Songs for Courtiers and Cavaliers

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An intriguing record of the roots of historically-informed performance, Helen Watts and Desmond Dupré give passionate but (by today’s standards) heavy-handed accounts. — BBC Music Magazine, February 2020, 2 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 9th Aug 2019
Catalogue No: ELQ4828578
Label: Eloquence
Length: 2 hours 12 minutes

Diapason d’Or

November 2019

Collectionneur

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Caccini, G: Le Nuove Musiche

Work length2:39

$1.10

$1.50

Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Dolcissime sospiro

Track length2:39

$1.10

$1.50

Calestani: Damigella tutta bella

Work length2:58

$1.10

$1.50

Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Calestani: Folgorate

Work length1:52

$1.10

$1.50

Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Cifra: In quel gelato core

Work length1:51

$1.10

$1.50

Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

India: Infelice Didone

Work length11:59

$1.10

$1.50

Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

India: Torna il sereno Zefiro

Work length2:07

$1.10

$1.50

Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Grandi: Vientene, o mia fedel

Work length2:40

$1.10

$1.50

Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: A Complaint against Cupid

Work length1:19

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: No Constancy in Man

Work length1:38

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: An Eccho

Work length3:12

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: Tavola - In quel gelato core

Work length2:02

$1.10

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: Parting

Work length1:47

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: Dissuasion from Presumption

Work length0:52

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: Suffrance

Work length1:12

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: Hymn to God the Father

Work length2:54

$1.10

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: Hymn to God the Son

Work length2:51

$1.10

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: Hymn to God the Holy Ghost

Work length2:29

$1.10

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: Among Rosebuds

Work length1:13

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: A Lady to a young Courtier

Work length1:26

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Lawes, H: I prithee send me back my heart

Work length1:01

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Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto), Thurston Dart (chamber organ)
Recorded: 1956

Excerpt, Purcell: Oedipus: incidental music, Z583

Work length4:08

$1.10

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Helen Watts (contralto), Desmond Dupre (bass viol), Thurston Dart (continuo)
Recorded: 1958
Recording Venue: --, --

Music for a While

Track length4:08

$1.10

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Purcell: On the brow of Richmond Hill Z405

Work length1:39

$1.10

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Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1958

Purcell: Don Quixote: incidental music, Z578

Work length7:02

$1.10

$1.50

Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1958

From rosy bowers

Track length7:02

$1.10

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Purcell: The Indian Queen, Z. 630 - Act 4

Work length1:55

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Helen Watts (contralto), Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord)
Recorded: 1958

They tell us that your mighty powers

Track length1:55

$1.10

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Purcell: The fatal hour comes on apace, Z421

Work length3:48

$1.10

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Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1958

Purcell: Corinna is divinely fair, Z365

Work length2:04

$1.10

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Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1958

Purcell: If music be the food of love Z379A (first version)

Work length2:19

$1.10

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Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1958

Purcell: If music be the food of love (second version), Z379B

Work length4:01

$1.10

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Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1958

Scarlatti, A: Il rossignuolo

Work length10:18

$1.10

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Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1958

Scarlatti, A: Clori vezzosa e bella

Work length7:03

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Desmond Dupre (viola da gamba), Thurston Dart (harpsichord), Helen Watts (contralto)
Recorded: 1958

Bach, J S: Cantata BWV54 'Widerstehe doch der Sünde'

Work length17:25

$3.30

$4.50

Thurston Dart (director), Helen Watts (contralto)
Philomusica of London
Recorded: 1958
Recording Venue: London

1. Widerstehe doch der Sünde

Track length12:14

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2. Die Art verruchter Sünden

Track length1:46

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3. Wer Sünde tut, der ist vom Teufel

Track length3:25

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Bach, J S: St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 / Pt. Two

Work length7:16

$1.10

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Thurston Dart (director), Helen Watts (contralto)
Philomusica of London
Recorded: 1958
Recording Venue: London

No.39 Aria: "Erbarme dich"

Track length7:16

$1.10

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Hoffmann, G M: Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, Cantata BWV 53

Work length9:15

$1.10

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Thurston Dart (director), Helen Watts (contralto)
Philomusica of London
Recorded: 1958
Recording Venue: London

Excerpt, Bach, J S: Cantata BWV200 'Bekennen will ich seinen Namen'

Work length4:11

$1.10

$1.50

Thurston Dart (director), Helen Watts (contralto)
Philomusica of London
Recorded: 1958
Recording Venue: London

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About

Three L’Oiseau-Lyre LPs celebrating the art of a much-loved contralto, newly remastered and compiled together for the first time, including material new to CD.

The history of British contraltos on record extends beyond Kathleen Ferrier to Constance Shacklock and before her Dame Clara Butt, but their select number was joined in the 1950s by Helen Watts: ‘An extraordinary

contralto,’ in the words of her modern counterpart, Nathalie Stützmann. Having left her Welsh home and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, she quickly established herself as Ferrier’s successor on the oratorio platform with memorable performances of Bach and Handel under Sir Malcolm Sargent and Sir Adrian Boult. At the same time she began making records for L’Oiseau-Lyre, in complete and pioneering accounts of Semele and Sosarme, first of all and recently reissued by Eloquence.

Louise Hanson-Dyer, the label’s founder, patroness and animating spirit, was sufficiently impressed at that stage to engage Watts for a solo disc, which duly appeared in 1957 under the fanciful title of ‘Songs for

Courtiers and Cavaliers’. From the opening bars of Caccini’s Dolcissimo sospiro it is evident that Dyer’s faith in her young contralto discovery was well-founded, with projection combining warmth and strength in equal and winning measure with the kind of unforced excellence of diction that had already made her a sought-after fixture on the British oratorio circuit: ‘a beautiful record,’ as Gramophone’s Alec Robertson remarked. The success of ‘Courtiers and Cavaliers’ then led to an album of songs by Purcell and Scarlatti, made in July 1957, and Bach cantatas for alto, in April 1958. All three albums were shaped by the sensitive and scholarly artistic direction of Thurston Dart, and they mixed well-loved with little-known repertoire. Thirteen songs by Henry Lawes introduced many listeners to one of seventeenth-century England’s most original voices, and Watts’s beautifully modulated accounts of If music be the food of love and Widerstehe doch der Sünde retain their lustre even in our historically informed times.

‘I cannot recall having heard any better Bach contralto … [Her ‘Erbarme dich’] is one of the finest I have heard … These are first-class players … most sensitively led by Thurston Dart … The recording is nothing short of superb.’ Stereo Review, February 1960

‘A voice of attractive quality, accurate in pitch, capable of spinning out long phrases and even of that rare thing among singers today, a real trill … In Cantata 200 Miss Watts has no competition worth mentioning. The recording is very good.’ High Fidelity, March 1960

‘Helen Watts was in excellent voice, and her firm contralto quality is highly suitable for music of this kind … Buy it.’ Gramophone, May 1972 (Songs for Courtiers and Cavaliers)

Reviews

February 2020

An intriguing record of the roots of historically-informed performance, Helen Watts and Desmond Dupré give passionate but (by today’s standards) heavy-handed accounts.

January/February 2020

Helen Watts had a wonderfully flexible voice, with a wide range and full rounded tone. If one thing is apparent, it is that she knew how to provide musical emotion and drama.

Songs for Courtiers and Cavaliers

2 CDs

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