Carolyn Sampson (soprano) with members of The King's Consort

Music for a while

Bedford Music Club’s 50th season opens with a very special concert. Born in Bedford, Carolyn Sampson is now one of the world’s leading sopranos, a consummate recitalist she is equally at home on the concert and opera stages. She has enjoyed notable succeses in the UK as well as throughout Europe and the US. It is hard to think of a better pairing than with members of The King’s Consort, one of the world’s leading baroque ensembles, directed by Robert King. Their programme brings together some of the best vocal music by Purcell and Handel, with chamber works by Vivaldi, Purcell and the less well-known French composer Boismortier.

After her performance of The Genius of Purcell at Wigmore Hall in October 2017 with The King's Consort, a reviewer wrote in Opera Today:

"Sampson looked and sounded the epitome of elegance and expressiveness. Her smoothly polished soprano is a perfect fit for Purcell’s melodic fecundity. The tone was clear as a bell, the diction superb: the words seemed to float on the melody. And, the purity and easefulness of Sampson’s sound production is wonderfully suited to Purcell’s rhythmic shifts and quirks which were pliantly absorbed into the flowing phrases. Moreover, while Sampson’s tone is unblemished it is never colourless: she imbued the clean line with judicious expressive radiance."