Customer Reviews

Ode Foe St Cecilia Day

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This is one of Handel's most inspired and invigorating works. Relatively short (50 minutes), it is an ode to music itself, with arias and choruses in praise of the attributes of various instruments, from the "trumpet's loud clangor" to the "soft complaining flute", of course featuring solos for those players. It also has one of Handel's most rousing final choruses, depicting the end of the world, when "music shall untune the sky".
Harnoncourt's is a wonderfully vivid performance. Musical characterization has always been Harnoncourt's strong suit, and it pays dividends here. The playing and singing are first rate, and the recording is excellent. There are a couple of Harnoncourt mannerisms (such as a short final note), but nothing that seriously detracts from a splendid overall experience.

It is really remarkable how modern Harnoncourt's account of this celebratory work sounds even today, over thirty years after its recording. The Concentus musicus Wien was in the forefront of authentic Baroque performances with neat, sprung rhythms in the more propulsive sections and admirably poised dignity in the reflective passages. Individual instrumental lines emerge clearly and allow one to hear, in particular, Harnoncourt's own expressive cello obbligato accompaniment. Vibrato is minimal but the string tone never wheezes or groans.

Dryden's text is enunciated with great precision and clarity by both the Swedish choir and the two superb soloists, Felicity Palmer and the late Anthony Rolfe Johnson. I have always had a weakness for Palmer's juicy (now mezzo) soprano and while I suspect that her rich tone and voluptuous vibrato are hardly authentically 18C she sings with such feeling that I let that pass - and her trills are delicately exquisite for so large a voice. Rolfe Johnson's brilliant, mellifluous tenor makes the most of his solos and exalts even the rather hackneyed "The Trumpet's loud clangor" into something very stirring and jolly; "the double, double, double beat" word-painting accompanied by hard timpani strokes is great fun.

I have owned this version for years, first on LP then on CD and have always returned to it with great pleasure; it is a kind of economical summing up of Handel's virtues in only 50 minutes of music, encompassing martial vigour, plaintive pathos and a kind of moto perpetuo energy.

Handel's Ode to St. Cecilia's Day is a fantastic work. The text - based in Dryden - is really well writen, and Handel shows his genius clearly. Harnoncourt is a eficient maestro; there are no doubt about it (if you have, try to hear him conducting the Concentus musicus Wien in the OP album "Musik am Habsburgischem Kaiserhof", loaded with wonderfull works by Fux and Schmelzer). But this time something is missing. There are the feeling that all musicians and choir are in a hurry to end the music and go quickly home to sip a beer. There are no interaction with the work, they do not understand Handel and do not care. To perform Handel well you must understand the work and love it, or at least like it. Here they are indiferent. I say pass. Save your money and get (quickly) the superior version by Bernstein, still available (Sony Classics) wich are the real Ode to St. Cecilia's Day, performed with full knowledge by NY PO. And remember, with Bernstein you can't go wrong.