O Solitude

Andreas Scholl (counter tenor), Accademia Bizantina/ Stefano Montanari Decca 478 2262 ***

Counter tenor Andreas Scholl’s latest CD is an exploration of the music of the great 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell. The selection is first-rate, from the opening (

If music be the food of love)

to the closing (

Now that the sun hath veiled his light

). Along the way there are duets with counter-tenor Christophe Dumaux and some gender- bending to include the lament from

Dido and Aeneas

. Scholl fans may baulk at the inclusion of purely instrumental numbers, but, with the Chacony in G minor and incidental music from

The Gordian Knot Unty’d

in there, the objection can’t be purely musical. I’m not sure, however, that Scholl is actually a perfect match for Purcell. The voice is as beautifully expressive and rhythmically articulate as ever. But it doesn’t always carry the words with sufficient clarity and import. See url.ie/4w4k