This track contains mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker’s performance of the aria “When I Am Laid In My Grave” (also known as Dido’s lament) from Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.
It was on side 2 of a precious LP that I purchased in a Manhattan record store in the 1970s: of a groundbreaking performance conducted by Anthony Lewis (made in the 1950s) of Purcell’s opera.
I don’t think I have ever heard a more beautiful aria. Purcell’s death, at the age 36, was a tragic loss — speaking in general terms, to music.
Bacchus, ever fair and young,
Drinking joys did first ordain;
Bacchus’ blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure:
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
CHORUS
Bacchus’ blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure:
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
— Handel, Alexander’s Feast (1736; the libretto of this choral work is based on an ode by Dryden)
1ST FAIRY, CHORUS :
Trip it, trip it in a Ring;
Around this Mortal Dance, and Sing.
POET:
Enough, enough,
We must play at Blind Man’s Bluff.
Turn me round, and stand away,
I’ll catch whom I may.
1ST FAIRY, CHORUS:
About him go, so, so, so,
Pinch the Wretch, from Top to Toe;
Pinch him forty, forty times,
Pinch till he confess his Crimes.
POET:
Hold you damn’d tormenting Punk,
I do confess ?
BOTH FAIRIES:
What, what, &c.
POET:
I’m Drunk, as I live Boys, Drunk.
BOTH FAIRIES:
What art thou, speak?
POET:
If you will know it,
I am a scurvy Poet.
CHORUS:
Pinch him, pinch him for his Crimes,
His Nonsense, and his Dogrel Rhymes.
POET:
Hold! Oh! Oh! Oh!
BOTH FAIRIES:
Confess more, more.
POET:
I confess, I’m very poor.
Nay prithee do not pinch me so,
Good dear Devil, let me go;
And as I hope to wear the Bays,
I’ll write a Sonnet in thy Praise.
CHORUS:
Drive ‘em hence, away, away
Let ‘em sleep till break of Day.
— Purcell, “The Fairy-Queen” (1692; this masque — aka semi-opera — is a musical setting of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
I somehow managed to find this now rare recording of Henry Purcell’s charming, indeed enchanting, harpsichord suites — I have listened to them often — on an LP which I purchased in the 1970s. The recording is by Isabelle Nef.
Isabelle Nef (1895-1976) was a Swiss pianist and harpsichordist.
“Purcell’s keyboard works may occupy a relatively minor niche in his glorious oeuvre, but they are still touched by genius. These harpsichord pieces are models of charm and sophistication, their melodic invention a constant source of delight. Many of Purcell’s harpsichord compositions first appeared in The Choice Collection of Lessons for Harpsichord or Spinnet, which was published in 1696, just one year after his death. … The suites are very influenced by the elegant French style that was fashionable in Restoration London, with elaborate ornamentation, especially in the delicate Almands. …”
— Graham Lock
Classical-Music.com; The official website of BBC Music Magazine
