Purcell - Divine Hymns (Harmonia Sacra) / Les Arts Florissants, Christie

Purcell - Divine Hymns (Harmonia Sacra) / Les Arts Florissants, Christie

Purcell - Divine Hymns (Harmonia Sacra) / Les Arts Florissants, Christie
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Brand: LES ARTS FLORISSANTS
Composer: Henry Purcell
Conductor: William Christie
Orchestra: Les Arts Florissants
Performer: Paul Agnew
Performer: Thomas Michael Allen
Performer: Claire Debono
Performer: Hannah Morrison
Performer: Konstantin Wolff
Performer: Elizabeth Kenny
Performer: Anne-Mrie Lasla
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-09-25
Music Label: Virgin Classics
Soundtracks:
  1. Jehova, Quam Multi Sunt Hostes Mei
  2. What Art Thou? (A Hymn On Divine Musick)
  3. Lord, What Is Man (A Divine Hymn)
  4. Hosanna To the Highest
  5. Tell Me, Some Pitying Angel (The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation)
  6. Since God So Tender a Regard
  7. Funeral Sentences: In the Midst Of Life We Are In Death/Thou Know'st, Lord, the Secrets Of Our Hearts
  8. Peaceful Is He, And Mose Secure
  9. Lord! I Have Sinned
  10. O All Ye People, Clap Your Hands
  11. In Guilty Night ('Saul And the Witch Of Endor')
  12. The Night Is Come (An Evening Hymn)
  13. Close Thine Eyes And Sleep Secure ('Upon a Quiet Conscience')
  14. Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin (A Hymn To God the Father)
  15. Now That the Sun Hath Veil'd His Light (An Evening Hymn)
  16. Salvator Mundi

Free Music Notes for Purcell - Divine Hymns (Harmonia Sacra) / Les Arts Florissants, Christie

Free Music Review: From Plaintive to Plangent by Way of Penitent
Hit: 5 Stars

There was little or no joy in England between 1620 and 1720, between the lusty Elizabethans and the gorgeous Georgians. There wasn't much occasion for joy, we ought to note, what with the wars of religion, regicide, unprecedented class struggle, suppression of the various Celtic fringes, etc, plus the ascendancy of a religious dogma - Calvinism - that regarded earthly happiness with disdain. My assessment is based chiefly on music. 17th Century English music scarcely rivaled the emotional magnificence of Italy (Scarlatti, Carissimi, Caldara) or France (Lully and Co.) or Germany ( Schuetz, Rosenmuller, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Schmelzer, Biber...). Even the jigs and hornpipes of not-so-jolly England were composed in minor modes, and melancholy tinged the masques of the mighty.

The texts of these 16 "Divine Hymns" by English composers of the 17th C are chiefly lamentations and pleas for mercy. The sense of sinful unworthiness is overwhelming. Here's # 9, by Pelham Humfrey:
Lord, I have sinned, and the black number
Swells to such a dismal sum,
That should my stony heart, and eyes,
And this whole sinful trunk a flood become,
And run to tears, their drops could not suffice
To count my score, much less to pay...
And the music is equally plangent, nearly always in minor keys with tempi ranging from stately to funereal. Even Henry Purcell's "O All Ye People, Clap Your Hands" avoids any imputation of the sin of exuberance.

Nevertheless, this is a performance of rare delicacy and artifice -- a clouded beauty, like the poems of John Milton, but a concert you'll want to listen to again and again. William Christie has assembled a troop of English singers to mask as Les Arts Florissants, with the desirable result of making the diction fit the music perfectly. He accompanies them with a basso continuo of theorbo, viola da gamba, and harpsichord. These are Baroque cantatas, in short, dressed up in Puritan sobriety. The composers are Henry Purcell, John Blow, William Croft, and Pelham Humfrey, with Purcell accounting for ten of the sixteen pieces. The longest single piece is Purcell's "In Guilty Night", a ten-minute dramatic oratorio depicting the meeting of King Saul with the Witch of Endor and the ghost of Samuel. It's a powerfully emotive scene.

I think this is a CD worth risking my credibility on: a must-hear performance. After all, if Bill Christie is ready to risk his credibility on music by Pelham Humfrey, who am I to hesitate?
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Purcell - Divine Hymns (Harmonia Sacra) / Les Arts Florissants, Christie Poster

William Christie's New Recording on Virgin Classics is a Programme of English Sacred Works Drawn Largely from the Two Volumes of Playford's Harmonia Sacra, Or Divine Hymns and Dialogues (1688/1693). The Published Pieces Are Mostly by Purcell and his Friend and Teacher John Blow, and it is Purcell who Dominates Here, with Some of his Most Ravishing Sacred Songs, Including "Tell Me, Some Pitying Angel" (The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation), the Dramatic Scena "in Guilty Night", Describing Saulšs Fateful Visit to the Witch of Endor, One of the Early Funeral Sentences, and the Exquisite "Evening Hymn". Blow is Represented by Two Settings, "Peaceful is He and Most Secure" and the Antiphon "Salvator Mundi". The Programme also Includes Works by Pelham Humfrey, with Whom Purcell Studied, and William Croft, Like Purcell Organist of the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey.

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