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| Barbara Bonney - Fairest Isle | 
 enlarge | Artists: Barbara Bonney, Christopher Hogwood, The Academy Of Ancient Music
Label: Decca
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $3.75
You Save: $13.23 (78%)
Buy New/Used from $3.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  (13 reviews)
Sales Rank: 81435
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 466132
UPC: 028946613221
EAN: 0028946613221
ASIN: B000055XGE
Release Date: March 13, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Come Again: Sweet Love Doth Now Invite | | • | If My Complaints Could Passions Move | | • | Away With These Self-loving Lads | | • | Flow My Tears | | • | Never Weather-beaten Saile | | • | The Sypres Curten Of The Night | | • | It Was A Lover And His Lasse | | • | O Lord, How Vain Are All Frail Delights | | • | Fantasy No.9 | | • | Though Amaryllis Dance In Green | | • | If Music Be The Food Of Love | | • | Abdelazer: Air | | • | Abdelazer: Air | | • | The Plaint: O, Let Me Weep | | • | Fairest Isle | | • | She Loves And She Confesses Too | | • | They Hand, Belinda...When I Am Laid In Earth |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Away from the clamor of grand opera and soaring symphonies, Fairest Isle takes us into the quiet, intimate world of English Elizabethan song, and you could hope for no better guide than Barbara Bonney. Her clear, beautifully rounded voice is superbly controlled, making light of a masterful technique; if you want to hear art concealing art, look no further. This is intensely private music, in a program that cleverly sidesteps any risk of listener fatigue by starting with lute accompaniment (infinitely tender playing by Jacob Heringman), moving on to a viol quartet, then finally to the richer sound of the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood. Leavening the mix are three instrumental interludes. The title piece is a blithe, dancelike song. Better known are some of the classics of English song: Dowland's "Come again" and "Flow, my tears," Morley's "It was a lover and his lass," and Purcell's "If music be the food of love" and "When I am laid in earth," a heart-in-mouth performance that makes time stand still. --Keith Clarke
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 A dissenting view January 22, 2008
I listened to this CD in my car several times. I agree that Bonney's voice is lovely, but I had to consult the booklet to get all the words and the accompaniment was barely audible. To my ear, the vocal color is too monochromatic and the tempi too similar, thus every song sounds like a lament. However, those who prize unity over variety will like this CD.
Bonney is to placid throughout December 3, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Having heard most of these English chestnuts from great British exponents like Alfred Deller and Janet Baker, with occasional American interloping from Dawn Upshaw and Kathleen Battle, I expected Barbara Bonney to sing at the same exalted level. for me, she doesn't. The voice is as beautiful as it has ever been, and she bends over backwards not to sound modern and/or operatic (her accent remains mostly American, however). But the style throughout is bland and pallid. I accept the Amazon reviewer's comment that this is intimate music, but don't passions come out most in such moments? Not here, because everyone involved -- not just Bonney but the accompanying musicians -- treads on gossamer. What sounds soothing over two songs becomes annoying over fifteen.
Fairest Voice September 14, 2007
I really can't say much more than the other reviewers, but I wanted to add to the support of this disc. I gave it 4 stars because I feel the selection of pieces could have been better picked, but I suppose that's a personal thing. Barbara Bonney's voice is fantastic, beautiful, and really speaks the intent and emotion behind the music.
If you're even a little interested, buy this CD. The Editorial Review also was dead on the mark.
 Fairest voice for Fairest Isle July 27, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I adore Purcell's songs, and possess many fine recordings of them. I perform them myself and enjoy the experience each and every time. When I listen to a new recording of Purcell songs, then, my expectations are both high and informed.
Barbara Bonney is simply a delight. Her voice on this album is almost incandescent with beauty. She sings with elegant simplicity that contains a great deal of art (the hardest sort of simplicity in the world to convey!). Her tone is pure, limpid as a stream, as delicately and beautifully wielded as a prism irradiating a cavern with colour.
Her vocal colour needs no introduction. Ms Bonney is widely known as "The Radiant Voice", following on from one of her album titles - and it's extremely apposite. She is radiant indeed, and her technique is beautifully sure.
Only in one track was I disappointed - the last track on the CD. "Thy hand, Belinda" seemed to me to have been approached with a more consciously dramatic style in mind, and it results in a couple of vowel distortions and a not quite convincing performance. Yet the voice itself is consistently beautiful, and I have no hesitation in giving this a 5-star rating.
Beautiful. Listen to this while you're stuck in traffic, and you are certain to feel your tension melt away at the sheer loveliness of the singing...
Exquisite taste January 2, 2006
Barbara Bonney is one of today's most underrated singers. Her voice is always clear, true, and thrilling. She is certainly capable of vocal fireworks, yet she has the artistry and respect for musical period to know when such displays are, and are not, appropriate. In "Fairest Isle", she demonstrates her hallmark excellent taste in approach and choice of material. Too often, these lovely, gentle songs are assigned as exercises for beginning singers, and are then quickly relegated to the dust bin when the singers turn professional and are only interested in the biggest, flashiest operatic parts they can find. Ms. Bonney doesn't fall in that trap. She certainly is capable of bright vocal fire, yet she is artist enough to know gentle understatement can resonate emotionally with the listener long after the flash has faded.I must also say something about Ms. Bonney's beautifully clear diction. Her English is always understandable and perfectly presented, as opposed to Renee Fleming's, which seems to get muddier and more mannered with each successive recording. "Fairest Isle" is highly recommended!
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