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Track(s) taken from CDA66720

Who but a slave can well express, Z440

composer
Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
early 1683 ?
author of text
Anonymous - traditional

Susan Gritton (soprano), 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 6 seconds
 

Reviews

‘A treasury of good performances. It could hardly be otherwise with this composer and this roster of singers’ (Fanfare, USA)
Who but a slave appears in a manuscript collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, that seems to have been copied around 1683/85 and includes four solo songs by Purcell; some of the songs are copied from contemporary published song-books, but others appear to derive from manuscript sources. Among a handful of songs copied from Choice Ayres IV (published in 1683) comes Who but a slave, suggesting that Purcell’s song may have been written around early 1683. The melody of the three strophic verses contains the attractively angular vocal lines that often characterize Purcell’s earlier works.

from notes by Robert King © 2003

Other albums featuring this work

Purcell: The complete secular solo songs
The King's Consort
CDS44161/33CDs Boxed set (at a special price) — Download only

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