Henry Purcell Reimagined: Baroque Songs of Fate and Freedom In this recording, the Vox Orchestra, conductor Lorenzo Ghirlanda and soprano Marie-Sophie Pollak explore some of Henry Purcell's most captivating songs from King Arthur, The Fairy Queen, and Dido and Aeneas. At the heart of the programme lies a theme that remains strikingly relevant today: the confrontation with the inevitable-war, love, duty, and loss. Rather than presenting these works solely as excerpts from Baroque stage music, the performers highlight their original character as songs. Purcell's memorable melodies emerge with remarkable directness and emotional immediacy, while instrumental interludes function like modern introductions and codas. Bold string playing, expressive continuo, and vivid contrasts of tempo create a sound world that feels both historically informed and surprisingly contemporary. Marie-Sophie Pollak brings the diverse characters to life with exceptional expressive clarity, favouring direct communication over excessive ornamentation. The result is a fresh and compelling interpretation that reveals Purcell's theatre music as a timeless collection of songs, bridging the distance between the seventeenth century and today's listener.

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The collaboration of the poet John Dryden and Henry Purcell marked a conspicuous leap forward for English opera. Their greatest project, King Arthur, is a five-act ‘dramatick opera,’ the text of which had its origins in a patriotic musical play Dryden had written in 1684 but which he radically overhauled. The result was a work that appealed to the audience’s enthusiasm for fine costumes, lavish sets, ingenious stage machinery and a cast of singers, dancers and instrumentalists, containing vocal show-stoppers such as the imperishable ‘Frost Scene’ and ‘Fairest isle.’ This critically acclaimed staging uses a new performing edition by Rene Jacobs, and is sung in English with German dialogue. Bachtrack.com greatly admired the 2017 performance: “The singing cast- all of which played up to six parts each- were strong throughout Soprano Anett Fritsch marveled as Merlin’s trusty spirit Philidel and Cupido, her coloratura agile and light, her singing and speaking impressive both on stage and whilst airborne. Bass Johannes Weisser played a suitably repulsive Grimbald and convinced vocally in the Cold Genius’ staccato aria “What Ho,” Soprano Robin Johannsen and Altus Benno Schachtner delighted particularly during their touching love duet.”

Il Caravaggio is an ensemble founded and conducted by Camille Delaforge, bringing together a new generation of musicians playing period instruments; the ensemble will celebrate it's tenth anniversary in 2027. They are joining Alpha Classics for several recording projects, starting with this programme centred on three sacred works by Purcell (The Witch of Endor), Ferrandini (Il Pianto di Maria) and Charpentier (Le Reniement de Saint-Pierre): 'I was 17, I'd just started playing the harpsichord and I discovered the final chorus of Le Reniement de Saint-Pierre. A world of profound humanity opened up before me. I did not yet understand the codes of this music, but I already I sensed that a key was turning, unlocking the door to an intensely emotional space,' says Camille Delaforge. She continues: these works 'all depict a similar spiritual journey; that of a person faced with abandonment: Mary's grief, Peter's remorse and Saul's terror in the face of the invisible in Purcell" With leading singers, Camille Delaforge and Il Caravaggio perform these sacred stories with great passion; stories that have stood the test of time and still move us today. With leading singers, Camille Delaforge and Il Caravaggio perform these sacred stories with great passion; stories that have stood the test of time and still move us today.

