- Audio CD (Sep 1 1998)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Harmonia Mundi Canada
- ASIN: B000002ZDU
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#40,423 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
- #6 in Music > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Odes
- #9 in Music > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Bonney, Barbara
- #42 in Music > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Anthems
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Product Details |
Track Listings
| 1. Complete Odes And Welcome Songs Vol. 5: Welcome, Welcome Glorious Morn. Symphony And Opening Chorus |
| 2. Complete Odes And Welcome Songs Vol. 3: Be Welcome Then, Great Sir |
| 3. Complete Secular Solo Songs Vol.1: Oh, Fair Cedaria |
| 4. The Choir Of The King's Consort: Hear My Prayer, O Lord |
| 5. Great Baroque Arias: When I Am Laid In Earth ('Dido's Lament') |
| 6. Complete Anthems And Services Vol.1: Let Mine Eyes Run Down With Tears (Part 1) |
| 7. Complete Odes And Welcome Songs Vol.4: The Sparrow And The Gentle Dove |
| 8. Complete Secular Solo Songs Vol.1: If Music Be The Food Of Love (First Setting) |
| 9. Complete Anthems And Services Vol.5: Rejoice In The Lord Always ('The Bell Anthem') |
| 10. Complete Anthems And Services Vol.3: Hosanna To The Highest |
| 11. Complete Anthems And Services Vol.7: Thou Knowest, Lord, The Secrets Of Our Hearts |
| 12. Mr. Henry Purcell's Most Admirable Composures: Fairest Isle, All Isles Excelling |
| 13. Complete Odes And Welcome Songs Vol.6: Mark, How Readily Each Pliant String |
| 14. Complete Odes And Welcome Songs Vol.8: Sound The Trumpet |
| 15. Complete Secular Solo Songs Vol.3: She Loves And She Confesses Too |
| 16. Complete Odes And Welcome Songs Vol.8: O How Blest Is The Isle |
| 17. Complete Anthems And Services Vol.3: Remember Not, Lord, Our Offences |
| 18. Complete Anthems And Services Vol. 11: An Evening Hymn |
| 19. Complete Church Music Vol.2: Vouchsafe, O Lord, To Keep Us This Day |
| 20. Complete Odes And Welcome Songs Vol.2: With Rapture Of Delight... Hail Bright Cecilia |
Product Description
From Amazon.co.uk
The "Essential" Purcell? Well, you could get a bunch of critics to argue about that for a few days, but in the meantime, here is a sampler of highlights from the King's Consort's three admirable Purcell series: the Complete Odes and Welcome Songs, Complete Anthems and Services, and Complete Secular Solo Songs. There are, of course, some of Purcell's most-performed pieces (which probably are "essential"): Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, "Sound the trumpet" from Come, ye sons of Art, Rejoice in the Lord always (the "Bell Anthem," named for the string figure at the opening that sounds like pealing bells), the gently patriotic "Fairest isle, all isles excelling" (sung by a miscast James Bowman), and a selection from the funeral music for Queen Mary. There are also some delightful surprises--particularly among the little-known secular songs and church music. The plaintive "O fair Cedaria" gets a lovely performance by Barbara Bonney (a singer not usually associated with Purcell); tenor Rogers Covey-Crump (possibly the ideal high tenor for Purcell) sings the enchanting "If music be the food of love"; the church anthems "Let mine eyes run down with tears" and "Remember not, O Lord, our offences" have some startling harmonies as daring as any Monteverdi ever wrote. If you're unfamiliar with Purcell, this reasonably priced disc is a good place to start exploring without a big initial investment. --Matthew Westphal
Amazon.com essential recording
The "Essential" Purcell? Well, you could get a bunch of critics to argue about that for a few days, but in the meantime, here is a sampler of highlights from the King's Consort's three admirable Purcell series: the Complete Odes and Welcome Songs, Complete Anthems and Services, and Complete Secular Solo Songs. There are, of course, some of Purcell's most-performed pieces (which probably are "essential"): Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, "Sound the trumpet" from Come, ye sons of Art, Rejoice in the Lord alway (the "Bell Anthem," named for the string figure at the opening that sounds like pealing bells), the gently patriotic "Fairest isle, all isles excelling" (sung by a miscast James Bowman), and a selection from the funeral music for Queen Mary. There are also some delightful surprises--particularly among the little-known secular songs and church music. The plaintive "O fair Cedaria" gets a lovely performance by Barbara Bonney (a singer not usually associated with Purcell); tenor Rogers Covey-Crump (possibly the ideal high tenor for Purcell) sings the enchanting "If music be the food of love"; the church anthems "Let mine eyes run down with tears" and "Remember not, O Lord, our offences" have some startling harmonies as daring as any Monteverdi ever wrote. If you're unfamiliar with Purcell, this reasonably priced disc is a good place to start exploring without a big initial investment. --Matthew Westphal
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The beauty of the songs brings tears to my eyes,
By
This review is from: PURCELL. Essential Purcell. King's Consort/King (Audio CD)
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!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant,
This review is from: PURCELL. Essential Purcell. King's Consort/King (Audio CD)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Be Welcome then, great Sirs (and Mesdames).,
This review is from: PURCELL. Essential Purcell. King's Consort/King (Audio CD)
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.
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