Perpetual Night: 17th Century Airs and Songs

Critic Christoph Irrgeher writes: "Lucile Richardot not only possesses an extraordinary voice, but her career has also taken an unusual course. She worked as a journalist before, at the age of 27, making singing her primary focus. Her timbre is simultaneously gripping and dazzling: the voice runs from a smooth, masculine lower range to crystalline, dark-tinted mezzo heights. Accuracy is allied to stupendous sensuousness, which is especially well suited to her new album, a selection of Baroque music from 17th-century England. She runs the gauntlet from songs and airs to dramatic scenes, on the way bringing to life, with beautiful shadowy colour, such real discoveries as William Webb's "Powerful Morpheus". She is accompanied with beguiling subtlety by Ensemble Correspondences under Sébastian Daucé"