BaL 27.10.18 - Purcell: King Arthur

[MickyD]

I think it's a great shame that with so many other superb Purcell theatre music recordings to his name, Christopher Hogwood never recorded King Arthur. For me, he was always spot on with Purcell.

[Master Jacques]

Agreed 100% on Hogwood. There is at least a gorgeous Academy of Ancient Music recording of "Fairest Isle", with CH conducting Sylvia McNair as part of her classy Purcell recital, but I'm not sure we've anything else from King Arthur to remember him by.

[MickyD]

Agreed 100% on Hogwood. There is at least a gorgeous Academy of Ancient Music recording of "Fairest Isle", with CH conducting Sylvia McNair as part of her classy Purcell recital, but I'm not sure we've anything else from King Arthur to remember him by.

Thanks, I'd quite forgotten that disc, even though it is in my shelves somewhere! Must dig it out and give it another listen.

[ardcarp]

For me, this was a BaL of missed opportunities. Although Dr. Gibson did give us a fair whistle-stop tour of the score (and a glimpse of some wacky approaches to it) I can't help wondering if her academic sobriety, and the sense that she was reading straight from the written page, can have inspired much interest in Purcell's great masterpiece from newcomers. Having known and loved the work for more years than I care to remember, I stand happily open to correction on that point, of course!

Yet more seriously, the review avoided any contact with Dryden and Purcell's musico-dramatic politics, which - especially these days - remain the elephant in the room. As it was, the impression given was of a trivial piece with some nice, fairly incidental music: to describe the Act V Masque as a "rag bag of songs" betrayed a disconcerting failure to explore King Arthur's deep power as national music theatre - or how the various recordings reflect that.

I felt rather the same. However, I'n glad she played a bit of the Lewis version, even if it doesn't really pass muster as one for repeated listening. It's hard to remember that as late as the 1960s Baroque opera was thought of as 'unstageable', so Anthony Lewis deserves credit for staging several of Handel's operas, often with star casts (Maureen Lehane, Janet Baker to name but two.)

https://www.birminghampost.co.uk/whats-on/theatre/barber-institute-breathes-new-life-3940317

[BBMmk2]

I must admit I haven’t many recordings by William Christie. So this would make a welcome to my collection.

[MickyD]

I must admit I haven’t many recordings by William Christie. So this would make a welcome to my collection.

The extract of the Frost scene in Christie's recording seemed far too slow for my taste. I'm still very happy with the Gardiner.

[Master Jacques]

The extract of the Frost scene in Christie's recording seemed far too slow for my taste. I'm still very happy with the Gardiner.

I agree that Christie perhaps overdoes it with the Cold Genius's number. There's no marking to go by in the original score (Purcell assumed performers would know what to do with repeated quavers in common time) but when as here the "slowness" is written into the music, to take an ostentatiously slow tempo risks over-egging the pudding.

I was equally surprised to hear the reviewer's assurance that Pinnock was "too fast" in this number, and that the bass soloist sings flat: shivering with cold is not necessarily a glacially slow business, and most opera-lovers will appreciate the way that Brian Bannatyne-Scott starts under the note and gradually gears his way up to pitch - that's clever characterisation, not a mistake.

Come to think of it, this is a precise example of what I meant by the limitations of the "academic" approach to BaL, when a detail coming from a performer's imagination is dismissed as merely "wrong". We might disagree with it, but Messrs. Pinnock and Scott knew what they were doing.

[BBMmk2]

So I won’t go wrong with the Gardiner, then?

[Master Jacques]

So I won’t go wrong with the Gardiner, then?

You can't go really wrong with any of the "big three" HIP contenders (if I can put it that way). Their virtues are complementary, though none of them are perfect. Gardiner and Christie favour faster tempi, Christie - as with the Frost Scene - being more prone to extremes at both ends of the spectrum. His performance sounds a mite more natural and spontaneous, though some of his cast don't use the text with such precision as Gardiner's. Neither have any singers who "let the side down".

Pinnock stands between the two, with more relaxed tempi and unfailing musical intelligence where balance and detail are concerned. His set is not without its mini-aberrations (notably that "Ambridge Choir" for the haymakers' song!) but his direction and the English Consort's playing is most naturally focused on Purcell's extraordinary invention, without the sense of "point-making" which occasionally marks his competitors.

As you will gather, in a balloon debate (or indeed BaL!) I'd have to choose Pinnock, with strong regrets at loosing the other two - not to mention Heather Harper, Wilfred Brown et al. on the old Lewis set, which is still eminently worth listening to.

[BBMmk2]

You can't go really wrong with any of the "big three" HIP contenders (if I can put it that way). Their virtues are complementary, though none of them are perfect. Gardiner and Christie favour faster tempi, Christie - as with the Frost Scene - being more prone to extremes at both ends of the spectrum. His performance sounds a mite more natural and spontaneous, though some of his cast don't use the text with such precision as Gardiner's. Neither have any singers who "let the side down

Pinnock stands between the two, with more relaxed tempi and unfailing musical intelligence where balance and detail are concerned. His set is not without its mini-aberrations (notably that "Ambridge Choir" for the haymakers' song!) but his direction and the English Consort's playing is most naturally focused on Purcell's extraordinary invention, without the sense of "point-making" which occasionally marks his competitors.

As you will gather, in a balloon debate (or indeed BaL!) I'd have to choose Pinnock, with strong regrets at loosing the other two - not to mention Heather Harper, Wilfred Brown et al. on the old Lewis set, which is still eminently worth listening to.

I’d get all three, in that case!

[MickyD]

So I won’t go wrong with the Gardiner, then?

For me, it's a set I'm very happy to live with. But I still feel sad about the fact that Hogwood never gave it a go.

[teamsaint]

The Gabrieli Consort is new since this BaL went out. . Thoughts? I have just lined it up for a listen.