Purcell, Henry - The Fairy Queen - Christie, Les Arts Florissants

 

Release Date: February 12, 1992 Label: Harmonia Mundi Number of discs: 2 Composer: Henry Purcell Performer: William Christie, Les Arts Florissants cd info/ buy

Review:

Of the five semi-operas by Purcell, the Fairy Queen has long been a favorite. It is packed with terrific music and has some of the best dances Purcell ever wrote. Purcell's music, despite sounding very English at times, shows a definite French influence, and William Christie brings that to the fore here. The number of soloists used is vast, and many of them are absolute top names in early music (Nancy Argenta, Lynne Dawson, Isabelle Desrochers, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau, Noémi Rime, Charles Daniels, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Bernard Deletré, etc.). The Choir and Orchestra are one of the best around. Very interesting is the use of authentic Baroque bassoons. These French instruments make some very beautiful and characterful music. In the high register, they sound a little like French horns. I had to check the cd when I first heard this recording - I could have sworn that Henry Purcell didn't score any horns in this work! I also love the rich continuo group he employs, which lends some of the pieces a real rhythmic punch.The use of low pitch (a=392hz) is great in that it allows for all the alto parts to be taken by haute-contre voices, and when you have Fouchecourt, Daniels, and Randall on your roster, why not?

 

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Henry Purcell - Dioclesian, Timon of Athens - Argenta, Agnew, Pinnock, The English Concert and Choir

 

Release Date: 1995 Label: Archiv Number of discs: 2 Composer: Henry Purcell Performer: Argenta, Agnew, Pinnock, The English Concert cd info/ buy

Review:

Dioclesian is the tale of a simple Roman private, Diodes, who fulfils the prophecy of Delphia (a prophetess, and hence Dioclesian's alternative title) that one day he will become emperor. In the meantime, Diodes avenges the slaying of the previous emperor and becomes a hero. With ambitions realized he discovers the he has over-played his hand by responding to Princess Aurelia's advances in the place of a nice homely girl called Drusilla, whom he had agreed to marry. The prophetess, who happens to be Drusilla's aunt, plans his come-uppance before he realizes the emptiness of his aspirations, abdicates and returns to nature and Drusilla. It is good to know the story of Purcell's first major theatre success, though not essential since this hotch-potch adaptation of older plays impinges little on the music and, moreover, none of the protagonists sings a note. Yet this production at Dorset Garden in 1690, with all the hallmarks of compromise and messiness, was a huge hit and made Purcell's name on the London stage instantly. Ironically, Purcell's dramatic instincts had to find an outlet in incidental rather than integral 'operatic' music (plays with lots of spectacle was what the public wanted, with music an adornment of that spectacle), though Purcell would have been flattered that this was the first time a semi-opera had been entrusted to a single composer. So proud was he that he published the complete score. The constraints of semi-opera — where music and narrative are such uneasy bed-fellows — do give Purcell a free hand in some respects. If Dioclesian is the least stageable of the composer's four works in this genre, he evidently saw opportunities of characterization and mood-setting on a scale he had previously only dreamed and the Masque in Act 5, in particular, is a remarkably fine achievement of self-contained structural planning. The success of any performance depends largely on conveying Purcell's fresh sense of adventure. Trevor Pinnock's account is undoubtedly the one which reflects most strikingly the sense of gravitas and noble grandeur which constitutes much of the music in Acts 1-3. Stephen Gadd sings a magisterial "Great Diodes" and Pinnock's homogeneous and legato forces bathe luxuriously in Purcell's delectable counterpoint in the choruses. There is a sort of nonchalant virtuosity too about The English Concert (for example the Act 2 ritornellos) which one notices in the splendid Act 2 Symphony.--Gramophone

 

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Purcell, Henry - King Arthur - Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel

 

Release Date: July 27, 2004 Label: Glossa Number of discs: 1 Composer:  Henry Purcell Performer: Herve Niquet,Veronique Gens, Le Concert Spirituel  cd info/ buy

Review:

The Fairy Queen may be the most famous of Purcell's "semi-operas" (spoken dramas with extended musical items incorporated--not to say dropped in), but King Arthur, with text by John Dryden, is undoubtedly the most satisfying. Not only is the music captivating on its own terms, it's unusually well-integrated into the action--for example, one musical scene depicts the heathen Saxons performing a pre- battle ceremony; another shows good spirits guiding King Arthur and his men through a dark swamp while evil spirits try to mislead them. The first three acts have a lot of vivid battle and pastoral music, but the real goodies come in the last two acts…

 

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Purcell, Henry - The Indian Queen - Kirkby, Hogwood, Academy of Ancient Music

 

Release Date: October 17, 1995 Label: L'Oiseau-Lyre Number of discs: 1 Composer: Henry Purcell  Performer: Kirkby, Hogwood, AAM cd info/ buy

Review:

The Indian Queen is a play by Sir Robert Howard, written in collaboration with John Dryden, his sister's husband. It was first performed in 1664 with incidental music by John Banister the elder (1630-1679). In 1695, the play was expanded with additional music to create a new semi-opera of the same name by the composer Henry Purcell. …Hogwood conveys a consistent, logical and meticulous understanding of the score. The orchestral playing is crisp and transparent (as in the Symphony of Act 2), the Academy of Ancient Music's articulation allowing the integrity of the inner parts to be heard to the full without compromising blend. Amongst a distinguished line- up of singers, John Mark Ainsley gets the lion's share and is perhaps marginally more effective as the Indian Boy than as Fame, but such gloriously mellifluous and controlled singing can only enhance the reputation of this work. Emma Kirkby is in fine fettle and she executes the justly celebrated song "I attempt from love's sickness" with her usual communicative panache. Then comes the pleasurably contrasted voice of Catherine Bott: "They tell us that your mighty powers" could not be in better hands. David Thomas as Envy, with his two followers in the Act 2 masque, highlights this brilliant scene as the work of a true connoisseur of the theatre. Mature Purcell is most strongly felt in the deftly ironic invocation by the conjurer, Ismeron, whose "Ye twice ten thousand deities" is delivered authoritatively by Gerald Finley.

 

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Henry Purcell - Dido and Aeneas – Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Chamber Opera)

Release Date: 1994 Label: Harmonia Mundi Number of Discs:1 Composer: Henry Purcell Performer: Lorraine Hunt, Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra CD info/buy

Henry Purcell's chamber opera, "Dido and Aeneas," is plentifully represented on disk, but Nicholas McGegan's recording, with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge is the freshest and most compelling since Andrew Parrott's magnificent account of 1981 (on Chandos). Mr. McGegan's soloists -- Lorraine Hunt as Dido, Lisa Saffer as Belinda and Michael Dean as Aeneas -- work wonders with the concise characterizations provided by Purcell and his librettist, Nahum Tate.

As gorgeously as Emma Kirkby sang Dido for Mr. Parrott, Ms. Hunt captures the Carthaginian queen's anger and resignation far more vividly. Her voice has the right coloration for the role. Slightly dusky and nicely rounded, it sounds regal but not stolid. As such, it contrasts nicely with Ms. Saffer's brighter, lither sound, an important distinction in the work's opening scene, when the optimistic Belinda unwittingly urges Dido toward a fateful liaison with Aeneas...Mr. Dean is also an ideal match as Aeneas, and that is a rarity...Mr. McGegan mirrors these qualities in an orchestral accompaniment that is spirited, invitingly transparent and, most important, as carefully nuanced as the singing.--Allan Kozinn

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