Purcell: The Fairy Queen, Z. 629 Les Nouveaux Caractères & Sébastien d'Hérin

• Henry Purcell (1659-1695):
• 1The Fairy Queen, Z. 629: Prelude02:08
• 2The Fairy Queen, Z. 629: Hornpipe01:14
• 3The Fairy Queen, Z. 629: Air00:52
• 4The Fairy Queen, Z. 629: Rondeau01:40
• 5The Fairy Queen, Z. 629: Overture02:08
• 6The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act I "The Palace of the Duke": Prelude - Come, Come, Come Let Us Leave This Town02:12
• 7The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act I "The Palace of the Duke": Fill up the Bowl, Then...06:02
• 8The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act I "The Palace of the Duke": Jig01:14
• 9The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Prelude00:41
• 10The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Come All Ye Songsters of the Sky01:49
• 11The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Prelude. Birds Fly Down, Singing01:13
• 12The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Trio. May the God of Wit Inspire01:21
• 13The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Now Join Your Warbling Voices All00:29
• 14The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Sing While We Trip It upon the Green01:31
• 15The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": See, Even Night Herself Is Here04:22
• 16The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": I Am Come to Lock All Fast01:26
• 17The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": One Charming Night02:25
• 18The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Hush, No More, Be Silent All04:35
• 19The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Dance for the Followers of Night01:30
• 20The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act II "The Great Grotto": Air01:22
• 21The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": Prelude - If Love's a Sweet Passion03:40
• 22The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": Överture. Symphony While the Swans Come Forward01:22
• 23The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": Dance for the Fairies00:55
• 24The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": Ye Gentle Spirits of the Air, Appear!05:03
• 25The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": Now the Maids and the Men Are Making of Hay03:46
• 26The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": Dance for the Haymakers00:48
• 27The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": When I Have Often Heard Young Maids Complaining01:59
• 28The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": A Thousand, Thousand Ways We'll Find01:06
• 29The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act III "A Forest Glade": Hornpipe00:56
• 30The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Symphony06:27
• 31The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Now the Night Is Chased Away01:53
• 32The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Let the Fifes and the Clarions and Shrill Trumpets Sound01:11
• 33The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Entry of Phoebus00:49
• 34The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Prelude - When a Cruel Long Winter Has Frozen the Earth02:55
• 35The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Hail! Great Parent of Us All01:35
• 36The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Thus the Ever Grateful Spring01:43
• 37The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Here's the Summer, Sprightly, Gay01:40
• 38The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": See My Many Coloured Fields02:54
• 39The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Next, Winter Comes Slowly04:20
• 40The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act IV "A Garden of Fountains": Air00:35
• 41The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Prelude to Juno’s Song - Thrice Happy Lovers03:53
• 42The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": O Let Me Ever, Ever Weep07:34
• 43The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Entry Dance01:19
• 44The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Symphony00:59
• 45The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Thus the Gloomy World04:39
• 46The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Thus Happy and Free01:17
• 47The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Yes, Xansi, in Your Looks I Find01:59
• 48The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Monkey's Dance00:57
• 49The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Prelude - Hark! How All Things with One Sound Rejoice02:02
• 50The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Hark Now the Echoing Air a Triumph Sings02:59
• 51The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Sure the Dull God of Marriage Does Not Hear02:47
• 52The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Prelude - See, See, I Obey03:39
• 53The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": They Shall Be as Happy as They're Fair01:00
• 54The Fairy Queen, Z. 629, Act V "In a Chinese Garden": Chaconne. Dance for the Chinese Man and Woman02:31
• Total Runtime02:03:26

Info for Purcell: The Fairy Queen, Z. 629

With The Fairy Queen, Sébastien d’Hérin and Les Nouveaux Caractères set down on record their musical vision of one of Henry Purcell’s most compelling dramatic works. The 1692/1693 work dates from around half a century before two other Baroque scores which Les Nouveaux Caractères has tackled recently and received significant critical approval: Leclair’s Scylla et Glaucus and Rameau’s Les Surprises de l’Amour (the latter, like The Fairy Queen, appearing on Glossa).

