Rene Jacobs has some attractive high notes and an unusually wide range, being able to reach down to notes on the bass stave with very little distortion of tone. Judging by information I've received, he made this recording before most of those now in the catalogue and he does not seem to have attempted English songs since. His English, in fact, is very good. But he does make Purcell sound rather a sad dog, sometimes suggesting melancholy when he is aiming at animation—and he does not aim in this direction very often. ''Sweeter than roses'' is nicely cheerful in the second half, but the first half need not have made kissing sound such a sorry business. However, there is some lovely singing here and some lovely songs, most of them from Orpheus Britannicus. (Those written for plays are oddly described on the French sleeve as ''Act Tunes''.) As Amoret and Thirsis is there printed as a duet; here the gamba plays the lower vocal line as it does also at the end of the Elegy upon the death of Mr Thomas Farmer.
The other elegy, on the death of Queen Mary, has Latin words, ''Incassum, Lesbia, incassum rogas'', and is the longest item on the disc. It is a lovely piece, not at all well known, which should have more emotional impact than it has here. The accompaniments on theorbo and gamba are beautifully played and contribute much to one's pleasure, as does the recording quality in both the versions I have received. The CD version is marginally the more pleasing.'