MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Classicsonline AmazonUK   AmazonUS

 

Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
Theatre Music - Volume 1
Amphytrion, or the Two Sosias, Z.572 [25:19]
Sir Barnaby Whigg, Z.589 [3:49]
The Gordion Knot Unty’d, Z.597 [17:00]
Circe, Z.575 [13:25]
Michelle Kettrick (soprano); Andrea Jeffrey (soprano); Nicole Bower (soprano); Giles Tomkins (bass); Roz Mcarthur (alto); Neil Aronoff (bass); Peter Mahon (counter-tenor); Brian Duyn (tenor)
Aradia Ensemble/Kevin Mallon
rec. 25-29 April 2006, Grace Church on-the-Hill, Toronto, Canada. DDD
NAXOS 8.570149 [59:32]
Experience Classicsonline


Kevin Mallon and his Canadian Aradia (not ‘Arcadia’, it’s to be noted) Ensemble have set expectations high in recent releases: his Charpentier Masses and Christmas CDs (also on Naxos, 8.557229 and 8.557036) are exemplary and satisfy the most demanding listener. Just as elegant and full of poise is their Music for the Sun King (Naxos 8.554003). Here is Volume 1 (one hopes of a series) of selections from the music for theatre that Purcell wrote, mostly towards the end of his life.
 
There are four pieces on a CD that lasts just under an hour with somewhat scanty liner-notes - but a first class recording of highly charged and melody-rich music played with great style and originality by Mallon’s forces.
 
Two changes stand out across the divide during which theatres in Britain were closed at Puritan insistence: women’s parts were taken by male actors; and the stages of Shakespeare’s day were mostly outdoor venues.
 
Indeed the later, Restoration, plays – and this music - took advantage of the new availability of women. This is fair, airy and upbeat music for the most part. And, although serious, not weighty.
 
By Purcell’s time theatres’ acoustics were more contained, more controllable and sufficiently different from those of the Elizabeth and Jacobean eras for some new effects to be common – and to be welcome. Playwrights to whose work the composer responded could experiment with effects, machinery, spectacle. Indeed, it was to this additional dimension that opera from Monteverdi’s time appealed as well.
 
These pieces (none is longer than 25 minutes) are not opera, nor really musical theatre. They’re music to accompany existing dramatic works… before the curtain, between acts and/or constitute choruses to underpin the action. So, although some of such works by Purcell were ‘converted’ into suites, the way we hear them on this CD is not as Purcell’s contemporaries would have heard them. And our response is likely to be very different from theirs… at the very least because we will hopefully pay much closer attention to the music than it seems likely did late seventeenth century audiences!
 
Still, this is fetching music played very much in the spirit of the occasion that must have inspired Purcell: listen to the changes in tempo during the longest piece, Amphytrion; this was for a drama by Dryden. It afforded Purcell opportunity for a series of French dances and some lyrical aria writing. It’s executed with real sensitivity by soprano Andrea Jeffrey; her diction and delivery are refreshingly delicate and give great pleasure. The same can be said of Giles Tomkins’s light but expressive bass, which seems ideally suited to this repertoire for the words are always clear and amply endowed with meaning – again without a degree of pathos, which might have been expected here. Indeed, if there is a small criticism of the style employed by the singers on this reasonably-priced CD in particular, it is that they take things perhaps just a tiny touch too seriously.
 
Mallon and his players effortlessly convey the hesitancy and faltering steps towards true love of shepherd and shepherdess without ‘playing up’ the convention yet without becoming so absorbed in tribulation that dramatic contrast is lost. Of equal interest are the Scottish hornpipe and jigs [trs.5, 10] in the piece.
 
The Aradia Ensemble enters just as fully into the spirit of the comedy by d’Urfey, Sir Barnaby Whigg, for which Purcell wrote only one number, a sea song and persuasive picture of a tempest – possibly accompanied by stage effects at the play’s performances in 1681 at Drury Lane.
 
Both the other pieces – like Amphytrion – come from later in Purcell’s career, the 1690s, when Purcell was literally working himself to death both for love of his work, and for money. For The Gordion Knot Unty’d (1691) Purcell contributed a set of instrumental airs and dances. The composer’s poignant yet unfussy melodic invention is well represented by The Aradia Ensemble’s attentive and sensitive musicians and singers. Circe (for a revival probably in 1690) of Charles (son of William) Davenant’s tragedy called out for magic, darkness and effects. In these Purcell is in his element.
 
This is music of Purcell’s maturity. The challenge faced by the performers is to recreate, or at least represent, the appropriateness to the conventions of late Restoration drama of Purcell’s evocative music. In this they succeed in large part, though a little more pace and lightness of touch in places might have been welcome. On the other hand there is a Lullian sobriety and deftness in numbers like the overture to The Gordion Knot Unty’d  [tr.13] which make this performance very compelling. It’s hard to see how Purcell would have disapproved.
 
The balance between vocal and instrumental pieces is nicely struck; there is a sense of occasion – albeit by proxy – and the momentum under the rather ‘rearranged’ circumstances is well kept. The recording is up to scratch, though not roomy.
 
There appears to be no existing recording of the song from Sir Barnaby Whigg. The more comprehensive set of six CDs by Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music on Decca 000321502) can seriously be considered for the other three pieces. But if you want a sampler of delightful and moving music exhibiting many of Purcell’s finer and most refined qualities, this is one to consider.
 
Mark Sealey
 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.