ANGELS HIDE THEIR FACES / BACH AND PURCELL

Dawn Upshaw, one of America's best-loved and most acclaimed sopranos, lends her voice to music by two masters of the Baroque, J.S. Bach and Henry Purcell. Henry Purcell (1659-1695) was one of the most prodigious composers of the Baroque, and the leading composer of his day in England. Upshaw performs a selection of Purcell's most famous and important works for voice, including "The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation" and "If Music Be the Food of Love". As well-documented as Bach's enormous output has been through the ages, his dramatic cantata "Mein Herz schwimmt i'm Blut" was lost until the early 20th century. Upshaw performed the cantata in a specially-commissioned version staged by director Peter Sellars during a landmark series of concerts at New York's 92nd St. y during the 1995-96 season, and here commits it to record at last.