Don’t confuse this package with the super-budget 2-CD set
of the same title recorded by King’s College, Cambridge,
which John France recently recommended as
great value; that set includes some Purcell, but also spreads
its net much more widely.
I imagine that there will be two categories of potential purchasers
for this DVD/CD combination: those who know Purcell’s music
quite well or very well but who wish to see the film, and those
who regard it as a sampler and, it is to be hoped, a springboard
for exploring the music further. In fact, the DVD and CD appear
to be available separately, but each at a price not much less
than that of the combined package.
I missed the Channel 4 programme when it was broadcast in 1995
to celebrate the tercentenary of Purcell’s death, so I
was pleased when Warner reissued it to celebrate the 350th anniversary
of his death. In the event, I really don’t know what to
make of it. The lack of biographical information led Tony Palmer
to concentrate on the events which formed the backdrop to Purcell’s
life. So far so good - a very reasonable decision and the chapter
headings look very promising, with titles such as ‘Restoration’, ‘Plague’, ‘Fire
of London’, etc. - but I found the actual film somewhat
tedious: too clever for its own good, despite the disclaimer
in Michael White’s booklet of “the considerable temptation
to be clever”.
The events of the seventeenth century are framed by the vicissitudes
of a modern theatrical company putting on a play about Charles
II, so that one moment we see Simon Callow as the actor, wrapped
in a red blanket, and the next moment as Charles himself in a
red robe striding down the corridors of power. I found it all
too much of an effort to keep up, for all the excellence of the
acting of Simon Callow and of Michael Ball as Purcell.
I know that others have reacted much more favourably - you may
be one of them. If so, provided that you keep your wits about
you as you watch, you will learn something of what it was like
for the young Purcell to be a chorister at the Chapel Royal under
the tutelage of Pelham Humfrey, of life at the court of Charles
II, of the religious divisions which led to the flight of James
II, the ‘glorious revolution’ of 1688 which ushered
in William and Mary, the death of Mary and the influence of Purcell
on succeeding composers, especially Benjamin Britten.
As the booklet rightly points out, those events shaped Purcell’s
music. Had he been born around 1640, for example, he would have
grown up in an England devoid of formal music - no church music,
masques, only small-scale private performances. The Chapel Royal
would have been disbanded until the restoration of Charles II.
As it was, the institution was getting firmly back on its feet
when Purcell became a chorister there. The statement in the booklet
that “he felt the impact of ... [such things as] the end
of the Commonwealth, the restoration of the monarchy ... very
deeply” is a little illogical, since Purcell was a babe-in-arms
when they happened, but they did open the way to the career which
he followed.
The music for the film was chosen in consultation with John Eliot
Gardiner and performed by him with his Monteverdi Choir and the
English Baroque Soloists, with distinguished soloists in several
of the items. The extracts from that soundtrack on the CD, though
in no way constituting a kind of ‘Best of Purcell’,
serve very well to illustrate important aspects of his music.
Though Gardiner has made a number of distinguished Purcell recordings
for the Erato label, now part of the Warner empire, I understand
that the music on the CD was not excerpted from those Erato recordings,
but was made specially for the film.
As one might expect, the performances on the CD are all of high
quality. I have one or two minor quibbles - Jennifer Smith sounds
too nice and unwitch-like in Saul and the Witch of Endor,
for example, but I’m glad that this little masterpiece
of dramatic scena was included here, since it’s
too often overlooked.
The excerpts from the Birthday Song for Queen Mary and
those from the music for her funeral not only neatly frame the
reign of that monarch, reminding us of Purcell’s involvement
in affairs of state, but they also exemplify his two greatest
musical contributions: the Odes and Welcome Songs and Church
Music. I very much hope that Purcell novices will be sufficiently
attracted by these excerpts to explore both further.
Similarly, I hope that the brief rondeau from Abdelazer will
not only point the link forward to Britten’s Young Person’s
Guide, but that listeners may try the whole suite from which
it comes and some of the other theatrical music. Most of all,
I should like to think that the excerpts from King Arthur which
close the CD, especially the extended Frost Scene, with its pre-echo
of Vivaldi’s Winter, would lead potential listeners
to that wonderful but under-rated work.
