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Track(s) taken from CDA66720

Ah! cruel nymph!, Z352

composer
mid-1693
author of text

Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor), The King's Consort
Recording details: March 1994
Orford Church, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Ben Turner
Engineered by Philip Hobbs
Release date: May 1994
Total duration: 2 minutes 35 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

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

Reviews

‘A treasury of good performances. It could hardly be otherwise with this composer and this roster of singers’ (Fanfare, USA)
Ah! cruel nymph! was probably copied into the Gresham Manuscript around May 1693. It was also later printed in the second edition of Orpheus Britannicus. A mini-cantata, it shows Purcell’s development of the Italian style, fusing arioso and recitative. The opening explores a running bass line, which is only finally established after an extravagantly florid roulade for the singer on ‘delight’. Despite this peacock-like display, the lover’s ‘nymph’ still refuses his entreaties to cease reproaching him for a previous flirtation with Sylvia. In a more serious section of recitative the singer complains that Sylvia sustained for too long ‘Her conquest when her love was feign’d’. In a dancing triple time the poet realizes that this new lady, ‘charming, airy, humorous and gay’, has finally enabled him to see true love.

from notes by Robert King © 2003

Other albums featuring this work

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
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