IBO & Peter Whelan - The Hibernian Muse - CD Hot List

This is one of those rare albums that is as enjoyable as it is historically significant. It represents the world-premiere recording of a “serenata da camera” (something like a large-scale cantata) written by the Hungarian composer Johann Sigismund Cousser, who spent the last 20 years of his life as a chapel-master at Trinity College Dublin. The Universal Applause of Mount Parnassus was written to celebrate the birthday of Queen Anne in 1711, and is the earliest known operatic work written in Dublin for an Irish audience. It’s accompanied by a little-known work of Henry Purcell, also written to be performed at Trinity College; the ode Great Parent, Hail! was composed in honor of the college’s centenary in 1694, and apart from the unsurprisingly exquisite music, it features some very careful political tap-dancing in the libretto (it having been written in the wake of the Glorious Revolution). This is a richly beautiful recording of gorgeous performances.