Linn Records CKD 358 Label of the Year
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Linn Records CKD 358 Label of the Year “Linn is the very model of a modern record company, ensuring that the highest standards are maintained from the studio right through the company’s very impressive digital store.” JAMES JOLLY, EDITOR IN CHIEF, GRAMOPHONE Discover the world of Linn Records Download at www.linnrecords.com Now you can explore Linn music on-line with even greater ease by using our innovative download facility. Linn albums and tracks are available to download at studio master and CD quality – the quality you desire to achieve the best possible sound. MP3 downloads are also available. linnrecords.com is a multi-format music delivery system that delivers music on vinyl, CD and download. Register online today at www.linnrecords.com to keep up to date about our latest releases and to find out more about our artists. LINN, GLASGOW ROAD, WATERFOOT, GLASGOW G76 0EQ UK t: +44 (0)141 303 5027/9 f: +44 (0)141 303 5007 e: [email protected] THOMAS ARNE 1710–1778 DISC ONE Act One 1. Overture (Poco più che andante – Larghetto – Gavotta) .................... 5.13 2. Recitative: Still silence reigns around ..................................................... 0.29 3. No.1, Duettino: Fair Aurora, prithee stay ............................................... 2.17 New performing edition with recitatives 4. Recitative: Alas, thou know’st that for my love to thee ..................... 1.13 5. No.2, Air: Adieu, thou lovely youth .......................................................... 3.22 Artaxerxesby Ian Page and finale by Duncan Druce 6. Recitative: O cruel parting! How can I survive? ................................... 0.57 7. No.3, Air: Amid a thousand racking woes .............................................. 4.38 CLASSICAL OPERA COMPANY 8. Recitative: Be firm, my heart ..................................................................... 1.26 9. No.4, Air: Behold, on Lethe’s dismal strand ........................................... 3.37 IAN PAGE conductor 10. Recitative: Stay, Artaxerxes, stay ............................................................. 0.29 11. No.5, Air: Fair Semira, lovely maid ........................................................... 3.26 CHRISTOPHER AINSLIE Artaxerxes 12. Recitative: I fear some dread disaster... .................................................. 1.29 ELIZABETH WATTS Mandane 13. No.6, Air: When real joys we miss ............................................................ 1.59 CAITLIN HULCUP Arbaces 14. Recitative: Ye Gods, protectors of the Persian Empire ....................... 0.36 15. No.7, Air: How hard is the fate .................................................................. 4.01 ANDREW STAPLES Artabanes 16. Recitative: Whither do I fly? ...................................................................... 3.24 REBECCA BOTTONE Semira 17. No.8, Air: Thy father! Away, I renounce the soft claim ....................... 1.24 DANIEL NORMAN Rimenes 18 . Recitative: Ye cruel Gods, what crime have I committed ................... 0.14 19. No.9, Air: Acquit thee of this foul offence ............................................. 1.27 20. Recitative: Appearance, I must own, is strong against me ................ 0.48 Recorded at Air Studios, London, UK 21. No.10, Air: O too lovely, too unkind ........................................................ 4.25 18th – 21st November 2009 & 2nd April 2010 22. Accompanied recitative: Dear and beloved shade ............................. 0.49 Produced and engineered by Philip Hobbs 23. No.11, Air: Fly, soft ideas, fly ..................................................................... 5.01 Post-production by Julia Thomas, Finesplice, UK Act Two Design by John Haxby, www.haxby.net 24. Recitative: Guards, speed ye to the tower ............................................. 0.38 Photography by Dr Stephen Page, www.fatkoala.biz 25. No.12, Air: In infancy, our hopes and fears ............................................ 2.12 from The Royal Opera’s 2009 production of Artaxerxes 26. Recitative: So far my great resolve succeeds ........................................ 1.28 27. No.13, Air: Disdainful you fly me .............................................................. 2.46 This recording follows a production of Artaxerxes at the Royal Opera House, 28. Recitative: Why, my dear friend, so pensive, so inactive? ................. 2.05 Covent Garden in 2009, directed by Martin Duncan and designed by Johan 29. No.14, Air: To sigh and complain .............................................................. 1.51 Engels. We are very grateful to Elaine Padmore and all those at The Royal 30. Recitative: How many links to dire misfortune’s chain ....................... 1.13 Opera who helped to bring this production to fruition. 