In a performance that charms as well as moves in abundance (BBC Music), Andrew Parrott directs a hand-picked team of singers and instrumentalists in this classic recording. (Avie)

This is the follow up Retrospect’s debut recording, released to celebrate the 350th birthday of Henry Purcell, and reunites four Baroque instrumentalist superstars. Continuing the composer’s trio sonata texture found in Ten Sonatas in Four Parts, Purcell’s later set is much more forward-looking to the later Baroque rather than taking inspiration from the old style contrapuntal models found in the earlier set. These sonatas display the composer’s innate ability at blending influences from French, Italian and English music; exotic dissonances can be heard alongside the unique use of counterpoint. This recording was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award and an International Classical Music Award and was named a ‘Choice’ recording by Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and International Record Review. Recorded at St George’s, Chesterton, the recording beautifully captures the timeless beauty of Purcell’s most highly regarded instrumental works.

Purcell: Indian Queen (The)

Henry Purcell was a brilliant music dramatist and in The Indian Queen there is a plethora of detail, colour and characterisation to be explored in every symphony, air and dance. Purcell's instrumental writing leaps off the page with string writing that is second to none and a wealth of variety capped by exquisite writing for trumpet, oboes and recorders. Based on Dryden’s play, Henry Purcell’s music from The Indian Queen deals with the conflict between the Mexican and Peruvians and principally with Queen Zempoalla. The Indian Queen is a classic story of love and war and, as with all good stories, things don’t go quite as planned for the eponymous Queen…

The Sixteen / Harry Christophers
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Ann Murray, Lorna Anderson, Gillian Fisher, John Mark Ainsley, Michael Chance, Richard Stuart, Ian Partridge, Michael George

Released to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Henry Purcell’s birth, this is the recording debut of Retrospect Trio, a group formed under the umbrella of the larger Retrospect brand (formerly known as The King’s Consort). Originally released in 2009, this recording explores the timeless beauty of Purcell’s first set of sonatas including the magnificent Sonata IX, known as 'The Golden Sonata'. The Ten Sonatas in Four Parts (published after Purcell's death in 1697) provide fascinating insight into the cosmopolitan and often conflicting stylistic tastes of English musicians in the latter 17th c.

For their debut album on Challenge Classics, La Sfera Armoniosa and its artistic director have chosen orchestral music and arias from the operas by Henry Purcell. La Sfera Armoniosa, founded in 1992, is a Dutch Baroque ensemble and orchestra specializing in the performance of music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Artistic director Mike Fentross writes: “I was really moved when I heard my orchestra playing the opening bars of Purcell. I heard a sound that was quite different to what I knew from other present-day baroque orchestras. Was this sound closer to that of Purcell’s own orchestra, a sound that he may have had in mind when composing this wondrous music? In the very first chat I had about this project with Lidewij van der Voort, our new concertmaster, we talked about the modern adaptations that are often (and understandably) applied to baroque instruments nowadays, and about the possibility of going back to authentic strings (completely bare gut) and a 17th century bow hold (the French grip) for this Purcell project. As it happens, I’d had a similar conversation not long before that with Lidewei de Sterck, our principal oboist, about authentic reeds (scraped from the inside) and with Graham Nicholson, about 17th century trumpets (natural trumpets with no fingerholes). These aspects, seemingly just details, have a major impact not just on the sound but also the way of playing and therefore on the way we interpret the music. We all felt the need to record this album with these ‘experimental’ instruments. An orchestral sound with so much transparency and color, a way of playing with such narrative power!”

PURCELL Songs: 1 Strike the Viol; The Queen’s Expedition; Here the Deities Approve; O solitude; Sweeter than roses; Music for a while; If music be the food of love; In the black dismal dungeon; An Evening Hymn. Dioclesian: 2 First music; Overture; First Act Tune; Dance of the Furies; Second Act Tune; Two in once upon a ground; The Chair Dance; Third Act Tune; Butterfly Dance; Country Dance; Dance of the Bacchanals; Still I’m wishing; Canaries; 2 Dances. Timon of Athens: 3 Curtain Tune • Michael Chance (ct); Richard Boothby (vdg); Maggie Cole (hpd); Nigel North (lt, thb); 1 Florilegium 2,3 • BRILLIANT 93937 (72:50)


I am unsure about the provenance of the music on this disc, which, though pleasing, combines two different sessions by two different groups. (The notes are uninformative; more mysteriously, the Brilliant Classics Web site doesn’t, if I have read it correctly, list this disc.) But the music is the thing, and the music here is beautifully stylish and well recorded, both the songs sung by countertenor Michael Chance, a known quantity since he began recording in 1980, and the theater music by Florilegium, a group of 10 accomplished musicians. Chance is an expressive singer and Nigel North an effective accompanist, as we hear especially in the most intimate songs, such as If music be the food of love. (North also plays on the Purcell song collection by Nancy Argenta.) There are a surprising number of alternatives to this collection, including performances by Alfred Deller, Emma Kirkby, Ian Partridge, and James Bowman who has done all the secular songs on three CDs. What this disc offers, besides the budget price, is a fine collection of songs with an equally fine collection of theater music, the lively “Country Dance” with its melody carried by two recorders as well as a “Bacchanal,” and several other imitative pieces. This is all light music, exquisitely tuneful and even boisterous in a courtly manner, and it has rarely been better played.


