Beauteous Softness

On the Pentatone label for release in March 2023, Countertenor Tim Mead, in collaboration with David Bates and La Nuova Musica presents Beauteous Softness, a programme containing restrained yet profoundly moving songs by seventeenth-century English composers such as Purcell, Blow, Humfrey and Webb, in collaboration with La Nuova Music and David Bates. The album, released also showcases the rich musical context that provided the foundation from which Purcell rose to prominence.

“While the world was still in lockdown, David Bates and La Nuova Musica invited me to collaborate on their Purcell video series. It was the perfect music with which to collectively emerge from the silence. Inspired by these sessions we committed to exploring further songs together, as well as the best work from Purcell’s contemporaries: John Blow, Pelham Humfrey and William Webb. The resulting collection contains old favourites alongside the less familiar and fulfils a long held dream to follow in Alfred Deller’s hallowed footsteps and record the astonishing Plaint from Purcell’s ‘The Fairy Queen’.” - Tim Mead

Beauteousness Softness will be released as 1 CD and in digital formats for streaming and high resolution downloads by Pentatone in March

PTC5187047.