Customer Reviews

Essential Purcell

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If anyone has benefitted from the reversion in the last three or so decades to period instruments and historical reconstruction, it is Henry Purcell. Before, he was merely great, the peerless word-setter in the English language, a virtuoso of boundless range, a professional composer whose offical commissions were always imbued with personality and invention. But period instrumentation has added to this a greater depth, an other-worldly texture of sound. With his intricate, multi-part vocal writing, his preference for low, rumbling instruments such as the bass viol and the strange and remarkable theorbo, as well as his often sombre and low-key subject matter and treatment, Purcell creates a round, glowing, humming sound as pregnantly full as dub reggae.

This has an extraordinary effect on the listener. Whereas Bach, with his mathematical abstractions, sounds universal and timeless, Purcell's music takes the listener back 300 years, back to different ways of thinking about, feeling about and addressing things we still think etc. about today - death, love, friendship. The emotion is timeless, but the music's beauty is alien, THEIRS, hence its preciousness.

A lot of intelligence has gone into the unity of this compilation, beginning with two Welcomes (to the dawn and to the listener, in this case a King), and ending with thoughts of evening, death and a Baroque 'Thank you for the music'. These are bright, fanfare-like works, but the predominant mood is slow, ruminative, quiet. The selection covers the wide range of Purcell's oeuvre, from opera and funeral marches to secular songs and odes, and includes his most famous vocal works - Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, sung by Gillian Fisher, and never more evocative of pagan loss and death; the massive 'Bell Anthem', with its ingenious opening symphony and joyful antiphon; and a miraculously serene 'Evening Hymn', Dido's opposite, death indicating hope, the treble voice swirling over the heavy ground bass like the soul released from the inert body.

it might seem quixotic to choose highlights from an exemplary collection of highlights, but the entry of the strings washing over the serene repetition of 'Be Welcome then, great Sir' always makes my heart stop still, while the musical picture of 'Bold Honour', the 'noisy Nothing, stalking shade', blocking the poet's amorous intentions in 'She loves and confesses too', adds a chilling hint of life's transience to a bouyantly bawdy song.

This disc collects some of the highlights from Robert King's monumental anthology of Purcell's music - 19 volumes of songs, odes, services and anthems; plus additional discs featuring solo songs and duets. This disc is a perfect introduction to Purcell for those new to baroque. It is also a help to those who are familiar with Purcell but can't afford to buy the entire anthology, and thus have to select the volumes they most want. Helpfully, the booklet lists all of King's Purcell recordings with detailed information on what they contain. I confess, I myself don't own all of them. But on the basis of the ones I do own I can safely assert that Mr. King is one of the best interpreters of Purcell's music; and that his musicians and soloists turn in performances which are unlikely to be soon bettered. Many of the performers make repeated appearances throughout the series, helping King to knit together a consistent and homogeneous presentation of some of the best baroque music in the world. The extraordinary James Bowman is present in virtually every volume. So are such well-known English baroque performers as Gillian Fisher and Michael George. Frequently encountered are Rogers Covey-Crump and Charles Daniels, both of The Hilliard fame. Some of the less frequent participants, however, are not to be slighted. The sweet-voiced high tenor Mark Padmore appears in a couple of pieces here and there, but leaves an indelible imprint on the entire series by singing the glorious "Odes and Welcome Songs" finale "O how blest is the isle" from the ode Why Are All the Muses Mute (vol. 8 - my favorite). Luckily, this wonderful piece is included on this disc. But EVERY piece on this disc will take your breath away, as will (or would) many other Purcell's compositions which are beyond the scope of this little collection but which you may want to discover. Some of the best Purcell recordings out there, in addition to King, include: Hail! Bright Cecilia (Herreweghe); King Arthur (Christie); and Fairy Queen (Christie, Christophers or Norrington).

Absolutely beautiful baroque music! The arrangament, singing and instrumentation is superb. It is too bad that Henry Purcell is not as widely known as Bach, because he should be recognized equally well."The Sparrow and the Gentle dove" is alone worth the price of the album! I can not stop playing it!

Whenever Hyperion releases a sampler CD, it is invariably of the highest quality. On this disc, they have put together nearly 80 minutes of the best Purcell tracks yet preserved, all taken from their vast collection of Purcell recordings and all under the direction of the multi-talented Robert King. Each track is a treasure unto itself. The list of soloists reads like a "Who's Who" of great names in Early Music- special mention must go to countertenors Michael Chance and James Bowman, who bring their own inimitable sparkle to solo songs and to the brilliant duet "Sound the Trumpet." There could be no better introduction to Purcell than this disc. It really is the finest recorded Purcell available!

