LNM Purcell Sessions #3

In the latest episode of the Purcell session with La Nuova Musica and their director David Bates, Tim sings one of the composer’s classics: Vouchsafe, o Lord from the Te Deum.

“For the annual celebrations of St Cecilia’s Day in 1694 Purcell did not produce an ode (which would have been his fifth dedicated to the patron saint of music) but instead produced a setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate which was performed in St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street. The centrepiece of the work, which finds Purcell at his most personal, is ‘Vouchsafe, O Lord’, set for the composer’s favourite countertenor voice. It is a genuine plea from the heart, made all the more poignant when we realise that exactly a year later Purcell himself was dead. Here is the composer at his profound best, piling up sequences and dissonances and pleading for mercy in the most ravishing vocal and string writing. The serenity with which the movement ends, and the strong affirmation of the final chorus, suggests that this is one prayer which may be answered.” [from notes by Robert King © 1992]

Tim returns to the Purcell sessions twice more in the coming weeks as this beautiful series reaches its conclusion.