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Track(s) taken from CDA66730

Let us, kind Lesbia, give away, Z466

composer
Choice Ayres and Songs V, 1684
author of text
translator of text

Barbara Bonney (soprano), Michael George (bass), The King's Consort
Recording details: March 1994
Orford Church, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Ben Turner
Engineered by Philip Hobbs
Release date: September 1994
Total duration: 1 minutes 25 seconds
 

Reviews

‘Those who need all of Purcell's songs at their fingertips should invest in Hyperion's three-disk survey of secular songs, with outstanding performances by Barbara Bonney, Rogers Covey-Crump and James Bowman’ (The New York Times)
Let us, kind Lesbia, give away was an anonymous translation of Catullus’s ‘Epigram 5’ Viveam mea Lesbia. Purcell’s song was published in the fifth book of Choice Ayres and Songs in 1684. His setting of the devil-may-care (not to say rather risqué) text was suitably colourful: whilst there is the opportunity to indulge in ‘soft embraces all the day’, that chance should be seized, for death will put an end to such pleasures. In the triple-time duet the lovers prepare to put their theories into practice. If anyone should criticize, they will counter such censoriousness ‘with one more kiss’.

from notes by Robert King © 2003

Other albums featuring this work

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