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Weldon - The Judgment of Paris

£18.35

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: AAM Records

Cat No: AAM046

Barcode: 5060340150211

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 7th March 2025

Works

Weldon, John

The Judgment of Paris

Artists

Thomas Walker (tenor)
Jonathan Brown (baritone)
Helen Charlston (mezzo-soprano)
Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)
Anna Dennis (soprano)
Anna Cavaliero (soprano)
Aksel Rykkvin (baritone)
Cambridge Handel Opera Company
Academy of Ancient Music

Conductor

Julian Perkins

Works

Weldon, John

The Judgment of Paris

Artists

Conductor

Julian Perkins

About

Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) and Cambridge Handel Opera Company (CHOC) follow their Gramophone-nominated recording of Eccles’s Semele with a world-premiere recording of John Weldon’s masque The Judgment of Paris.

In 1700 the Earl of Halifax decided England needed all-sung opera. He offered a ‘Musick Prize’ of £210 for the best setting of the libretto of The Judgment of Paris by William Congreve, with entries by composers like John Eccles and Daniel Purcell. Weldon’s setting, which won the competition but was never published, is recorded here for the first time.

Released as a hardback mediabook, the CD is accompanied by a host of fascinating essays written specially by historians, musicologists and other experts – finally giving this winning masque the attention it deserves.

Cast:
- Venus: Anna Dennis (soprano)
- Pallas: Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)
- Juno: Helen Charlston (mezzo-soprano)
- Mercury: Thomas Walker (tenor)
- Paris: Jonathan Brown (baritone)
- Attendant 1: Anna Cavaliero (soprano)
- Attendant 2: Aksel Rykkvin (baritone)

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Sonata
2

Recit. From high Olympus (Mercury)
3

Chorus. Forbear thy woolly Flock to feed
4

Air. O Hermes, I thy Godhead know (Paris)
5

Air. This Radiant Fruit behold (Mercury)
6

Recit. O Ravishing Delight! (Paris)
7

Air. Fear not Mortal, none shall harm thee (Mercury)
8

Duet. Happy thou of Human Race (Mercury, Paris)
9

Chorus. Happy thou of Human Race
10

Symphony for Juno
11

Recit. Saturnia, Wife of Thund’ring Jove, am I (Juno)
12

Symphony for Pallas
13

Air. This way Mortal bend thy eyes (Pallas)
14

Air. Hither turn thee, gentle Swain (Venus)
15

Trio. Hither turn thee, gentle Swain (Venus, Pallas, Juno)
16

Air. Distracted I turn, but I cannot decide (Paris)
17

Air. Apart let me view then each Heavenly Fair (Paris)
18

Air. Let Ambition fire thy Mind (Juno)
19

Chorus. Let Ambition fire thy Mind
20

Air. Crowns I’ll throw beneath thy Feet (Juno)
21

Chorus. Let Ambition fire thy Mind
22

Air. Let not Toils of Empire fright (Juno)
23

Chorus. Let Ambition fire thy Mind
24

Air. Awake, awake, thy Spirits raise (Pallas)
25

Air. Hark, Hark! the glorious Voice of War (Pallas)
26

Symphony
27

Trio. O what Joys does Conquest yield! (Pallas, Attendants)
28

Chorus. O how glorious ’tis to see
29

Air. To me, kind Swain, the Prize resign (Pallas)
30

Chorus. O how glorious ’tis to see
31

Symphony for Venus
32

Air. Stay lovely Youth, delay thy Choice (Venus)
33

Air. Far from thee be anxious Care (Venus)
34

Chorus. One only Joy Mankind can know
35

Air. Nature fram’d thee sure for Loving (Venus)
36

Air. Fairest she, all Nymphs transcending (Venus)
37

Air. Nature fram’d thee sure for Loving (Venus)
38

Air. Fairest she, all Nymphs transcending (Venus)
39

Air. I Yield, O take the Prize (Paris)
40

Grand Chorus. Hither all ye Graces

Europadisc Review

Following the critical success of their 2021 recording of John Eccles’s Semele, the Academy of Ancient Music reunite with the Cambridge Handel Opera Company in a work by one of Eccles’s younger contemporaries. John Weldon’s The Judgment of Paris was one of four entries into a famous 1701 competition to determine the best setting of another libretto by William Congreve, based on the famous (and ultimately ill-fated) contest from classical mythology in which the shepherd Paris has to award a golden apple to one of three goddesses: Juno, Pallas Athene and Venus. The other settings were by Eccles (Congreve’s friend and frequent collaborator), Daniel Purcell (younger brother of the late Henry), and the Moravian composer/viol virtuoso Gottfried Finger. To general surprise, it was the setting by the relatively inexperienced Weldon that won the final showdown at the Dorset Garden Theatre on 3 June 1701.

