Writing just as the 350
th anniversary year of Purcell’s
birth has faltered to its end this recording of a large portion
of the master’s keyboard music serves as a reminder of
his greatness in an area which has been somewhat overlooked in
favour of the vocal works. Warner originally produced this disc
in 1995. It has been re-issued now as part of the Purcell jamboree
but, rather hopelessly, without any booklet notes - presumably
to keep the price down.
I am still the proud possessor of the L’Oiseau Lyre LP
originally recorded in 1953 of the Suites only, as recorded by
the Swiss harpsichordist who died in 1976, Isabelle Nef. She
was the first to record all eight, and I have an almost equally
aged edition of the music edited by Richard Aldrich in the Early
Keyboard Music series published by Kalmus. That edition is replete
with curious dynamics, phrasings and even pedal markings. I would
love to know, as I have often remarked on these pages, which
edition is used here by Baumont but we are not informed.
The Suites and other keyboard works were published posthumously
by Mrs. Purcell in 1696 in ‘A Choice Collection of Lessons
for the Harpsichord and Spinnet’. It was Nef who was almost
the first to rescue the suites from oblivion using a harpsichord.
In many ways I still admire and enjoy what she did. For example,
unlike Nef, Baumont in the facile 1
st Suite takes
the fourth movement, a Minuet, at such a pace that its grace
and ease are quite lost. My printed edition of the 2
nd Suite
which here ends with a Sarabande also includes a Chaconne and
Sicilliano movements which never feature in the other suites.
The 5
th Suite, recorded here, ends, curiously with
a Jig substituted from Blow and Purcell’s collection ‘Musick’s
Handmaid’ of 1687.
The pattern is of a three (in Suite 3), four (in Suites 1 and
2 for example) or five movement suite (as in No 5). The CD has
kept them a suitable distance apart by interposing other dances
and ayres, and grounds. The dances tend to be preceded by a fleet-fingered
Prelude, some pre-figuring Handel, as in Suite No 5, then an
Almand. Later there could be a Hornpipe (as in the last three
suites) certainly a Courante and possibly a Saraband. The 2
nd Suite
is compositionally streets in advance of the 1
st and
has a very French touch with its dotted rhythms and un-English
melodic lines. Baumont quite rightly, often employs ‘notes-inégales’ even
when three or four equal quavers/semi-quavers are indicated in
the score. After all it had been just a few years before that
Pelham Humphrey (1647-1674) had returned from France full of
the ‘new-fangled’ musical fashions much enjoyed by
the court.
The Grounds which Purcell especially favoured in all genres of
composition are really sets of variations upon a repeated bass
pattern. The Right-hand can often become quite syncopated. It
is this rhythmic flexibility which can often surprise students
of these pieces and this ‘jazzy’ mood is especially
audible in the Courant from the 3
rd and 6
th Suites
as well as in the opening track ‘A New Ground’. The ‘Round-O’ piece
is from the Incidental music composed in 1695 for a revival of
Aphra Behn’s play ‘Abdenelnazar’ and is usually
known as a Hornpipe being the melody used by Britten as the theme
for his ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’.
The differences between past and present harpsichordists are
well exemplified by the 4
th Suite. If I may use Nef
as an example, there are the ‘notes-inégales’ which
Nef never employs. The Preludes in her hands are rigid in tempo
with none of Baumont’s rubato. His tempi are in general
faster as in the Courante movement but in the Sarabande she,
being much slower is more sensitive, delicate and changes the
registration beautifully. The only other version I have heard
is by Kenneth Gilbert on Harmonia Mundi (1994) but his tempo
can be even more breathless.
Baumont uses a Jacob Kirckman harpsichord for the suites which
was made in London in 1752 which has an especially strong bass
but seems to have no or little tonal variety and a Virginal of
1664 made by Robert Hatley. In fact the disc does not start well,
unless my ears deceive me as the opening track mentioned above
finds this instrument somewhat compromised in its tuning. After
that, things settle down. The instruments are from the Benton
Early keyboard collection at Fenton House a National Trust property.
This then is a very useful collection, serviceable and recorded
in a forward and realistic acoustic. The music is neatly played
and the disc has a fairly generous playing time.
Gary Higginson
Track-listing
1 A New Ground [2.14]
2-5 Suite No. 1 [2.54]
6. A New Scotch Tune [1.01]
7. A New Irish Tune [0.52]
8-11 Suite No. 2 [7.14]
12. Ground in Gamut [1.28]
13-15. Suite No. 3 [5.20]
16. Air [1.11]
17. Hornpipe [0.51]
18-21. Suite No 4 [5.38]
22. Ground [3.02]
23-27. Suite No. 5 [6.09]
28. March [1.00]
29. Minuet [1.05]
30-32. Suite No 6 [4.29]
33. Ground [1.52]
34-37. Suite No. 7 [6.17]
38. Air [1.32]
39. Round-O [1.17]
40-43. Suite No. 8 [5.39]
44. Sefauchi’s Farewell [2.22]
Olivier Baumont (harpsichord/virginal) 