Before listening to this recording, I was skeptical of claims that Henry Purcell was a great composer, much less the greatest composer that England had ever produced. Robert King and the performers on "Essential Purcell" make a fine case for Henry Purcell's worth. I agree with what the music fan from Charlottesville had to say about this CD, and have only a few remarks to add. First, Mr. King's taste in selecting from Purcell's enourmous oeuvre contributes, for me, as much to the value of this CD as the high quality of the individual performances. The included excerpts cover a range of expression than I found astonishing, given my experience with a few previously heard recordings of focused portions of Purcell's work. Second, listeners not familiar with this composer might want to know that Purcell is one of those whose merit is not so much in producing "absolute music" (although he is marvelously creative) as in producing music that empowers narrative content. Some ability to identify with Christian faith, Restoration patriotism, romantic classicism, etc. is needed to appreciate these works to their full extent.

Like in his renditions of Handel's oratorios, Robert King manages to bring a freshness and strenght to Purcell's music that I had seldom heard before. This CD also features some of the best performers of early music in the world. My favourite tracks are Oh, Fair Cedaria, sung by the multi-talented Barbara Bonney; Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, sung by Gillian Fisher; She Loves and she Confesses too, sung by the wonderful Susan Gritton; and Welcome, Welcome Glorious Morn, sung by Rogers Covey-Crump. The only track I didn't find absolutely wonderful is Fairest Isle, sung here by James Bowman. Don't get me wrong, I generally love Mr Bowman, I think that his performance in Mr Purcell's Most Admirable Composures (also conducted by Robert King) makes it another essential Purcell recording; but I find that Fairest Isle was much better done elsewhere, particularly by Christopher Hogwood and Barbara Bonney.

These songs aren't only beautiful, they're also poignant, sweet and unpretentious. I think that it will be very clear to anyone who listens to this recording that Mr Purcell was one of the finest composers that ever lived.

Seriously, whether if you have no idea exactly what kind of composer Purcell was, or only plan to buy only one CD of his music (God forbid!), this record will knock you off, in a very pleasant and surprising way. I don't like to write superlatives, but this CD has unanimously 5 stars with non-ceasing praises, and guess what: it is THAT good. So good that is gives a good case for few of those who believes that Purcell was a greater composer than Handel or even Bach! Just listen to "Vouchsafe, O Lord, To Keep Us This Day" (second last track) and be awed; it is comparable to one of the best of Bach's cantata's single movement. If you truly like good music, you cannot afford to NOT have this CD: you will thank me and other reviewers here later, GUARANTIED.

Have a nice day.

"O Fair Cedaria..." is a gorgeous song and yet this is the only cd recording of this incredible work.
The other song which deserves fame is "The Sparrow and the Gentle Dove." There is so much feeling, emotion and musical development in this song that it really is one my personal favorites. Its interpretation here is beyond beautiful.
If you've never heard these songs be ready to add them to your list of favorite Purcell songs.

Everything with released by "Hyperion" always gets my full attention as this wonderful company always have the highest standards of performance, selection of super-talented artists and the choice of recorded material is literary mind-blowing,it truly changed my life because they seem to avoid commercial direction and obvious paths in favor of lesser known but equally beautiful pieces.In short,if you see "Hyperion" label printed on Cd,go for it.

There is nothing lesser-known about Henri Purcell who,after all is a giant of the whole barque era. His oeuvre is so rich that it would probably take me years to get my head around many different styles he worked in but this CD is a good start for a somebody like me who simply needs some guidance where to start: "Hyperion" has released three series of complete Purcell works and here they presented choice from twenty-five various recordings.

The long and exhausting list of artists here is star-studded: Barbara Bonney, James Bowman, Gillian Fisher, Charles Daniels, Rogers Covey-Crump, Susan Gritton, Mark Padmore... there is something for everybody but I must point at the direction of my beloved Michael Chance who must have been one of my all-time favorite singers in any genre (after all,he is the guy responsible for my "classical bug") and here he shines in a heavenly duet with James Bowman,truly magnificent showpiece for two counter-tenors titled "Sound the trumpet" dating from 1694 royal celebration.

It is such a rich compilation that with repeated listening I am sure to find always different favorites.

The music is fabulous. I wasn't familiar with this artist until I heard him on the radio. Couldn't have bought a better CD.