Boxed set (at a special price) — Download only
The King's Consort Baroque Collection
KING4Super-budget price sampler — Deleted
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