Editor’s Choice – January 2024

“…Apart from giving us a richer and indeed more accurate knowledge of artistic practice, discs such as this also allow present-day listeners greater connection with and ownership of the musical riches of the past. For this and for the committed, appealing performances that attest to the universality of love, this disc should receive an enthusiastic embrace.” ****½

Performance ****      Recording *****

“… it is a wonderfully sung account of wonderful music. Both singers have a lovely flexibility and naturalness in the many moments of quasi parlando where words and music intertwine. Diction is excellent, but there are moments of bravura too. The two men have contrasting but complementary voices so that the disc has an attractive alternation of timbres and textures whilst in the duets the two balance and complement… Throughout, the two singers are wonderfully supported by Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music. Most of this is not orchestral music as we know it, but concerted music where individual agency is strong so that Scotting and Navarro Colorado are supported by a constellation of fine soloists in concert.”