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.
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The first note sears through the texture, ‘misery’ plunges to the lower end of the voice, and the harmony of ‘and not in mercy set us free’ is especially imploring. Man’s miserable state is constantly illustrated at both ends of the vocal range, whether compared to base ‘dust’, or the shrill reminder that ‘wealth is a snare’: Purcell’s setting ‘and whispers it to death’ is especially effective. A catalogue of physical comparisons – ‘ulcerated sores’, corrupt flesh, a ‘crusty leper’s skin’ – is characterfully set, and the central cry, ‘Lord, we are sick’, highly charged. The singer asks that we may wash away all our sins, not in water, but in streams of Jesus’s blood. After such desperate wretchedness the short chorus is mercifully positive in its praise of God’s greatness and closes an extraordinarily extreme piece of church music.
from notes by Robert King ©
extrait des notes rédigées par Robert King © 1993
Français: Alain Midoux
aus dem Begleittext von Robert King © 1993
Deutsch: Anne Steeb/Bernd Müller
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