This program offers a generous and varied selection of arias by three of the greatest composers of the Baroque: Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Presented are dramatic and moving arias from Handel's Theodora, Jephta and Acis & Galatea, Purcell's King Arthur, Oedipus and Diocletian, and Bach's St. John and St. Matthew Passion. This recording is a vocal showcase of two of the most prominent young vocalists of today: tenor Guy Cutting and baritone Alvar Tiisler. Guy Cutting is recognised internationally for his compelling performances and refined musicianship, with a particular reputation in the music of J.S. Bach. A regular soloist with Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe, he has performed across Europe's leading concert halls and festivals including La Scala Milan, the BBC Proms, The Philharmonie Berlin, Tonhalle Zurich, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He has collaborated with many of the world's foremost period conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Maasaki Suzuki, John Butt, Paul McCreesh, Jos van Veldhoven and Marcus Creed. Baritone Alvar Tiisler has performed with orchestras such as the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata, the Sinfonietta Riga, the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra, the Barrocade Ensemble, and the Estonian Sinfonietta. Ensemble Floridante is an Estonian Early Music ensemble founded in Tallinn in 2014. It is anchored by two core members: harpsichordist Saale Fischer and viola da gamba and cello player Villu Vihermae. The ensemble brings together several dozen professional Estonian musicians united by their passion for Early Music.

You really won’t be disappointed with these stylish, polished, engaging performances.

In the old days—that is, the 1980s and ‘90s—this is a recording that would have been done by the Baltimore Consort, with soprano Custer LaRue; but they would have left out the boring stuff, all those endlessly plodding “grounds”, or the excessively torturous (as opposed to the reasonably tortuous) six-and-one-half-minute Expostulation of the Blessed Virgin, in favor of livelier, more virtuosic, or just more light-hearted or even humorous material.

Mields is certainly a wonderful singer—indeed, this is some of the best work she’s done—and the instrumentalists are first-rate. But I don’t buy the legitimacy of the programmatic device that supposedly unifies the chosen repertoire: a “journey into the extremities of the life of the soul, caused by feelings of love.” The word “mad” pops up frequently in the liner notes, supposedly a theme that links all of the music, by Purcell and a few contemporaries—but you’ll be hard pressed to hear and feel this connection as you listen.

That’s not to say that the program isn’t composed of some fine and well-chosen songs—and Mields has admirable command of the material; yet her final, gorgeously sung Dido’s Lament lacks a true emotional connection with the character’s situation, eliminating that oft-recorded, beloved aria as a reason to own the disc. But there are plenty more reasons among the 31 tracks—and if you’re a fan of this period and place (latter 17th-century England), and of songs such as “Sing, sing Ye Druids” and “The Three Ravens”, you really won’t be disappointed with these stylish, polished, engaging performances.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The music of the English Virginalists (virginal is a smaller variety of harpsichord) dating back to the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries served as an inspiration for the French harpsichord style, which, after several years, returned to Great Britain. It was adopted in such a mature form by the most outstanding composer born in England. Henry Purcell, conscious of the music's sources, enriched it with subsequent references to native musical traditions and with his own original compositional technique. The extremely meticulous interpretations of eight harpsichord suites by Purcell, performed by Ewa Rzetecka-Niewiadomska, convincingly confirm the artistry and aesthetic value of these compositions, with plenty of charm and stylistic treats, which, due to extra-musical reasons, are on the margin of the mainstream of the history of music.

This was L’Opéra Harmonique’s first production at Opéra de Rouen. It is a singularly thought-provoking take on Purcell’s famous piece. The extended duration is due to various inserts along the way in the manner of the period. The orchestra, using period instruments, is wonderfully polished throughout, making the pointed dances a particular delight.

Here, the sea is the ‘matrix of the action’, to quote the booklet notes. As a “reflection of the protagonists’ souls”, it shadows the fluidity of the action and the characters’ response to the travails of doomed love. Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek have done a sterling, hyper-imaginative job of direction, choreography, sets and costumes. The stage deliberately seems to invoke the mythic, a magical time before ours, artificial in its immediate effect but, via this distancing, allowing the core emotions of the drama to shine forth. The production sets out to depict all characters involved in the action, even those merely mentioned in the libretto (like Diana). Also Cupid draws his bow in stylised movements onstage during the course of the dramatic and beautifully expressive Overture. The excellent choir is offstage throughout, a disembodied Greek chorus capable of the greatest delight as well as the deepest pathos (“Great minds against themselves conspire”). Replacing them onstage, perhaps, are the dancers and acrobats. Prepare for a raft of the interpolations mentioned above; gird yourself for example, also for trapeze artists, swing from the ceiling as the lovers’ hands seek to touch, a scene that moves effortlessly into “Let the triumphs of love and of beauty be shown”.

