Album

Solo Cantatas by Thomas A. Arne is a most welcome and unusual addition to the slim recorded canon of Arne's exquisite vocal cantatas, most written for use at the Vauxhall pleasure gardens for expert singers. This makes available for the first time on disc the whole of Arne's 1755 published edition Six Cantatas for a voice and instruments. Issued by John Walsh in London, this was the only print of orchestrally accompanied vocal music by a native English composer to appear in the eighteenth century. Arne's cantatas are among the most precious of the era's neglected musical jewels; the recitative "The glitt'ring Sun" that opens his cantata The Morning is a good starting point for getting a grip on Arne's inspired and truly great vocal music. Though released on the American Centaur label based in Louisiana, the recording of Solo Cantatas by Thomas A. Arne was made at the Salesian Institute in Szombathely, Hungary, with the Hungarian period band Capella Savaria and soloist Mária Zádori. The lone Yankee in the crew is tenor Timothy Bentch, and this is his first recording for a domestic U.S. label as all of his previous work has been done with Hungaraton and Naxos.

A "slim recorded canon" it may be, but some of the past entries among recorded Arne cantatas have been powerful ones, particularly the 1987 Hyperion album Dr. Arne at Vauxhall Gardens, featuring Emma Kirkby. As English comes as a distant second language to Zádori, it isn't reasonable to expect her to deliver the texts to these pieces with the clarity and transparency of Emma Kirkby. In terms of the wide range employed for the soprano, though, Zádori has that, and outside of some unpredictable nuances of vibrato, Zádori's performance of these pieces is adequate. Bentch is far more comfortable with the material and runs away with the disc; his delivery of Arne's admittedly Apollonian pleasure music is appropriately heroic, yet genteel enough to capture the flavor of purity and Classical "whiteness" that makes Arne's vocal music so distinctive. Capella Savaria plays these pieces well, though not exceptionally so, with little slips apparent here and there in the ensemble and some off choices of tempo, though the violin obbligati performed by concertmaster Zsolt Kalló are lively and fluid. Solo Cantatas by Thomas A. Arne does at least bring us the three items in Arne's 1755 publication not recorded by Emma Kirkby and one oddity falling outside the published collection, the cantata Advice to Cloe. The biggest challenge to Solo Cantatas by Thomas A. Arne is the recording, which is not very loud and rather distant, swallowed up in the resonance of Don Bosco Hall. Nonetheless, listeners in search of Arne will receive Centaur's Solo Cantatas by Thomas A. Arne with open arms.

© Uncle Dave Lewis , Rovi

CD 1
Thomas Arne Composer School of Anacreon Work 7:17 Maria Zadori Soprano, Zsolt Kalló Violin, Mary Terey-Smith Conductor, Capella Savaria Orchestra, Timothy Bentch Tenor
1	1.Recitative: The Festive board / Aria: Tell me not the Joys	3:40			$0.99
2	2.Recitative: The Festive board / Aria: Business title, pomp and state ... But let	3:37			$0.99
Thomas Arne Composer Delia Work 6:19 Maria Zadori Soprano, Zsolt Kalló Violin, Mary Terey-Smith Conductor, Capella Savaria Orchestra, Timothy Bentch Tenor
3	1.Recitative: From golden slumber / Aria: O'er Hill and Dale	3:35			$0.99
4	2.Aria: The sun too soon withdraws his Pow'r, ...O let us then the Time improve	2:44			$0.99
Thomas Arne Composer Frolick and Free Work 9:24 Maria Zadori Soprano, Zsolt Kalló Violin, Mary Terey-Smith Conductor, Capella Savaria Orchestra, Timothy Bentch Tenor
5	1.Aria: Frolick and Free, for pleasure born	3:35			$0.99
6	2.Aria: But God of Sleep... Invade me not... we must be oblig'd... When I can laugh	2:26			$0.99
7	3.Aria: But oh, if melting in my Arms	3:23			$0.99
Thomas Arne Composer The Morning Work 8:34 Maria Zadori Soprano, Zsolt Kalló Violin, Mary Terey-Smith Conductor, Capella Savaria Orchestra, Timothy Bentch Tenor
8	1.Aria: The glitt'ring Sun	1:50			$0.99
9	2.Aria and Recitative: The Lark his warbling matin sings ... The Village up, the Shepherd	2:26			$0.99
10	3.Aria: Oh! that on th'enamel'd Green	4:18			$0.99
Thomas Arne Composer Lydia Work 10:24 Maria Zadori Soprano, Zsolt Kalló Violin, Mary Terey-Smith Conductor, Capella Savaria Orchestra, Timothy Bentch Tenor
11	1.Recitative: Beneath this sad and silent Gloom / Aria: Lovely Maid	4:24			$0.99
12	2.Recitative: I dream of her unequall'd Charms / Aria: Anguish waste	1:35			$0.99
13	3.Recitative: No, let him Triumph / Aria: Wander Lydia, so will I	4:25			$0.99
Thomas Arne Composer Bacchus and Ariadne Work 11:07 Maria Zadori Soprano, Zsolt Kalló Violin, Mary Terey-Smith Conductor, Capella Savaria Orchestra, Timothy Bentch Tenor
14	Bacchus and Ariadne	3:22			$0.99
15	Bacchus and Ariadne	1:31			$0.99
16	Bacchus and Ariadne	2:31			$0.99
17	Bacchus and Ariadne	3:43			$0.99
Thomas Arne Composer Advice to Chloe, solo cantata for voice, violins and continuo Work 7:34 Maria Zadori Soprano, Zsolt Kalló Violin, Mary Terey-Smith Conductor, Capella Savaria Orchestra, Timothy Bentch Tenor
18	1.Aria: Still you flee me	4:18			$0.99
19	2.Recitative: All these foolish notions / Aria: From thy Watchful Mother flying	3:16			$0.99