Lost Majesty: Sacred Songs and Anthems by George Jeffreys Solomon's Knot

• George Jeffreys (1610 - 1685):
• 1 Jeffreys: Hark, shepherd swains 05:10
• 2 Jeffreys: Busy time this day 04:39
• 3 Jeffreys: Brightest of days 05:25
• 4 Jeffreys: Whisper it easily 05:31
• 5 Jeffreys: Rise heart; thy Lord is risen 06:41
• 6 Jeffreys: Look up, all eyes 04:43
• 7 Jeffreys: The Lord in thy adversity 07:54
• 8 Jeffreys: A music strange 06:43
• 9 Jeffreys: What praise can reach thy clemency (48kHz) 06:21
• 10 Jeffreys: Turn thee again (48kHz) 06:25
• 11 Jeffreys: Awake my soul (48kHz) 03:39
• 12 Jeffreys: How wretched is the state you all are in (48kHz) 04:38
• 13 Jeffreys: In the midst of life (48kHz) 04:15
• 14 Jeffreys: Turn thou us, O good Lord (48kHz) 05:10
• 15 Jeffreys: Great and marvellous are thy works (48kHz) 04:43
• 16 Jeffreys: He beheld the city (48kHz) 03:52
• Total Runtime 01:25:49

Info for Lost Majesty: Sacred Songs and Anthems by George Jeffreys

The recording of this composer’s extraordinary vocal music was made at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire, where this one-time organist to Charles I lived and worked for the Hatton family. Thanks to the kind permission of English Heritage, and the generous donations of so many of our supporters, we have the pleasure of bringing the forgotten composer of the English 17th century back into the light.

The double album features all of Jeffreys’ works for 4 and 5 voices with continuo, including many world-premiere recordings. It is released on the Prospero Classical label: streaming services on 8 December 2023 & in physical form in February 2024 worldwide.

Solomon’s Knot

Solomon's Knot
Determined to communicate the full power of 17th- and 18th-century music as directly as possible, the collective Solomon’s Knot was founded in London in 2008. Led by artistic director Jonathan Sells, the group performs without a conductor, the singers by heart.

What began a decade ago as a promise never to lose the joy of performing, to blow the dust off early music and break down the barriers of classical music has evolved into Solomon’s Knot’s reputation today: direct communication, adventurous programming and bold trademark performances from memory.

Our flexible approach enables us to explore a wide range of repertoire, especially music written before 1800, from the madrigals of Gesualdo to JS Bach’s Mass in B minor with 10 singers and 20 instrumentalists, or the rediscovery of the anonymous opera Lospedale' (ca. 1650), available on DVD.

By exploring new ways of presenting ancient music to ‘modern’ ears, eyes and minds, we work closely together with directors, composers, choreographers, visual artists, and other ensembles. From 2013-2017 Solomon’s Knot was part of Snape Malting’s inaugural Open Space development scheme. Recent collaborations include projects with Spira mirabilis, Sven Werner, James Hurley, Tim Caroll, Federay Holmes and Les Passions de l’Ame.

We are grateful to Sir John Eliot Gardiner for his invitations to the Bachfest Leipzig in 2016 and his Barbican Bach Weekend in 2018. We have also appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival, Händel-Festspiele Halle, Newbury Spring Festival, Thüringer Bachwochen, Regensburger Tage Alter Musik, Spitalfields Music Winter Festival, London Handel Festival, and St John’s Smith Square Christmas Festival.

Solomon’s Knot finished 2018 with the revival of our project ‘Christmas in Leipzig' in Nottingham and London’s Milton Court, recorded live and released on Sony Classical in 2019. “Time and again zig-zagging choruses, lightly accompanied, sprang into fire almost as if by spontaneous combustion. Most exciting.” The Times *****

Concerts in 2019 included our Wigmore Hall debut with the second version of JS Bach’s Johannes-Passion, returns to the Thüringer Bachwochen, Leipzig Bachfest, and St George’s Bristol, a residency at the Ryedale Festival, and our first appearance at the Bachwochen in Thun (Switzerland).

SKonnect, Solomon’s Knot’s education strategy, aims to take the excitement of so-called ‘early’ music into classrooms and workshops around the UK and further afield. Recently, schools in Nottingham and London have benefitted from hearing musicians perform for them live and explain the wonders of this colourful and exhilarating repertoire.

Booklet for Lost Majesty: Sacred Songs and Anthems by George Jeffreys