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1 LP -
BG 547 - (p) 1954
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| 1 CD -
08 2029 71 - (c) 1994 |
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| Music of Henry
Purcell, Jenkins and Locke |
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- Henry
Purcell - "Secrecie's song"
and "Mystery's song" from "The
Faerie Queene"
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2' 58" |
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A1 |
- Henry Purcell -
Fantasia in D for four viols, 1680
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4' 03" |
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A2 |
- Henry
Purcell - "Here let my Life"
from the Cantata "If ever I more Riches
did desire"
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2' 48" |
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A3 |
| - Henry Purcell -
Prelude, Air and Hornpipe, for harpsichord |
5' 31" |
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A4 |
- Matthew Locke -
Consort of four parts, for viols (Fantasia,
Courante, Ayre, Sarabande)
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9' 30" |
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A5 |
| - Henry Purcell - "Here
the Deities approve" from the Ode "Welcome
to all the Pleasures" |
4' 38" |
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B1 |
| - Henry Purcell - "Since
from my dear Astrea's Sight" from "Dioclesian" |
3' 56" |
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B2 |
| - Henry Purcell -
Suite in D minor for harpsichord (Allemande,
Courante, Hornpipe) |
5' 22" |
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B3 |
| - Henry Purcell -
The Plaint from "The Faerie Queene" |
7' 25" |
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B4 |
| - John Jenkins -
Pavane for four viols (Ms. source, British
Museum) |
6' 04" |
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B5 |
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| Alfred Deller,
counter-tenor |
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| Gustav Leonhardt,
harpsichord |
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Leonhardt
Baroque Ensemble
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Consort
of Viols
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Elizabeth Schaftlein, recorder |
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Eduard Melkus, treble viol
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Gertrude Soukup, recorder |
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Alice Hoffelner, treble viol
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Marie Leonhardt, baroque
violin |
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Nicolaus Harnoncourt, bass viol
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Nicolaus Harnoncourt, baroque
'cello |
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Gustav Leonhardt, bass viol
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Luogo e data
di registrazione
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| Vienna (Austria) - maggio 1954 |
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Registrazione
live / studio
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| studio |
Producer / Engineer
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Seymour Solomon / Franz Plott
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Prima Edizione
CD
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Vanguard "Historical
Anthology" - 08 2029 71 - (1 cd) - 52'
42" (c) 1994 - ADD
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Prima
Edizione LP
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- Vanguard "The Bach Guild" -
BG 547 - (1 lp) - 52' 42" - (p) 1954
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Notes on the program (BG
547)
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The latter half of the
seventeenth century brought important
changes to English music, changes that
were to stifle native expression for
many generations to come. Though
Puritan inhibitions were cast aside
with the accession of Charles II, art,
newly emancipated, yielded to the
extravagance and vanities of a
sovereign who had acquired strong
French leanings. Charles modelled his
court on that of Louis XIV; he
imported foreign musicians, created
his own Vingt-quatre violons du
Roi in which the "vulgar" violin
mingled with the soft-spoken viol, and
introduced lavish entertainments in
the French manner, setting the pattern
for the re-opened public theatres
where respectable old plays were
turned into glorified musical revues.
By the turn of the
century all resistance to the flood of
foreign influence was swept away. The
venerable John Jenkins whose chamber
music for viols had been breatly in
demand for over thirty years, now
wrote sonatas for the violins and
dance suites in the lighter vein. Even
the conservative Matthew Locke, "the
most considerable master of musick
after Jenkins fell off," and composer
of a "magnifick consort of four partes
after the old style which was the last
of the kind made... conformed at
last," says Roger North (Memoirs,
1728), "to the modes of his time...
and composed to the semi-operas divers
pieces of vocall and instrumental
entertainment, with very good
success...". Purcell's youthful
preoccupation with fantasias for viols
(he wrote fifteen of them in from
three to seven parts) twenty years
after Locke's "last," shows how deeply
rooted was this traditional English
form of music-making. Although in
idiom and technique they follow
earlier works of this genre, Purcell's
fantasias are infused with an
intensity of expression that is
obiously by the new style emanating
from Italy. His great dramatic works
were yet to come; in these he stands
alone as the only Englishman whose
creative genius was strong enough to
meet or surpass anything that came
from the continent. Had he lived
beyond his brief thirty-six years, the
story of English music might well have
been different.
The Restoration theatre given a new
lease on life, revived Shakespeare,
and other renowned Elizabethans,
"adapting" them to the taste of the
time. Every opportunity was taken to
make use of song, dance, and the
elaborate machinery of the Parisian
stage. Purcell's Faerie Queene,
based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer
Night's Dreams, is such an
adaptation. It is a masque-like opera
and a complete distortion of the
original play. The anonymous
librettist has rearranged scenes,
invented verses for musical interludes
and generally altered and disfigured
Shakespear's text so that it has
become hardly recognizable. Yet for
such a vehicle Purcell provided some
of the finest and most effective music
he ever wrote for the theatre. The
piece was first produced in 1692. The
wit and charm of the various
spectacular and choreographic episodes
have fascinated modern producers, who
since the rediscovery of the
manuscript in 1903 have mounted a
number of successful revivals in
England, Germany and Belgium. An
interesting re-adaptation on the work
by Constant Lambert in collaboration
with Professor E. J. Dent and others,
was presented with the Sadler's Wells
Ballet at Covent Garden in 1946.
Mystery's Song and Secrecie's Song
appear seccessively in Act II of the Faerie
Queene (Purcell Society Edition,
1903). The former is accompanied by
'cello and harpsichord, the latter by
two recorders and harpsichord. The
Plaint was added to Act V for
the opera's revival in 1693. It is a
song of pathos sung over a chromatic
ground bass with a beautiful obbligato
line for violin - a miracle of
sustained expression.
Of the four Purcell Odes
written for St. Cecilia's Day, the
earliest and one of the best is Welcome
to all the Pleasures (1683). In
the song Here the Deities approve
which follows the first chorus, a
three measure ground, played eighteen
times, provides a bass for the air as
well as for the long instrumental
postlude. An arrangement of the song
appeared in the second part of Musick's
Handmaid (1689) under the title
of "A New Ground."
Though the harpsichord solo pieces of
Purcell are not among his important
work they are nevertheless
characteristic and individual. The
most interesting are the little Suites
published posthumously by Mrs. Purcell
with a dedication to Princess Anne and
entitled "A Choice Collection of
Lessons for the Harpsichord or
Spinnet," London, 1696.
The air Here let my Life comes
from the chamber cantata If ever I
more Riches did desire. It is
scired for violins with a continuo and
is a beatiful example of the aptness
of text and music. Since from my
Dear Astrea's Sight was
apparently written for the revival of
the opera The Prophetess, or
the History of Dioclesian, in
1691 or 1692 and seems to have been
intended for inclusion in the last
act.
Sydney
Beck, Music Division, New York,
Public Library
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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