Reinvigorated Purcell

Portrait of Henry Purcell, engraved by Robert White after John Closterman, from the second edition of Orpheus Britannicus, London: William Pearson 1706

As a great admirer of the early music, I spent most of my life collecting different interpretations of various works, following the careers of great musician and indulging myself in my own personal quest for discovery of a yet-another-new-gem in this field. I consider early music to be my great inspiration, spiritual and intellectual food, from time to time even part of my life saving gear and one of the highest sources of pleasure, for sure. In the past few months I was focused again on the late Stuart period, which, naturally, brought to my attention the beautiful work of Henry Purcell. It is remarkable how the top world musicians are able to reinvigorate the well known oeuvre of maestro Purcell. It was very hard to choose few from the great list of excellent interpretations for this post, here are some of them. The first one is Strike the Viol (from Come Ye Sons of Art, Z. 323, also known as Ode for Queen Mary's birthday), interpreted by Tim Mead and Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, guided by François Lazarevitch’s virtuoso flute. What can I say? A real explosion of emotions, highly cultivated execution, joy, joy, a pure joy! The next two musical pieces are Crown the altar and April who till now has mourn'd (from Celebrate this festival [Birthday Ode for Queen Mary], Z. 321), interpreted by Daniel Elgersma, Vox Luminis et al. In the case of these interpretations I was immediately captivated by the intimate, clear, precise, poetic and charming interpretation of both the countertenor and the ensemble. You can enjoy the entire concert here. The last but not least for today’s post is probably one of the best interpretations of Sound the Trumpet (from Come Ye Sons of Art, Z. 323) by Alison Balsom, Iestyn Davies and The English Concert under the guidance of Trevor Pinnock (the review by James Manheim of the album Sound the Trumpet: Royal Music of Purcell & Handel; Alison Balsom / Trevor Pinnock / The English Concert, here). It illustrates quite well one of the pinnacles of the glorious days of English Baroque music. There are many more great interpretations of Purcell’s works; I will leave them for some other future posts.