Paradise Lost

With their characteristic imagination and musical curiosity, Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake have put together a beautifully shaped programme on the subject of mankind’s banishment from Eden. Eve, Paradise and her fall, with Adam, provide the framework for a journey that embraces temptation, the clichéd view of woman as man’s downfall and the blossoming of experience that comes with the loss of innocence. Wandering widely down the centuries, from Purcell to Reimann—via Fauré, Brahms, Britten, Bernstein and others—Paradise Lost is a model song recital, and even better for being sung with the intelligence and storytelling skill on display here.