31. No.15, Air: If o’er the cruel tyrant love ................................................... 3.01 2 • ARTAXERXES ARTAXERXES • 3 DISC TWO Act Two continued 1. Recitative: Which fatal evil shall I first oppose? ................................... 0.31 Artaxerxes The life of Thomas Arne was inextricably linked with Covent Garden. He was born 2. No.16, Air: If the river’s swelling waves .................................................. 2.34 just off the famous piazza, on King Street, on 12 March 1710, and died, a week 3. Recitative: Ye solid pillars of the Persian Empire .................................. 5.00 before his sixty-eighth birthday, in Bow Street. Nowadays a street named in the 4. No.17, Air: By that belov’d embrace ........................................................ 3.31 5. Recitative: Ah me, at poor Arbaces’ parting .......................................... 0.46 composer’s honour is situated within a minute’s walk of the Royal Opera House, 6. No.18, Air: Monster, away .......................................................................... 2.36 just off Long Acre. 7. Recitative: See, lov’d Semira ..................................................................... 1.02 8. Accompanied recitative: At last my soul has room ............................ 0.38 Arne’s greatest opera, Artaxerxes, was premiered at the Theatre Royal, the 9. No.19, Air: Thou, like the glorious sun .................................................... 4.59 predecessor of the Royal Opera House, on 2 February 1762, and remained in the Covent Garden repertory until the late 1830s, receiving a documented one hundred Act Three and eleven performances before 1790. The young Mozart almost certainly attended 10. No.20, Air: Why is death for ever late .................................................... 2.58 11. Recitative: Arbaces! Gracious Heav’n, what’s this I see? ................... 1.14 a performance when he came to London in the mid 1760s, and Haydn was also 12. No.21, Air: Water parted from the sea .................................................... 2.19 acquainted with the work, enthusiastically exclaiming that he “had no idea we had 13. Recitative: That face, secure in conscious innocence ......................... 0.26 such an opera in the English language”. 14. No.22, Air: Though oft a cloud with envious shade ............................. 3.38 15. Recitative: My son, Arbaces... where art thou retir’d? ........................ 1.52 The main reason for the work’s subsequent neglect is a good one: the manuscript 16. No.23, Air: O let the danger of a son ....................................................... 2.15 and all the original performance materials were burnt in the disastrous fire which 17. Accompanied recitative: Ye adverse Gods! .......................................... 0.41 destroyed the Theatre Royal in 1808. The opera’s overture, arias and duets had 18. No.24, Air: O, much lov’d son, if death ................................................... 5.15 already been published, and so survive intact, as does the libretto, but none of the 19. Recitative: Perhaps the King releas’d Arbaces ...................................... 1.34 recitatives or the finale were printed, and they are therefore lost. This recording of 20. No.25, Air: Let not rage, thy bosom firing .............................................. 4.25 21. Recitative: What have I done? Alas, I vainly thought ......................... 0.24 Artaxerxes was made following a new production of the opera at the Royal Opera 22. No.26, Air: ’Tis not true that in our grief ................................................. 4.08 House, Covent Garden in November 2009. To create a complete version of the work 23. Recitative: Nor here my searching eyes can find Mandane ............... 1.20 for this production I wrote new recitatives, and commissioned the musicologist, 24. No.27, Duetto: For thee I live, my dearest ............................................. 3.38 composer and baroque violinist Duncan Druce to create a new finale in the style of 25. Recitative: To you, my people, much belov’d ........................................ 2.20 Arne. These are included in this recording. 26. No.28, Air: The soldier, tir’d of war’s alarms .......................................... 3.33 27. Recitative: Behold, my King, Arbaces at thy feet ................................. 2.26 The composer 28. No.29, Finale: Live to us, to Empire live .................................................. 3.26 Arne’s father, an upholsterer and coffin-maker, originally intended him for a career Recitatives by Ian Page. Finale by Duncan Druce. in the legal profession. With this in mind he had sent him to Eton College, but his son’s determination to become a musician was unwavering (as a child he had 4 • ARTAXERXES