Seventy minutes of countertenor may not be everyone's idea of fun, but Robin Blaze has the special ingredients to transcend any latent prejudice, especially in a recital as wide-ranging and intelligently programmed as this.
Opening with Johnson's Tempest Songs, Blaze and his fine accompanist, Elizabeth Kenny, mellifluously shift from the melancholic Dowland to the less ubiquitous theatre songs of William Lawes, as they move inexorably to the great Orpheus, Henry Purcell - via several by-waters of English 17th-century song. Blaze has always had a natural and unforced instrument, but its hovering sweetness, which he employs to pretty effect throughout, can now ripen on cue, as in In darknesse let mee dwell. This is perhaps the most elusive quality in a countertenor and Blaze has the means to colour his texts, not just with superior diction, but timbral variation to keep the listener hearing each song afresh.
In a recital of two halves - 15 so-called lute songs and 15 Restoration pieces - there are too many highlights to list. I must pick out Danyel's Can doleful notes, which is a superb Jacobean example of pleasuring in a particular conceit (in this case, whether art can truly express grief). Blaze moves from embedded cynicism to tender faith in music's power. There is an impressive and buoyant security in the Banister songs - three from Shadwell's famous 1674 production of The Tempest, and introduced to many of us by the Academy of Ancient Music's pioneering 1977 recording (L'Oiseau Lyre, 7/77 - nla) - and around some exquisite solo lute numbers Blaze appears as ever the natural heir to James Bowman in Be welcome then, great Sir. It is wonderfully gauged, as is John Blow's delectable Lovely Selina, even if some may find him occasionally sitting a little high on the note. Another fine achievement from two of Britain's brightest and best.'