Being a semi-opera, the music of The Fairy Queen doesn’t need to follow a narrative methodically from start to finish and, indeed, what we get is essentially a series of self- contained masques. Purcell channels the spirit of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream rather than using the text of that comedy; many characters appear across the work but yet Purcell’s music is of great coherence. Not unlike Purcell himself, Sébastien d’Hérin has opted not to use a formal chorus but to have a long- established team of musical partners singing the choral parts as well as the solo roles. Among the modern-day singers are to be found Anders Dahlin, Samuel Boden, Caitlin Hulcup (who sings “An Epithalamium”), Virginie Pochon, Guillaume Andrieux, Hjördis Thébault and Caroline Mutel (to whom is entrusted “The Plaint”). Alongside the typical instruments of the string, wind and continuo departments of d’Hérin’s orchestra are to be found a serpent, a cornett and a regal.

In the booklet essay, the conductor himself explains how this new production of The Fairy Queen has taken shape over a period of ten years.

Les Nouveaux Caractères
Sébastien d'Hérin, conductor

Les Nouveaux Caractères
The French early music ensemble Les Nouveaux Caractères was founded in 2006 by Sébastien d’Hérin (organ, harpsichord and direction) and Caroline Mutel (soprano) and has speedily drawn to it an appreciative audience from both the public and critics.

The ensemble performs on period instruments and in its repertoire it is currently concentrating on operas and other musical styles which have a clear dramatic intent. Examples of such a statement of intentions include Rameau’s opéra-ballet Les Surprises de l’Amour as well as a programme, “La Nymphe de la Seine” combining French and Italian music (Blamont, Vivaldi and Rameau). Vocal and spiritual drama are to be found in music by Bach and Mondonville and Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Vespro della Beata Vergine, whilst English spirit and zest are reflected in Purcell’s Fairy Queen and Dido and Aeneas. In addition, the ensemble is equally at home in the Classical-Romantic idiom of Luigi Cherubini.

Inside and outside of France, the ensemble has been appearing at the Salle Gaveau, the Opéra Comique, the Opéra de Rennes, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Opéra national de Bordeaux, the Opéra de Rouen, the Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet in Paris, Les Traversées at the Abbaye de Noirlac, the Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, the Festival de La Chaise-Dieu, the Festival de Sablé, the Festival de musique ancienne in Avignon, the Festival de Musique baroque at Ambronay and at the Fondation Bru Zane in Venice. Les Nouveaux Caractères currently holds a residency at the Chapelle de la Trinité (for the Festival de musique baroque in Lyon).

Sébastien d’Hérin
Freedoms in tonal and sound production – fruits of a liberating pride and a strong character – have supplied Sébastien d’Hérin with a special place on the current harpsichord scene. Those who have witnessed him standing up to his harpsichord teachers, Gustav Leonhardt, Pierre Hantaï, Bob van Asperen, Kenneth Gilbert and Christophe Rousset, can vouch for all this!

Combining a notable sense of determination (from his origins in the Savoie), with a taste for being a musical buccaneer (from his upbringing in Nantes), he has little time for fashions, taboos or other restrictions. His three first prizes from the Conservatoire de Paris (those for harpsichord and basso continuo were awarded unanimously, and piano), or his diploma from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, should not confuse one into thinking that he submits himself, in any way, to the yoke of institutions.

D’Hérin’s talent is much appreciated by fellow musical minds. As a continuo player he is sought after by leading conductors such as Jean-Claude Malgoire, Marc Minkowski, Hervé Niquet, Laurence Equilbey, Jean Tubéry and Emmanuel Krivine; every so often he enters into complicity with another independent spirit of the harpsichord in Skip Sempé, whilst he has also taken part in chamber ensembles like La Bergamasca or Les Musiciens de Monsieur Croche.

Convinced that, as Jean de La Bruyère said in Les Caractères, 1696, “the sweetest harmony is the sound of the voice of the one who you love”, he founded in 2006 with Caroline Mutel, the ensemble Les Nouveaux Caractères, for which he became the conductor and artistic director. Their leadership creates musical performances which are dramatic, spirited and open-hearted, yet also reserved, delicate and tender.

For Sébastien d’Hérin, life, as well as music does not come to an end with the close of the Baroque; he aspires to be free, engaged and modern and, to quote La Bruyère again “the finest pleasure of all is that of giving it to others”.

Booklet for Purcell: The Fairy Queen, Z. 629