Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Lovesick (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

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.


TRACKLIST

01. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Lawes: I’m Sick of Love: O let me lie
02. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Traditional: There’s None to Soothe my Soul to Rest
03. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Moulinié: Enfin la beauté que j’adore Paris
04. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Lawes: Perfect and Endless Circles Are London
05. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Purcell: Celestial Music ye Gods Inspire, Z. 322: When Orpheus Sang All Nature Did Rejoice
06. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Purcell: Suite from King Arthur Z. 628: Your Hay It Is Mowed – Fairest Isle – Come If you Dare (Arr. For Baroque Guitar)
07. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Blow: Amphion Anglicus: Tell Me No More You Love; In Vain
08. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Cesti: L’orontea, Act Ii: Intorno all’idol mio'
09. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Lawes: I Rise and Grieve
10. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Traditional: At the Mid Hour of Night
11. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Purcell: She Loves and She Confesses Too, Z. 413
12. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Dowland: Complaint, P. 63: Fortune my Foe
13. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Dowland: Time Stands Still
14. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Blow: Amphion Anglicus: The Self-banished
15. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Traditional: Mary’s Dream
16. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Castrovillari: La Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 2: Luci belle
17. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Purcell: Bonduca, Z. 574: O, Lead Me to Some Peaceful Gloom
18. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Traditional: The Three Ravens
19. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Anonymous: Packington’s Pound
20. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Guédron: Cessés mortels de soupirer
21. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Traditional: Black Is the Colour of my True Love’s Hair
22. Randall Scotting & Stephen Stubbs - Purcell: O Solitude, my Sweetest Choice, Z. 406



Thanks to the Original customer.