Notes and Editorial Reviews
Love’s Goddess Sure was Blind, written in exuberant and florid style for the birthday of the much loved young Queen Mary ends, extraordinarily, with a reflection on the grief her eventual death would provoke. It was less than six years later that the prophesied mourning became a reality, when, in her early thirties, she succumbed to smallpox.
Purcell’s eloquent compositions for her funeral are acknowledged as some of his most powerful masterpieces marrying a genuine of expression of grief (Purcell greatly admired the witty, musical Mary) with a characteristic sophistication of style.
R E V I E W S
“This magnificent contribution...breaks new ground in scholarship, matching it with performances of the
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highest order...the elegy O Dive Custos, with the astonishingly boy-like voices of Libby Crabtree and Carys Lane, is the unforgettable high point in this superb tribute to Purcell and his Queen.”
-- BBC Music Magazine
"This beautifully recorded disc will satisfy any yearning you might have for Purcell. It's a fine cross-section of his religious music, covering 15 years of composition—and weakish solo singers aside, there's a great deal to enjoy here. The instrumental playing—catch those bass violins—is great."
-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com
Even listeners who already have recordings by Robert King, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Leonhardt, or David Munrow of some of this music, will want to hear this innovative, as well as elegantly beautiful, recording. The Sixteen is England’s premier small choir, with a repertoire of early and contemporary music, and a distinguished recorded output. For this disc of music, mostly by Purcell, all associated with Queen Mary, conductor Harry Christophers has attempted to recreate as accurately as possible the complete funeral music as played after the death of the Queen. For that event, as annotator Bruce Wood says, and seems to have discovered, Purcell wrote the now famous Thou knowest, Lord “to replace a lost movement in an otherwise complete setting of the service by Thomas Morley—a dignified Tudor work, whose use at English state funerals had become traditional.” Purcell was an admirable showman: his use of modern harmonies in Thou knowest Lord, the accompaniment by organ and by four slide trumpets, provided a stirring contrast to the relative sobriety of Morley. In this recording, one can hear that contrast. The funeral service begins with a series of marches by James Paisible, Purcell, and Thomas Tollett, which were played over an insistent drum pattern as the casket was wheeled in. Christophers includes those marches, and the pieces by Morley that followed. The body was actually interred to the Canzona for trumpets recorded here with tympani providing sober punctuation.
There is much more on this generously programmed disc, including a fine performance of the absurdly laudatory ode (which is the title of the disc), Love’s goddess sure was blind. Less familiar are the two Latin motets with which the disc opens, and the Funeral Sentences, including the wonderfully grim Man that is born of woman. Was it the Purcell setting of In the midst of life we are in death that inspired James Joyce to set Leopold Bloom musing? (His version is, as I remember it, “In the midst of death we are in life.”) It has a repeated ascending passage in which the choir sings more and more anxiously about their Lord “who for our sins are justly displeased.” The mild celebration of the next verse, in which this Lord is called “most merciful” gives way to a repeat of that bitter ascension. This is a marvelous short work, as is the elegy, O Dive Custos, exquisitely sung here as a duet between sopranos Libby Crabtree and Carys Lane. Mostly funeral, or merely funereal, music, this program contains some of the most gorgeously inventive music Purcell wrote, and it is performed by players and singers who are as musical as they are scholarly.
-- Michael Ullman, Fanfare
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Works on This Recording
1.
Jehova, quam multi sunt, Z 135 by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1680; England
2.
Miserere mei, Z 109 by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: 17th Century; England
3.
Man that is born of a woman, Z 27 by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: circa 1680-1682; England
4.
In the midst of life, Z 17 by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1682; England
5.
Incassum, Lesbia, rogas, Z 383 "Queen's Epicedium" by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1695; England
6.
Love's goddess sure was blind, Z 331 by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: 1692; England
7.
O dive custos Auriacae domus, Z 504 "Elegy for Queen Mary II" by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: by 1695; England
8.
The Queen's Farewell by James Paisible
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: 1695; England
9.
March and Canzona in C minor, Z 860: March by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: 1692; England
10.
The Queen's farewell by Thomas Tollett
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: England
11.
I am the resurrection by Thomas Morley
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Renaissance
Written: 16th Century; England
Notes: This complete performance of 'I am the resurrection' includes "I know that my Redeemer liveth," "We brought nothing into this world," "Man that is born of a woman," "In the midst of life," and "I heard a voice from Heaven."
12.
March and Canzona in C minor, Z 860: Canzona by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: 1692; England
13.
I heard a voice from heaven by Thomas Morley
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: 16th Century; England
14.
Thou know'st, Lord, the secrets of our hearts, Z 58c by Henry Purcell
Conductor:
Harry Christophers
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Sixteen,
The Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Period: Baroque
Written: 1695; England
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