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 AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Odes to Saint Cecilia
Giovanni Battista DRAGHI (c.1640-1708)
From harmony, from heav’nly harmony (1687) [40:06]
John BLOW (1649-1708)
The glorious day is come (1691) [31:21]
Suzie Le Blanc (soprano)
Joseph Cornwell (tenor)
Michael Chance (counter-tenor)
Jozic Koc (bass) (Blow)
Richard Wistreich (bass) (Draghi)
The Parley of Instruments/Peter Holman
The Playford Consort/Richard Wistreich
rec. November 1994
HYPERION HELIOS CDH55257 [71:43]



This is another of the Helios re-release series that restores staples of the Hyperion catalogue to a lower price bracket. This Saint Cecilia’s Day ode diptych was recorded in 1994 and makes its welcome reappearance now.
 
It’s Draghi’s work that has always commanded the greater interest. Partly this is because of its own significant intrinsic merits of course but also because the influence he was to exert over Purcell. Draghi set the Dryden text that Handel was to use for his own ode setting many years later – the one with the gorgeous setting of What passion cannot Muusick raise and quell – and did so with consistent linguistic and musical interest. The opening symphony is stately and controlled with a resiliency that attests to his eloquent control of stylistic matters.  Soprano Suzie Le Blanc copes very well with the demanding divisions in When Nature underneath a heap – those melismas on “arise” are indeed very characteristically Purcellian and we can be fairly sure that the younger man documented Draghi’s Italian style with close study. Michael Chance sings with considerable distinction throughout.  Draghi’s setting is not shy; it’s laid out for pretty large forces and he makes few concessions to technical problems in some of the arias. We can hear as well that the wind writing is pert and apt – and in this performance they are well-pointed comments and relished with verve. The finale, As from the pow’r of sacred days, sees the full force of Draghi’s inspiration. Naturally Purcell’s word setting proved to be far superior to that of Draghi and there are certainly isolated movements that pass unmemorably. But this is a vibrant work and well worth getting to know.
 
Its companion by Blow is rather more conventional and in that sense perhaps less obviously interesting.  The glorious day is come was composed in 1691, a few years later than the Draghi ode. It’s more of an extrovert work, more public and showy especially in the opening Symphony and is rather more compact as well – lasting thirty minutes to Draghi’s forty. To condemn it as less interesting is perhaps unfair. Blow’s writing is unfailingly intelligent and his interweaving lines in The spheres, those instruments divine is brilliantly accomplished. And first the trumpet’s part affords plenty of opportunities for Joseph Cornwell to flex dextrous tenorial muscles. Perhaps the most intriguing movement is Excess of pleasure now crowd on apace which has a series of almost  “pop” cadences in its melodic profile.
 
So, yes, it’s unfair on the Blow to judge it poorly against the Draghi. Both are fine works, well performed if a trifle sedately. The annotations are similarly fine and the recorded sound catches the intimate as well as the grand statements with clarity and warmth.
 
Jonathan Woolf
 



 


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

 

 

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.