About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

As recordings of obscure Baroque music go, this one contains moments of exceptional loveliness. Accompanied by an augmented Purcell Quartet, countertenor Michael Chance performs a collection of Klaglieder, or lamentations, by 17th- and 18th-century German composers: Johann Christian Bach, Johann Michael Bach (both ancestors, not sons, of J. S. Bach), Christian Geist, Heinrich Schütz, and Dietrich Buxtehude. Opening with J. C. Bach's "Ach, dass ich Wassers g'nug hätte" (Oh, that I had tears enough), Chance brings exquisite lyricism to this fragile, desperate music, set to texts drawn from the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Chance's voice has a floating, weightless quality, complimenting the Purcell Quartet's silvery sonorities, and although some may wish for greater heft in the high male voice, it seems well suited to these simple, mournful pieces. For variety, the program also includes a pair of instrumental sonatas by Buxtehude, but there are four Buxtehude vocal pieces as well, one of which closes the album as it began: with the strings slowly, sweetly accompanying Chance's plaintive song. EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble

Customer Reviews

• Listener Rating: