Jacob Heringman & Catherine King • Airs de Cour (CD)

'The sheer beauty of sound is profoundly moving - a superb disc.' 
BBC Music Magazine

'Exquisite is, if not necessarily the only word, certainly a highly appropriate one to describe this repertoire, programme and set of performances .'
Early Music Review

Named a 'Choice' recording by BBC Music Magazine upon release, this popular recording of seventeenth century vocal music features mezzo-soprano Catherine King and lutenist Jacob Heringman with tenor Charles Daniels.

The listener is transported to the French court in a programme of courtly airs and solo lute pieces, the latter a suitable complement to the airs and the lost ideals of the courtly society they reflect.Both the self-indulgent texts of these songs and their suave and rhythmically evasive melodies, reflect a society rich in excess, intrigue and dissembling, all the more fascinating for being so distant, no less impressive for being so introverted. Well schooled in period performance, all the performers pay due attention to the authenticity of pronunciation and ornamentation for which scant records remain.

O dieux je ne sçais pas is a rare example where an ornamented variant of the melody is included in the manuscript revealing a further level of riches in these songs.

CATHERINE KING mezzo-soprano
JACOB HERINGMAN vihuela & guitar
with CHARLES DANIELS tenor

CKD089 • Released 1999