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Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
The Purcell Album
Alfred Deller & Consort
Recording details not supplied
ALTO ALC1402 [79:20]

This is a single-disc repackaging of selections from a 6-CD Vanguard set of Alfred Deller’s magisterial recordings of Henry Purcell. Experienced listeners will know these performances backwards and forwards. For newcomers to these recordings, it is worth emphasizing just how good Deller and his merry band of early musicians were. When Deller (1912-1979) began his solo career in the late 1940s, early music was a field rife with weak performers hard-pressed to play or sing in tune, let alone turn in stylish renditions of this wonderful repertoire. Although his discs are often criticized by modern listeners who perceive a lack of true musicological zeal in his performance style (“We know better now!”), the reality is that there are few current specialists who sing with such affection for the music, or with such a potent sense of discovery. Deller was nothing short of a magician, capable of shading every word, of finding every possible nuance in the score. Every work seemed like a masterpiece in his hands.

This Purcell compilation provides significant evidence of Deller’s abilities as a singer and conductor. Listen to the third track, “Sweeter than Roses.” Each word is comprehensible and shaped. Deller’s countertenor has great body and color, somehow sounding masculine and unearthly at the same time. His rubato is pronounced, speeding or slowing to underline the meaning of the text; Deller is not afraid to rush or to drag in pursuit of the correct affect. In the initial section, his phrasing luxuriates in sensuousness; it is very slow, but in the moment, does not seem torpid or underpowered due to his spinning, forward-moving voice. The highlights of the CD for me are the Deller songs which open the disc, the poignant Dido of soprano Mary Thomas, and the concluding Come Ye Sons of Art performed by Deller with his son Mark and other members of the consort.

Alto’s booklet notes and packaging are awful. The notes are a mishmash of seemingly random quotations from various sources about Purcell and the scores in question. Imagine a college undergraduate gleefully copying and pasting material screenshotted from Google Books with the barest possible attribution, and you will have some idea of the quality of the notes. These snippets are in fact cannibalized chunks of the original LP liner notes placed end-to-end to match the playing order chosen by Alto. No attempt was made to remove repetitive material (we learn a number of times that Purcell was an important English composer, that he died young, and that as a child he was a member of the Chapel Royal) or to give the notes any sort of narrative shape.

More serious is the total absence of information about the performers. According to the booklet, only two performers were involved in the making of this disc: Alfred Deller, and “Consort.” No mention is made of the harpsichordists Walter Bergman or Gustav Leonhardt, of conductor Michael Tippett, of Robert Tear and Mary Thomas, the Oriana Concert Choir, or of any of the many other individuals who shared their talents to create these legendary recordings. In order to provide the incomplete listing seen in the header above, I was forced to visit ArkivMusic.com and pull as many names as I could from their listing for the original Vanguard recordings. This lack of credit for the performers is shameful (Ed. - Alto has contacted us to say that a pdf of the full list of performers will soon be available on their website).

Alto performs a great service by making many significant classical recordings available to the public at rock-bottom budget prices. They should take their own cultural contribution seriously and make an effort to credit all of the performers. They should also edit their notes, or not provide them at all.

Richard Masters


Contents & performers
Music for a while (Oedipus)
Fairest Isle, all isles excelling (King Arthur)
Sweeter than roses (Pausanias)
I attempt from love’s sickness to fly (The Indian Queen)
If Music be the Food of Love – 1^st version
Here the Deities Approve - Welcome to All the Pleasures* (Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day) [4:39]
Rejoice in the Lord Allway, “Bell Anthem”
Mystery’s Song – Secrecy’s Song – Epithalamium: Thrice Happy Lovers – The Plaint (The Fairy-Queen)
Overture – Fear no danger to ensue – Thy hand, Belinda…When I am laid in earth (Dido and Aeneas)
Ouverture (Sinfonia) – My Beloved Spake – My Beloved is Mine (My Beloved Spake)
The Fife and all the Harmony of War – Hail! Bright Cecilia (Hail! Bright Cecilia)
Sound the Trumpet – Come, Come Ye Sons of Art – Strike the Viol – See Nature Rejoicing (Come Ye Sons of Art)
Alfred Deller (countertenor and conductor)
Walter Bergman (harpsichord)
Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord)
Ellen Dales (soprano)
Anne Shuttleworth (cello)
Denis Vaughan (harpsichord)
George Eskdale (trumpet)
John Frost (bass)
Wilfred Brown (tenor)
Robert Tear (tenor)
April Cantelo (soprano)
Peter Salmon (countertenor)
Maurice Bevan (baritone)
Francis Baines (cello)
Michael Tippett (conductor)
The Deller Consort
Oriana Concert Orchestra
Oriana Concert Choir
Ambrosian Singers
Kalmar Chamber Orchestra London