Playlist
Playlist: The best of Dame Emma Kirkby
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FIRST PUBLISHED 23 AUG 2025
This playlist celebrates the illustrious career of Continuo Foundation Patron Dame Emma Kirkby, tracing her remarkable contribution to Early Music. Curated to complement our latest feature on the acclaimed soprano, it spans a vast array of her recordings, beginning with English masters like Byrd, Dowland, and Purcell, then moving to Italy with works by Monteverdi, Pergolesi, and Vivaldi, before concluding with the sublime compositions of Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart.
TRACK LIST
Dame Emma Kirkby performs:
1. Byrd ‘My mind to me a kingdom is’ | with Fretwork
2. Dowland ‘Flow, my tears, fall from your springs’ | with Chelys Consort of Viols, James Akers
3. Dowland ‘In darkness let me dwell’ | with Jakob Lindberg
4. Dowland ‘I saw my Lady weep’ | with Anthony Rooley
5. Johnson ‘Full fathom five thy father lies’ | with Jakob Lindberg
6. Hume ‘What greater grief’ | with Chelys Consort of Viols
7. Purcell (ed. A. Pinnock, M. Laurie) ‘Why should men quarrel?’ from The Indian Queen, Z630 | with Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
8. Purcell ‘Sweeter than roses’, Z585 | with Anthony Rooley
9. Purcell ‘Shake the cloud... Banish sorrow’ from Dido and Aeneas, Z626 | with Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
10. Purcell ‘If music be the food of love’, Z379 | with Richard Campbell, Christopher Hogwood
11. Purcell ‘She loves and she confesses too’, Z413 | with Jakob Lindberg
12. Purcell Evening Hymn, Z193 | with Anthony Rooley, Christopher Hogwood
13. Giulio Caccini ‘Amarilli mia bella’ | with Anthony Rooley
14. Monteverdi ‘Quel Augellin, che canta’ | with Joseph Cornwell, Anthony Rooley, Simon Grant, Andrew King
15. Monteverdi Sancta Maria | with Consort of Musicke, Evelyn Tubb, Anthony Rooley
16. Pergolesi ‘Cuius animam gementem’ from Stabat Mater, P77 | with Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
17. Pergolesi The opening movement from Salve Regina in C minor (1736) | with Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
18. Vivaldi The opening movement from Nulla in mundo pax sincera, RV630 | with Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
19. JS Bach ‘Blute nur, du liebes Herz!’
20. ‘Ich will dir mein Herz schenken’
21. ‘Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben’ from St Matthew Passion | with Brandenburg Consort/Stephen Cleobury
22. JS Bach ‘Et exultavit spiritus meus’ from Magnificat in E flat, BVW 243a | with Academy of Ancient Music/Simon Preston
23. JS Bach ‘Ei! wie smeckt Coffee süße’ from Cantata: Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211 (Coffee Cantata) | with Lisa Beznosiuk, Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
24. Handel ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ from Messiah, HWV 56 | with Taverner Players/Andrew Parrott
25. Handel ‘If God be for us’ from Messiah | with Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
26. Handel Sinfonia & Aria: ‘V’adoro, pupille’ from Giulio Cesare, HWV 17 | with Brandenburg Consort/Roy Goodman
27. Handel ‘Tornami a vagheggiar’ from Alcina, HWV 34 | with Brandenburg Consort/Roy Goodman
28. Handel ‘Ombre, piante, urne funeste!’ from Rodelinda, HWV 19 | with Rachel Brown, Brandenburg Consort/Roy Goodman
29. Handel ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’ from Gloria, HWV deest | with Royal Academy of Music Baroque Orchestra/Laurence Cummings
30. Handel ‘Kunft ger Zeiten eitler Kummer’, HWV 202 from Nine German Arias | with London Baroque
31. Handel ‘Sans y penser’, from Cantate français, HWV 155 | with Katherine Sharman, David Miller & Paul Nicholson
32. Handel The opening movement from Salve Regina, HWV 241 | with London Baroque
33. Haydn The Spirit’s Song, Hob. XXV1a:41 | with Marcia Hadjimarkos
34. Haydn ‘On mighty pens uplifted soars the eagle’ from The Creation, Hob. XXI:2 | with Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
35. Mozart ‘Laudate Dominum omnes gentes’ from Vesperae solennes de confessore in C, K339 | with Winchester Cathedral Quiristers, Winchester Cathedral Choir, Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
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