Mr Bach at Vauxhall Gardens (CD)

A pair of L’Oiseau-Lyre albums reissued together, including several items making their first appearance on Decca CD. This CD is one of five recordings released by Eloquence, celebrating the art of Jennifer Vyvyan. All-Decca recordings from the 1950s.

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Both the fluency and the brilliance of her voice are on display in songs by Johann Christian Bach and cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti. J.C. Bach was writing for the open-air concerts at Vauxhall Gardens in London from which the original album and this reissue take their title. The Vauxhall songs are mellifluous, imbued with easy charm and written for accompaniment on keyboard: a part taken on this 1956 album by Thurston Dart whom as a scholar, conductor and virtuosic instrumentalist, played a still more significant role in the early music revival in postwar Britain.

TRACK LIST

JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH
Clavier Concerto in F major, Op. 7 No. 2*

Boyd Neel Orchestra
Thurston Dart, organ & director

Vauxhall Songs
Come, Colin*
Would you a female heart inspire*
Ah, why should love*
Lovely yet ungrateful swain*
Cease awhile*
Sei Canzonette a due, Op. 4

Jennifer Vyvyan, soprano
Elsie Morison, soprano (Sei Canzonette)
Boyd Neel Orchestra
Thurston Dart, harpsichord & director

ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI
Cantata: Clori e Lisa*
Cantata: Floro e Tirsi*

Jennifer Vyvyan, soprano
Elsie Morison, soprano
Desmond Dupré, viola da gamba
Thurston Dart, harpsichord

*FIRST INTERNATIONAL RELEASE ON DECCA CD