Listening to Breakfast (part of the Lenten Penance) this morning I was dismayed by what The Gabrieli Consort and Players did to one of my favourite anthems. Purcell's My Beloved Spake is wonderful quirky and full of unusual imagery, BUT despite the highly skilled singers and players on this performance the sum was much less than the parts. For a start it was all very fast. That's a matter of opinion of course, but beyond a certain speed phrasing and expressiveness fly out of the window. It was as if the dots had been fed into a synthesiser and spewed out again. Was Paul McCreesh having an off day? Or was he trying to squeeze it onto an already full CD?
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