Vocally, the first thing to note is that this international cast delivers the English text astonishingly well. As much care has gone into diction as has been lavished on any other performance aspect and indeed on the production.

The Dido is Alaskan soprano Vivica Genaux, stunning in her expressivity and decidedly feisty in her final scene with Aeneas. Yet she is truly touching in her Lament, beginning with her arms fully extended as if to reflect the length and beauty of her phrasing. Finally, she is enveloped by the sea, the sea that has provided such a powerful metaphor throughout. At last, also, we the DVD viewers see the chorus, now in the orchestra pit. Feathers fall at the end — traditionally a sign of angelic presence – is this the reference?

Portuguese soprano Ana Quintans is a fresh-voiced, charming Belinda, wondrously nimble at “Haste, haste to town”. Perhaps the surprise is a male singer for the part of the Sorceress, a high baritone, Marc Mauillon, who also takes the role of the Sailor. The use of a male voice was suggested by a 1706 prompt book, and 'hir' (to use a conflation of “his” and “her”) scenes are augmented by dancers. S/he is a sort of camp octopus. Don’t buy the DVD on this information alone, but I admit that it sounds intriguing.

As Aeneas, Henk Neven is vocally superb although perhaps his stage presence does not quite suggest Aeneas’ magnetism. However, this is altogether a most fascinating DVD, superbly performed. The camera-work is good, if not excellent — sometimes sudden close-ups can seem rather random. Not by any means your run-of-the-mill Dido, but for those that already own the William Christie Glyndebourne on Opus Arte (or that same conductor’s version on Fra Musica with Hilary Summers), or Hogwood’s ROH DVD (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with a cast that includes Sarah Connolly), this DVD still acts as a necessary complement.

-- Colin Clarke, MusicWeb International

This disc combines some of Henry Purcell's most powerful masterpieces. Love's Goddess Sure Was Blind, an exuberant tribute to the young Queen Mary, and some of his most eloquent compositions, written for her funeral. Love's Goddess Sure was Blind, written in exuberant and florid style for the birthday of the much loved young Queen Mary ends, extraordinarily, with a reflection on the grief her eventual death would provoke. It was less than six years later that the prophesied mourning became a reality, when, in her early thirties, she succumbed to smallpox. Purcell's eloquent compositions for her funeral are acknowledged as some of his most powerful masterpieces marrying a genuine of expression of grief (Purcell greatly admired the witty, musical Mary) with a characteristic sophistication of style.

Despite being written for the celebration of royal occasions, Purcell’s Royal Welcome Songs were penned during a time of immense disillusionment with the monarchy. Filled with humour as well as an ironic detachment from the politics of the time, Ye tuneful muses and Sound the trumpet fizz with the dramatic energy which characterized his later operas and mark a crucial turning point in Purcell’s career. This programme showcases the variety and diversity of Purcell’s writing, opening with the Chacony in G minor, which is among the great glories of music for strings, and including When on my sick bed I languish- an amazingly impassioned piece in which he bares his soul… quintessential Purcell! “It’s a delicious 72 minutes of Restoration wit and lyrical charm, performed gracefully by Harry Christophers ‘The Sixteen.’” (The Times on Purcell: The Indian Queen) “A performance like this shows dimensions of Purcell’s genius that are all too rarely heard on disc.” (Gramophone on Purcell: The Fairy Queen)

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REVIEW:

Harry Christophers and the Sixteen bring to life the composer's Welcome Songs, composed, like the birthday odes, for special, mainly royal, occasions. Christophers coaxes virtuosic performances from eight members of the Sixteen, with a fine band of period instrumentalists reveling in the glories of Purcell’s unique harmonic palette. Recommended.

– Guardian (UK)