There are certainly more powerful countertenors on the scene than
Tim Mead
, yet this release landed on classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023. The appeal is not hard to see: countertenors who seek to emulate the power of the operatic castrati often fail to serve smaller-scale 17th century English music well, but
Mead
offers a different approach, marked by restraint and dramatic persuasiveness. The songs of
Henry Purcell
contain some of his best music, but they are comparatively little recorded. Here
, with a variety of freestanding songs and theatrical music of various kinds, is lyrical and poetic. His diction is impeccable, and what one hears in his rendering of the texts is not conventional pastoral imagery but a singer who means what he sings. Sample
O let me weep
, from
The Fairy Queen
, or one of the songs about sleep, where
's delivery is quite affecting. The program is not restricted to
Purcell
, and another draw here is the music by other Restoration-era composers like
Pelham Humfrey
, who is even less well-exposed than
. The historical instrument group
La Nuova Musica
under
David Bates
gets exactly the low-key note needed to bring out
at his best, and
PentaTone
's church sound, if not atmospherically appropriate, is at least clear. This is a Baroque countertenor release where the artist meets repertory especially successfully. ~ James Manheim