The German soprano Dorothee Mields (Gelsenkirchen, 1971) has been moving in the top segment of vocal (early) baroque repertoire for many years and certainly needs no further introduction on our site. Once again she demonstrates her great vocal and interpretive gifts in these sublime 'love songs' by Henry Purcell. Just listen to 'O let me weep' from The Fairy Queen to instantly fall in love with both her voice and her delivery. This also applies to her English diction, which is certainly excellent for a German singer.
I am no less satisfied with the playing technique of Lautten Compagney Berlin, led by Wolfgang Katschner: extremely accomplished, and with a generous dose of spirituality and spontaneity. Witty music that is also performed wittily, but unfortunately only partly conceived and shaped from a historicizing performance practice.
But what made Katschner decide to really pull out the stops with the percussion? But there are more striking things, such as the special role Katschner has given to the theorbe he plays. Additionally, there are unnecessary added bird sounds and the conductor encouraging his musicians to clap along with the music or to 'enrich' the already so colorful idiom with castanets. With the score in hand (without it you might not even realize it!) I have searched in vain for a plausible explanation for several other strange interventions, although fortunately those are less disturbing; such as Mields who performs the short aria 'Hush, no more', be silent, all' from The Fairy Queen truly magnificently, even though it is originally intended for bass voice. I suspect only few will notice...
The recording dates from June 2009 and was probably released much earlier by Carus. If so, then this is a reissue, although that is of no further concern to me.