Purcell: King Arthur, 1691 Paul McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort & Players

• Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695): King Arthur, Z. 628: Aire (from Amphitryon, Z. 572):
• 1 King Arthur, Z. 628: Aire (from Amphitryon, Z. 572) 01:04
• 2 King Arthur, Z. 628: Minuet (from Amphitryon, Z. 572) 01:05
• 3 King Arthur, Z. 628: Hornpipe (from Amphitryon, Z. 572) 01:10
• 4 King Arthur, Z. 628: Scotch Tune (from Amphitryon, Z. 572) 00:58
• 5 King Arthur, Z. 628: Overture 01:48
• 6 King Arthur, Z. 628: Aire 01:36
• King Arthur, Z. 628, Act I:
• 7 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act I: Verse & Chorus – Woden, First to Thee / We Have Sacrific’d 02:34
• 8 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act I: Verse & Chorus – the White Horse Neigh’d Aloud / To Woden Thanks We Render 01:17
• 9 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act I: Verse & Chorus – the Lot Is Cast / Brave Souls 02:42
• 10 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act I: Song & Chorus – I Call You All to Woden’s Hall 02:02
• 11 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act I: Prelude, Song & Chorus – Come If You Dare, Our Trumpets Sound 03:19
• King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II:
• 12 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Prelude – Aire 00:41
• 13 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Song & Chorus – Hither This Way (Philadel) 02:12
• 14 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Song – Let Not a Moonborn Elf Mislead Ye (Grimbald) 01:17
• 15 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Chorus – Hither This Way 00:37
• 16 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Verse & Chorus – Come Follow Me 02:12
• 17 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Prelude, Song & Chorus – How Blest Are Shepherds (Shepherd) 05:24
• 18 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Prelude & Song – Shepherd, Shepherd, Leave Decoying (Two Shepherdesses) 01:57
• 19 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Chorus & Dance – Come, Shepherds, Lead up a Lively Measure 01:27
• 20 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act II: Second Act Tune – Rondeau (from Distress’d Innocency, Z. 577) 00:53
• King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III:
• 21 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Prelude & Verse – What Ho, Thou Genius of This Isle! (Cupid) 01:20
• 22 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Prelude & Song – What Power Art Thou (Cold Genius) 02:19
• 23 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Song – Thou Doting Fool, Forbear (Cupid) 00:50
• 24 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Song – Great Love, I Know Thee Now (Cold Genius) 00:59
• 25 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Verse – No Pt. Of My Dominion Shall Be Waste (Cupid) 00:55
• 26 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Chorus & Dance – See, See, We Assemble 02:32
• 27 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Prelude, Song & Chorus – ’Tis I That Have Warm’d Ye / ’Tis Love That Has Warm’d Us (Cupid) 02:48
• 28 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Song – Sound a Parley (Cupid & Cold Genius) 02:29
• 29 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Chorus – ’Tis Love That Has Warm’d Us 01:47
• 30 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act III: Third Act Tune – Aire 01:12
• King Arthur, Z. 628, Act IV:
• 31 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act IV: Soft Music – Aire (from Bonduca, Z. 574) 02:55
• 32 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act IV: Song – Two Daughters of This Aged Stream Are We (Two Sirens) 03:12
• 33 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act IV: Passacaglia – How Happy the Lover / For Love Every Creature 05:06
• 34 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act IV: Song by Mr. Howe – You Say, ’Tis Love Creates the Pain (He & She) 05:09
• 35 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act IV: Fourth Act Tune – Hornpipe 00:53
• King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V:
• 36 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Prelude – Rondeau (from the Old Bachelor, Z. 607) 00:41
• 37 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Prelude & Song – Ye Blust’Ring Brethren / Serene and Calm (Aeolus) 03:04
• 38 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Soft Tune 02:04
• 39 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Prelude, Song & Chorus – Round Thy Coasts (Nereid) 02:22
• 40 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Song – for Folded Flocks (Three Shepherds) 02:57
• 41 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Song & Dance – Your Hay It Is Mow’d (Comus & Peasants) 02:38
• 42 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Prelude & Song – Fairest Isle (Venus) 03:36
• 43 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Tune for Trumpets (after Dioclesian, Z. 627) 00:42
• 44 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: New Song & Chorus for Britannia & St George – Sound Heroes, Your Brazen Trumpets Sound! / Let All Rehearse (Fame) 05:37
• 45 King Arthur, Z. 628, Act V: Grand Dance – Chaconne 03:17
• Total Runtime 01:37:39

Info for Purcell: King Arthur, 1691

The great patriotic opera of the 17th century, recorded here in a lively new performing edition after two decades in the Gabrieli’s touring repertoire. Notoriously difficult to present on disc or in concert, this version presented by Gabrieli was created to allow an obvious musical narrative, despite Purcell’s music often being completely dislocated from much of the original theatre context.

Gabrieli have been performing the music from King Arthur for nearly a quarter of a century, evolving their interpretation over time. With the score having to be pieced together using separate versions (due to Purcell’s originals being lost), and with Gabrieli’s evolved interpretation of the music, the end product of this recording is truly unique. Their next release on Signum will be with the semi-opera by Purcell, Fairy Queen, in April next year, which is an adaptation of A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Anna Dennis, soprano
Mhairi Lawson, soprano
Rowan Pierce, soprano
Carolyn Sampson, soprano
Jeremy Budd, tenor
James Way, tenor
Ashley Riches, bass-baritone
Roderick Williams, bass-baritone
Gabrieli Consort & Players
Paul McCreesh, conductor

Paul McCreesh
is the founder and Artistic Director of Gabrieli which he established in 1982 and with whom he has toured world-wide and made many award-winning recordings. McCreesh is well-known for the energy and passion that he brings to his music-making, and is especially enthusiastic about working with young musicians and broadening access to classical music; he works regularly with youth orchestras and choirs and is active in building new educational initiatives whenever possible.

McCreesh has guest conducted many of the major orchestras and choirs across the globe, including most recently the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Verbier Festival orchestras, and Berlin Konzerthausorchester, whom he returns to this season to conduct Berlioz Grande Messe des Morts. McCreesh also enjoys regular and ongoing collaborations with Saint Paul and Basel Chamber Orchestras, conducting choral projects with both orchestras in 2016/17, the latter at Menuhin Festival Gstaad.

From 2013-2016 he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon) with whom he conducted a wide range of music from the classical period through to the nineteenth and twentieth century, focusing in particular on symphonic repertoire, oratorio and opera in concert, working closely with the world- renowned Gulbenkian Choir. In 2016/17, McCreesh returns to the orchestra twice to conduct Elgar The Dream of Gerontius and a programme of Satie, Saint-Saëns and Beethoven featuring Gautier Capuçon.

McCreesh has established a strong reputation in the opera house and has conducted productions at the Teatro Real Madrid, Royal Danish Opera, Opera Comique, Vlaamse Opera and at the Verbier Festival. In 2015/16 he conducted Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bergen Opera, and returned to Vlaamse Opera for a production of Idomeneo.

In 2011 McCreesh launched his own record label, Winged Lion, in collaboration with the Gabrieli Consort & Players, Signum Classics and the Wratislavia Cantans Festival, where he was Artistic Director between 2006 and 2012. To date they have made seven recordings, most recently Handel L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, released in 2015. Other highlights include Britten War Requiem (BBC Music Magazine Award 2014), Mendelssohn Elijah (Diapason d’Or Award 2013), Berlioz’s gargantuan Grande Messe des Morts (BBC Award 2012), and a reworking of his earlier Gabrieli disc, A New Venetian Coronation 1595 (Gramophone Award 2013). The Winged Lion recordings build on his large catalogue of recordings with Deutsche Grammophon, which includes the Gramophone Award-winning Haydn Creation.

Gabrieli Consort
are a choir and period instrument orchestra founded and led by Artistic Director Paul McCreesh. We perform and record great choral, vocal and instrumental repertoire from the renaissance to the present day for the widest possible audience, cultivating an international reputation for excellence, innovation and ambition. Our mission is to educate the public, in every sense – to be standard bearers for the highest quality of performance, to explain, illustrate and illuminate the guiding principles behind our performance ideals and to offer first-class performance opportunities to young people through our bold and ambitious education programme, Gabrieli Roar.

Gabrieli’s interpretations strive to recreate the original performances of musical works as far as possible, in the belief that historical performance ideals and knowledge of the old world are essential for creating music anew. We seek to engage with and to explore the links between music from all periods. Through lively music-making, committed research and the production of ground-breaking recordings, Gabrieli’s mission is to challenge common and accepted perceptions of classical music, and to re-invigorate and innovate in order to sustain the relevance of these great pieces of art in the twenty-first century.

Booklet for Purcell: King Arthur, 1691