Purcell: KING ARTHUR: Fairest Isle (Barbara Bonney)

Salzburg Festpiele 2004, Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien; Barbarba Bonney, Birgit Remmert, Isabel Rey, Michael Schade, Oliver Widmer.

[@Garabella]

Verse 1 Fair- est Isle, all isles ex- cel- ling, Seat of pleas- sure and of love, Ve- nus here will choose her dwell- ing And for- sake her Cy- prian grove. Cu- pid from his fa- v'rite na- tion Care and en- vy will re move; Jea- lou- sy that pois- nous pass- ion, And des- pair that dies for love. Verse 2 Gen- tle mur- murs sweet com- plai- ning, Sighs that blow the fire of love. Soft re- pul- ses, kind dis- dain- ing, Shall be all the pains you prove. Ev' ry swain shall pay his du- ty Grate- ful e- v'ry nymph shall prove; And as these ex- cel in beau- ty, Those shall be re- nowned for love.

[@Michael-ty8ep]

I love Barbara Bonney, and I've had the pleasure of hearing her 10 times and meeting her twice. One of the greatest singers. As a Lieder singer she is the best.

[@damirpacek]

Masterpiece, great performance! Bravo!!!

[@khothye]

This is one of the most wonderfuls arias of all the times. So simple and so beautiful. And Bonney is the queen of this kind of repertoire. Thanks for this video!

[@jmtappenden]

Beautiful music shines through.

[@jmtappenden]

Great masterpiece.Beautiful.

[@wichmannsburg]

Musique divine, un de plus beaux airs jamais composés. Grand merci !

[@patriotsquill]

Why do I cry every time I listen to this? I'm not even English!

[@alfiecat9288]

Oh well I’ll let you borrow my nationality- just this once mind 🫢. Excellent taste wins every time! kzbin.info/www/bejne/jobOhZ6cmchprKc this is an excellent informal version if you’re ever over in London . . But my personal favourite is kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2q1e36knZ6bmLc living proof Purcell can be contemporary - but he and Mozart died way too young, oh what could they have accomplished . . .

[@patshaw51]

Fabulous!

[@stephenwilliam3145]

What has happened to the high notes? They have been flattened. Check out Deller’s version for the real thing.

[@AlineMayne1]

Nice!

[@jonaggod]

In an otherwise fine performance, it's too bad the conductor and soloist couldn't agree on a tempo--there's no other reason that her entry slows the pace considerably, especially on the word "love's". This is Baroque--things shouldn't dawdle so.

[@IriniRomania]

No

[@francoislebedel4428]

Oui, cet aria est l'une des plus belles compositions de tous les temps. Seul, à mon humble avis, Alfred Deller l'a interprété magistralement. Aucun autre interprète ne l'a égalé. Il demeure à jamais dans mes souvenirs. Lorsque je l'ai entendu pour la première fois, je fus ébloui et je le demeure, plus de 40 années plus tard. Là, ce n'est pas formidable et puis, il y a cet "ornement" assez raté ( et inutile), à la fin.

[@nissulya]

Andreas Scholl sounds much better than Deller