Listening to this, the work’s first commercial recording, on the AAM’s own label, it’s not hard to hear why: Weldon’s command of a modern, Italianate idiom, initially fostered by his earlier studies with Henry Purcell, is evident in the music’s very direct expressive appeal, but there’s also a lightly-worn subtlety to his drawing of the story’s individual characters. One of the more repeated numbers of the score – ‘Let Ambition fire thy Mind’ – became something of a popular hit as a result. Yet only the settings by Eccles and Daniel Purcell were subsequently published, while that by Finger (who quit Britain for good shortly after the competition) is now entirely lost.

Most reference works class the settings by Weldon et al. as masques, but – as Peter Holman points out in one of several insightful essays in the classy hardback ‘mediabook’ in which the disc is housed – they were performed in a manner more akin to Handel’s oratorios of several decades later. The singers (including the chorus) were arranged in front of the orchestra, there was no dancing to illustrate the action, and any stage scenery would have been fairly static in nature. Yet Weldon’s setting, with its sharp characterisation, sure pacing and direct appeal, as well as some cannily restrained scoring which would have made the most of limited rehearsal time, all enhance the attractiveness of this compact retelling of the classical myth.

Further bolstering the work’s charms are the performances on this recording. The low Baroque pitch of A=392kHz means that the baritone role of Paris is something of a challenge at the lower end, yet Jonathan Brown’s sympathetic singing perfectly captures the hapless mortal's difficult dilemma as the three goddesses attempt to woo him with various bribes. As Mercury, messenger of the gods, the light-toned but incisive tenor Thomas Walker has all the nimbleness and eloquence the part needs.

It is the three goddesses, however, that make this recording so compelling: mezzo Helen Charlston is imperious and haughty as Juno, with a thrillingly metallic edge to her tone, and fellow mezzo Kitty Whately is scarcely less imposing as a commanding and athletic Pallas Athene, especially when accompanied by David Blackadder’s marvellous trumpet playing (and thwacking timpani from Benedict Hoffnung). In the swagger of the latter’s ‘Hark, Hark! the glorious Voice of War’, the splendours of the French Baroque seem not so very far away.

Contrasting with the two mezzo roles is the lighter brightness of Anna Dennis’s soprano as the ultimate victor, Venus. But it is a prize she has to work for, with far more singing time than any other character. Yet whether accompanied by simple continuo or the limpid recorders of her first entrance, she has a winning voluptuousness and vulnerability that ensure the eventual outcome is never seriously in doubt. The vividly competitive trio ‘Hither turn thee, gentle Swain’ in which all three goddesses vie for Paris’s vote is one of the highlights of the score, understandably driving the latter to distracted indecision.

Weldon made several shrewd modifications to Congreve’s libretto, including the introduction of two further choruses early in the action. These and the other choruses are engagingly delivered by the well-balanced choir, with all the attentiveness to text and projection one associates with the finest works of Purcell and Handel. And the AAM players themselves, from the continuo upwards and outwards (as it were), bring a myriad of insights to bear on Weldon’s music under Julian Perkins’s enlivening yet intelligently informed direction. The result is that Weldon’s score – rarely heard in modern times – makes a triumphant entry into the catalogue, beautifully performed, recorded and presented, to reclaim the golden apple it first won over three centuries ago...

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Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Weldon - The Judgment of Paris

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Despatch Information

Contents

Works

Artists

Conductor

Works

Artists

Conductor

About

Sound/Video

Paused

Europadisc Review

Also Available

£34.91

£12.83

£13.98

£16.51

£18.35

Condition Information

Condition Information