FANFARE: Michael Ullman

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.

Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, guided by François Lazarevitch’s virtuoso flute, have already led us along the roads of Ireland and Scotland, notably the High Road to Kilkenny, a great success in 2016. This time, they venture into England with an essentially secular programme devoted to Henry Purcell (1659-95), varying the mood by alternating between instrumental dances and songs performed by the English countertenor Tim Mead, including ‘O Solitude’ and ‘What power art thou’. While Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien have chosen these celebrated pieces for pleasure above all, with this English programme they also fill in a new piece in their jigsaw map of the United Kingdom. At the same time, they demonstrate the musical porosity of Ireland, Scotland and England – and the atypical colors of the small string ensemble complemented by two flutes, a harp and harpsichord/lute continuo further underline the fact. The common thread, dear to Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, is that of folk music lying at the heart of art music, in a mixture of origins, practices and repertories. We can easily recognize ‘Scotch and Irish tunes’ that Purcell incorporates in his overtures, jigs, hornpipes and chaconnes. The countertenor Tim Mead punctuates the dances with songs composed for the operatic or dramatic stage or for chamber performance.

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)

This recording is the first by Ensemble La Fenice to feature English music of the 17th century and is dedicated, to give credit where credit is due, to Henry Purcell. It is above all an acoustic account of a number of concerts held in 2009, on the 350th anniversary of the composer's death. In response to invitations issued by the festivals Les Nuits Musicales d'Uzès, Festival de Lanvellec et du Trégor and during the course of the ensemble's first residency in Auxerre, Burgundy, the works were consequently performed in three different places with different acoustics. To incorporate the visual aspect, the TV station Mezzo made a video recording of pieces performed at the Festival de Beaune and the Festival de musique ancienne de Lyon.

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen continue their exploration of Purcell’s stunning music written for royal occasions on the second album in their new series. Charles II’s formal Restoration in 1660 marked both an end and a beginning: the end of England’s republican experiment and the beginning of a long process of monarchical reconstruction; and with a politically accident-prone king on the throne, Charles’s public relations machine could never rest. Purcell joined its small team of composer operatives just as the wave of Stuart propaganda swelled massively, and he surfed the wave with breathtaking panache, from his first court ode – the simple but rousing Welcome, Vicegerent of the mighty King – to the ambitious Fly, bold rebellion involving verse settings in up to seven parts and a six-part chorus.

PURCELL Timon of Athens: Curtain Tune; Overture; Hark! How the Songsters; Love in Their Little Veins; But Ah!; Come All to Me. Dioclesian: Dance; First Music; Chaconne; Prelude; Since from my dear; Let us dance; Butterfly Dance. King Arthur: For Love Ev’ry Creature; Hornpipe; Bouree. The Fairy Queen: Entrance of Night; One Charming Night; Hush No More; Ye Gentle Spirits of the Air; O Let Me Weep; If Love’s a Sweet Passion; Hark! The Echoing Air; Chaconne • Dorothee Mields (sop); Wolfgang Katschner, cond; Lautten Compagney Berlin • CARUS 83.435 (76:12)


I have rarely heard the Entrance of Night from The Fairy Queen sung more fetchingly, more sensitively than here by Dorothee Mields, but her consistently touching yet full-throated singing is hardly the full story of this Purcell disc. The program begins with what I am tempted to call a swinging version of the Curtain Tune from Timon of Athens. The first sound is of a twanging theorbo playing an ostinato pattern; it’s an “authentic” instrument, but the line, with its bent notes, played on an electric bass an octave lower would not sound particularly odd. Later the strings emphasize the back beat. This version adds percussion as well as a plucked bass; one dance unfolds over something like castanets, and I swear I hear bongo drums elsewhere. Nor is that all. Hark! How the Songsters begins with some discreet bird songs, as if it were by Villa-Lobos. You’ll never hear a more vigorous Hornpipe than the one from King Arthur played here.


I am afraid I am putting off the more serious early-music listeners. I don’t mean to. Much to my surprise, all of what I have just described is perfectly delightful. The band is lively, and beautifully recorded. The effects are tactful and often enlightening. Wolfgang Katschner has taste, and a taste for variety: There is nothing untoward or unexpected, for instance, in the little Prelude from Dioclesian that is played by flute, oboe, and bass. It couldn’t be lovelier. OK, I might not expect something that sounds like a tambourine in a Purcell recording, but it is slapped only a couple of times and creates a slightly more exuberant air. These are dances, after all. Perhaps I should speak more about Dorothee Mields as well. She has a powerful and also beautiful voice that conveys joy as well as pathos. It’s not at all jarring to go from a rousing hornpipe to Mields sweetly singing I Love and I Must. This is a surprising but also a perfectly delightful disc.


FANFARE: Michael Ullman

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