Helen Charlston – Battle Cry: She Speaks (2022) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Helen Charlston – Battle Cry: She Speaks (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:18 minutes | 950 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © 2022 Delphian Records Ltd.

This powerful yet understated recital of modern and seventeenth-century works aims to revisit but also to re-balance the obsession of earlier music with female abandonment and lament.

The stories of women such as Dido and Ariadne have been told and retold throughout history. Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston reconsiders the assumed helplessness of those often seen as being left behind by male adventure and success.

A recent work commissioned for Charlston from the composer Owain Park further takes up the challenge of giving ‘abandoned women’ their own platform, as well as exploring new possibilities for an instrumental pairing – that of voice and theorbo – that remains little explored in contemporary music.”This recital, opening with Henry Purcell’s “O lead me to some peaceful gloom” and featuring works by Barbara Strozzi, Giovanni Kapsberger, Monteverdi and others, challenges the old platitude of the abandoned, hapless woman. Think Dido, Ariadne, Boudicca.

Charlston’s take – to say argument would give the wrong impression; there is no rant, here – is that in their abandonment they also find strength. Several of the songs, such as Strozzi’s L’Eraclito amoroso and La Travagliata, have their own internal drama. Carr’s theorbo playing is sensuous and vivid, and works especially well in the sonic explorations of the four songs by Park. Charlston’s distinctive, expressive lower register, and the clarity of every word, contribute to an outstanding disc” (The Guardian)

Tracklist:

1-01. Helen Charlston – Bonduca, Z. 574: O lead me to some peaceful gloom (02:58)
1-02. Helen Charlston – Cantate, ariette, e duetti, Op. 2: XIV. L’Eraclito amoroso (05:55)
1-03. Toby Carr – Prélude (01:25)
1-04. Helen Charlston – She Ventures, and He Wins: Restless in thought (04:24)
1-05. Helen Charlston – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626: Thy hand, Belinda (00:50)
1-06. Helen Charlston – Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626: When I am laid in earth (Dido’s Lament) (03:07)
1-07. Helen Charlston – Battle Cry: I. Boudicca (03:05)
1-08. Helen Charlston – Battle Cry: II. Philomela in the forest (02:18)
1-09. Helen Charlston – Battle Cry: III. A singer’s ode to Sappho (02:19)
1-10. Helen Charlston – Battle Cry: IV. Marietta (09:07)
1-11. Toby Carr – Libro quarto d’intavolatura di chitarone: Preluido V (01:04)
1-12. Helen Charlston – Cantate, ariette, e duetti, Op. 2: XI. La travagliata (04:42)
1-13. Helen Charlston – L’Arianna, SV 291: Lamento d’Arianna (09:03)
1-14. Toby Carr – Sarabande (02:12)
1-15. Helen Charlston – An Evening Hymn, Z. 193 (04:42)

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