Lovesick Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs

• William Lawes (1602 - 1645): I’m Sick of Love:
• 1 Lawes: I’m Sick of Love: O let me lie 01:41
• Traditional: There’s None to Soothe my Soul to Rest:
• 2 Traditional: There’s None to Soothe my Soul to Rest 02:05
• Étienne Moulinié (1599 - 1676): Enfin la beauté que j’adore Paris:
• 3 Moulinié: Enfin la beauté que j’adore Paris 04:20
• William Lawes: Perfect and Endless Circles Are London:
• 4 Lawes: Perfect and Endless Circles Are London 01:41
• Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695): Celestial Music ye Gods Inspire, Z. 322:
• 5 Purcell: Celestial Music ye Gods Inspire, Z. 322: When Orpheus Sang All Nature Did Rejoice 01:41
• Suite from King Arthur Z. 628:
• 6 Purcell: Suite from King Arthur Z. 628: Your Hay It Is Mowed – Fairest Isle – Come If you Dare (Arr. For Baroque Guitar) 02:26
• John Blow (1649 - 1708): Amphion Anglicus:
• 7 Blow: Amphion Anglicus: Tell Me No More You Love; In Vain 01:43
• Marc’antonio Cesti (1623 - 1669): L’orontea, Act Ii:
• 8 Cesti: L’orontea, Act Ii: Intorno all’idol mio' 02:56
• Henry Lawes (1596 - 1662): I Rise and Grieve:
• 9 Lawes: I Rise and Grieve 03:50
• Traditional: At the Mid Hour of Night:
• 10 Traditional: At the Mid Hour of Night 02:10
• Henry Purcell: She Loves and She Confesses Too, Z. 413:
• 11 Purcell: She Loves and She Confesses Too, Z. 413 02:20
• John Dowland (1563 - 1626): Complaint, P. 63:
• 12 Dowland: Complaint, P. 63: Fortune my Foe 02:16
• Time Stands Still:
• 13 Dowland: Time Stands Still 01:55
• John Blow: Amphion Anglicus:
• 14 Blow: Amphion Anglicus: The Self-banished 01:30
• Traditional: Mary’s Dream:
• 15 Traditional: Mary’s Dream 03:45
• Daniele da Castrovillari (1613 - 1678): La Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 2:
• 16 Castrovillari: La Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 2: Luci belle 02:35
• Henry Purcell: Bonduca, Z. 574:
• 17 Purcell: Bonduca, Z. 574: O, Lead Me to Some Peaceful Gloom 02:40
• Traditional: The Three Ravens:
• 18 Traditional: The Three Ravens 03:31
• Anonymous: Packington’s Pound:
• 19 Anonymous: Packington’s Pound 01:16
• Pierre Guédron (1570 - 1620): Cessés mortels de soupirer:
• 20 Guédron: Cessés mortels de soupirer 03:40
• Traditional: Black Is the Colour of my True Love’s Hair:
• 21 Traditional: Black Is the Colour of my True Love’s Hair 02:58
• Henry Purcell: O Solitude, my Sweetest Choice, Z. 406:
• 22 Purcell: O Solitude, my Sweetest Choice, Z. 406 04:18
• Total Runtime 57:17

Info for Lovesick

For his second album on Signum Records, countertenor Randall Scotting is joined by celebrated lutenist Stephen Stubbs for a collection of anti-Valentine’s songs focussing on heartbreak and loss from the 17th century.

Stephen Stubbs plays on three instruments at A=415 Hz; a 10-course bass lute by Lawrence K. Brown, a baroque guitar by Ivo Magherini, and a 10-course renaissance lute by Stephen Barber.

“The experience of being lovesick is universal. We are not the first to encounter it and there is no place safe from feeling this particular brand of melancholy. A favourite topic in art since the medieval period, museums are bursting with portrayals of love’s rebuke, and lovesickness has been studied as a legitimate medical illness, not least of all by Sigmund Freud who called it ‘a kind of craziness’. The 17th century was a unique period when feeling these bittersweet emotions was embraced as fuel for artistic expression. Love triggers an amphetamine-like euphoria in a dozen regions of the brain, similar to cocaine, dopamine, and oxytocin. In the thralls of an amorous high, one easily forgets the opposite of that ecstasy; unrequited or faded love that brings a despair all its own, causing depression, confusion, apathy, mood swings, and insomnia — the physical manifestation of heartbreak” – Randall Scotting

“Perhaps there is no cure for lovesickness; but we are confident that this album will be comfort for all those who have loved, lost, and hope to love again” – Wendy Heller, Chair, Dept of Music, Princeton University.

Randall Scotting, countertenor
Stephen Stubbs, lute

Randall Scotting
has become a sought-after artist by some of the world’s most esteemed opera houses. In 2019 he made a spectacular debut at the Royal Opera House as Apollo in Britten’s Death in Venice, singing to sold-out audiences at Covent Garden, and then he joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera and was soon after invited to sing in Handel’s Xerxes for concerts at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. A dramatically persuasive and intensely musical interpreter, he is recognized for winning over audiences with his stunning vocal beauty, stylish singing, and charismatic stage presence. As the lead role of the Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight at Seattle Opera, a performance for which he was highly praised in the press, Musical America noted Randall to be ‘marvelous’ with a ‘plangent, rich-toned instrument’ and also a compelling actor. He made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut in 2022 as the role of Michael in the ground-breaking, modern opera Thomas by Georg Friedrich Haas.

Randall’s past engagements have linked him with major US and European opera houses, orchestras, and venues including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Carnegie Hall, Edinburgh’s Saint Cecilia’s Hall, Italy’s Spoleto Festival, the Göttingen Handel Festival, Boston Baroque, the New York Philharmonic, and many others. He has also been featured singing the music of J C Bach and speaking about the young Mozart on the BBC documentary Mozart’s London Odyssey. Operatic roles for which he has received acclaim include the leads in Handel’s Rinaldo, Orlando, and Giulio Cesare; Gluck’s Orfeo; and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Alongside more traditional repertoire, Randall plunges headfirst into all manner of musical genres, regularly singing art song, new commissions, and even cabaret. He has performed in staged versions of Xenakis’ The Oresteia, Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King, and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.

Randall trained at the Royal College of Music in London, the Juilliard School in New York, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. He made his leading operatic debut at Spoleto’s Festival dei due mondi in Vivaldi’s Ercole su’l Termodonte with the ensemble Il Complesso Barocco (also released on DVD). Randall can be heard on other recordings as the soloist in a modern cantata for chorus and countertenor entitled Dive: A Water Music and as the title role in Antonio Caldara’s oratorio Santo Stefano primo re dell’Ungheria. Remarkably tall with a uniquely muscular build, he breaks the familiar countertenor mold with his warm, full, and resonant sound, defying stereotypes and setting a new standard in the voice part.

Booklet for Lovesick