Customer Reviews

Purcell: Complete Chamber Music

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent seven-CD set. With substantial box-sets like this which are very reasonably priced, there is always a slight worry in my mind that the performances will be a bit substandard. That was a misplaced worry with this set. Pieter-Jan Belder has recently completed a very good recording of Scarlatti's Sonatas for Brilliant Classics, Scarlatti Complete Keyboard Sonatas (Box)and he and Musica Amphion here do Purcell proud, too.

The music itself is delightful. You get the Sonatas Of Three- and Four-Parts, the Fantazias and In Nomines, three discs of harpsichord music and one of miscellaneous chamber music. All of it displays Purcell's melodic gift and inventive harmony and there's nothing in any of the seven discs that smacks of filler; it's a treasure trove of great music which will give you pleasure for many years.

The performances, too, are very good. I have the excellent London Baroque discs of the Sonatas, and I think these stand up very well beside them. Belder's harpsichord playing is very fine on the solo works. The Fantazias and In Nomines are also very well played by the ensemble. They play on violins, violas and violas da gamba rather than viols, and I miss the wonderful sound on Fretwork's superb disc of these pieces Purcell the Complete Fantazias & in Nomines, but the playing is excellent and, on these instruments, I have no complaint about the performance whatever.

In short, it's a gem of a set and truly excellent value. This will make a fitting tribute for Purcell's 350th anniversary year in 2009, and I recommend it very highly.

Purcell is simply my favorite composer - he has inventiveness, depth and poignancy. What luck to finally happen upon this set. These are among the rare CDs in my collection that don't disturb my concentration when working, but that also stand up to intensive listening. Parts of some performances bring tears, others make me listen for how the ornaments are executed - and all are done impeccably. My favorite Purcell is probably the short but seminal individual movements of his keyboard suites, on disc 6, in part because those are the ones I can attempt to play myself on the piano. And by the way, the stress is on the first syllable: 'Purcell, not Pur'cell - it took a while to retrain myself on this. Highly recommended: six stars.

I have an enormous amount of affection for this anthlogy. The music is quintessential Purcell- ingeneous, straight-forward, the show tune king of his day. This is a seven disc set. The first four discs are performed by Musica Antiphon, one of several European H.I.P. ensembles who seem to draw personnel from the same pool. This particular group empressed me earlier with a performance of the Telemann Tafelmusik which was far more spirited and fun than the benchmark perfomance by Musica Antiqua Koln. That same sense of fun is present here as well. The final three discs are harpsichord (and a little organ) pieces played by Pieter-Jan Belder. His performances are pleasant and musical as well. It is nice to hear music in these discs (instead of a prissy HIP seminar). My only qualm about this set is that the final discs are short in duration

If you have read reviews of collections from Brilliant, you'll know that they are remarkably bad at packaging their CDs. Actually, the sleeves are fine - they just cannot get them in the box properly.

I rolled the dice once too often and this one came without a disk #5. (I have an extra Haydn Symphonies Disk #26, if you are missing yours.)

No word from the company - you get what you get.

I love the music and Brilliant has done some wonderful things - my CD collection rocks because of them. But "buyer beware"!

These are very well recorded and thoughtful performances. I cannot believe how inexpensive they are. The musicians play in many world famous orchestras. This is music easy to live with.