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The latest in our Purcell's Finest Verses series, is Tim Mead singing 'Vouchsafe, O Lord' from Te Deum and Jubilate in D, Z232. For the annual celebrations of St Cecilia’s Day in 1694 Purcell did not produce an ode (which would have been his fifth dedicated to the patron saint of music) but instead produced a setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate which was performed in St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street. The centrepiece of the work, which finds Purcell at his most personal, is ‘Vouchsafe, O Lord’, set for the composer’s favourite countertenor voice. It is a genuine plea from the heart, made all the more poignant when we realise that exactly a year later Purcell himself was dead. Here is the composer at his profound best, piling up sequences and dissonances and pleading for mercy in the most ravishing vocal and string writing. The serenity with which the movement ends, and the strong affirmation of the final chorus, suggests that this is one prayer which may be answered. from notes by R
