Free download: Randall Scotting sings Étienne Moulinié (1599-1676)
For this week's free download, the countertenor is joined by lutenist Stephen Stubbs for an exquisite rendition of a well-known French Baroque love song
This week's free download features a beautiful version of 'Enfin la beauté que j'adore' ('At last, the beauty that I adore'), a song by the French Baroque composer Étienne Moulinié, performed by tenor Randall Scotting and lutenist Stephen Stubbs.
It's taken from the new album Lovesick, on which the two performers explore the lovelorn state of mind ion its many shades, via a nicely curated selection of songs from the 17th century. Traversing moods from doubt and despair via solitude and melancholy to passion and hope, Lovesick is a kind of road map through the travails of love and yearning in the 1600s.
- Our reviewer Anthony Pryer is taken with the collection, finding that it 'offers a worthy platform for the acclaimed musical and dramatic skills' of Scotting and Stubbs.
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'Interestingly they are at their best in the more optimistic items,' Anthony goes on. 'In Moulinié’s ‘Enfin la beauté’, for example, Scotting clothes the relief of the lover’s acceptance with an almost indecent confidence, supported by Stubbs’s sophisticated accompaniment on the lute.
'In Purcell’s ‘She loves and she confesses’ the performers evoke a happy stylishness, and in the traditional song ‘Black is the colour’, the performers transcend the routine verse structure to produce a fluid lyricism enlivened by Scottish snaps in the accompaniment.
Lovesick, by Randall Scotting and Stephen Stubbs is out now on Naxos. You can find out more, download or purchase the album here.
How to download
To access this week's free download, click the image below. It will bring up a media player, where you can either stream the track directly. If you'd rather download the track, the instructions will differ depending on which browser you are using.
Google Chrome:
Click on the three little dots to the right of the player and click 'Download'.
Safari/Firefox/Other Browsers:
Right click (or control click on Mac computers) on the player and select 'Save Audio As...'. Occasionally, on Safari it may ask you to select 'Download video'. If this is the case, select 'Download video' and it will download as an audio file (mp3) as normal.
If this doesn't work, simply right click on the image below and select 'Download linked file'.
If you have any problems downloading this week's free download, please contact music@classical-music.com.
