Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from CDH55303

Not all my torments can your pity move, Z400

composer
mid-1693
author of text

James Bowman (countertenor), The King's Consort, Robert King (conductor)
Recording details: April 1988
Radley College, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Produced by Nicholas Parker
Engineered by Nicholas Parker
Release date: April 1989
Total duration: 1 minutes 59 seconds

Cover artwork: The Duet. Gerard Ter Borch (1617-1681)
The National Trust, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire
 

Other recordings available for download

Paul Esswood (countertenor), Johann Sonnleitner (harpsichord), Charles Medlam (viola da gamba)
Susan Gritton (soprano), The King's Consort
Not all my torments is contained in the Gresham Manuscript, the autograph songbook written out by Purcell between 1692 and 1695. This song comes between movements from the birthday ode of April 1693, Celebrate this festival, and Sawney is a bonny lad, dated 25 January 1694, so may be presumed to have been written around the middle of 1693. Perhaps Purcell’s most florid song, representing the full extent of the ornate Italian influence, it seems strange that he did not include it in any published collection, and neither did it appear in Orpheus Britannicus. Robert Spencer has written that ‘this wonderful song always seems disappointingly short’, musing on whether Purcell planned an aria to follow, or even wrote one which got lost. That said, the four lines of verse do in themselves make a pithy and rather poignant entity which Purcell sets in an astonishingly colourful style, swinging from the impassioned opening, through the manically increasing scorn with which the poet’s love is greeted to the desolate sorrows that he will take to the grave. The rising optimism of the repeated ‘I love’ is countered by the final sting in the tail, ‘I despair’.

from notes by Robert King © 2003

Le texte de Not all my torments can your pity move se prêta à une mise en musique dramatique: la ligne vocale donne l’impression d’un chanteur improvisant des ornements fleuris sur une mélodie simple. Les mélismes sur des termes importants abondent, avec des intervalles hachés pour des mots comme «pity» et un sentiment d’accélération merveilleusement maîtrisé au «increases» répété.

extrait des notes rédigées par Robert King © 1989
Français: Hypérion

Other albums featuring this work

Purcell: Music for a while & other songs
CDA66070Download only
Purcell: Secular solo songs, Vol. 2
CDA66720Download only
Purcell: The complete secular solo songs
CDS44161/33CDs Boxed set (at a special price) — Download only
Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...