A good start for further exploration might be another Warner
CD, the very inexpensive Henry Purcell: A Musical Celebration,
with distinguished contributions from John Eliot Gardiner and
Raymond Leppard (4509 96373 2, around £4); indeed, unless
you must have the DVD, this might be a better first buy than England,
My England. Gardiner’s Come, ye sons of Art away and
the music for Queen Mary’s funeral are included on an inexpensive
and attractive Warner Apex CD (0927 48693 2 - see review)
and King Arthur is available on a mid-price 2-CD set,
4509 96552 2, with highlights on budget-price Warner Apex 2564
61501 2.
For Dido and Æneas there is an embarrassment of
choice in all price ranges, but my chief selection must be the
new Chandos version with Sarah Connolly (CHAN0757) which I had
as Download of the Month in my February,
2009, Download Roundup.
I said that the Odes and Welcome Songs reflect Purcell’s
involvement in matters of state; if you turn to the complete
set under the direction of Robert King on Hyperion, you will
see that they span the reigns of Charles II, James II, for whom,
both as Duke of York and as king, Purcell also wrote odes, and
William and Mary. I recently gave a strong recommendation to
that set, available at a special budget price (CDS44031/8, 8
CDs) and to the even larger collection, again from the King’s
Consort, of the complete Church Music (CDS44141/51, 11CDs at
budget price). For more details of these and for other fine Purcell
recordings, I direct you to those reviews, here and here.
If eight CDs of Odes and eleven of Church Music sounds too much,
you may prefer another Warner/Gardiner combination: four CDs,
two of the Odes and Songs and two of Anthems and Sacred Songs,
on 2564 69140 7, at around £20, which Simon Thompson recently commended as
a successful set and a reliable bargain.
I hope that you find the DVD more instructive and enjoyable than
I did, that you warm to the CD as much as I did and that together
they lead you to explore Purcell further. His anniversary year
is almost ended, but the appeal of his music is endless.
Brian Wilson
Track listing & soloists
Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
Sonata for trumpet and strings in D1 [4:09]
The Married Beau Overture [2:39]
Birthday Song for Queen Mary, 1694, No.2 Come ye sons of art2 [1:53]
No.3 Sound the trumpet (plus Chorus repeat: ‘Come ye sons of art’)2 [3:41]
Saul and the Witch of Endor (‘In guilty night’)3 [10:16]
The Indian Queen : Adagio [1:40]
King Arthur : Fairest Isle4 [3:27]
Upon a quiet conscience (‘Close thine eyes and sleep secure’)
[3:50]
Dido & Aeneas
Dido’s lament (‘Thy hand, Belinda’ - ‘When I am laid
in earth’)5 [4:44]
Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary
March [1:25]
‘Man that is born of a woman’ [3:25]
Canzona [2:04]
‘In the midst of life we are in death’ (plus Canzona repeat) [6:22]
‘Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts’ (plus March repeat)
[3:32]
Abdelazer: Rondeau [1:31]
King Arthur7
Act I: [18] ‘Come if you dare’6 [3:54]
Act III: Prelude [0:25]
‘What ho! thou genius of this isle’ [0:54]
‘What power art thou’ [2:57]
‘Thou doting fool’ [0:54]
‘Great love, I know thee now’ [0:43]
‘No part of my dominion’ [0:59]
Prelude [0:50]
‘See, see, we assemble’ [2:13]
‘Tis love that has warm’d us’ [2:03]
‘Sound a parley’ [3:55]
Third Act Tune: Hornpipe [0:50]
David Blackadder (trumpet)1; Michael Chance, James Bowman (counter-tenors)2;
Jennifer Smith (soprano); Paul Agnew (tenor); David Thomas (bass)3;
Lynne Dawson (soprano); Peter Harvey (baritone)4; Susan Graham (mezzo)5;
Paul Agnew (tenor)6; Nancy Argenta (soprano); Stephen Varcoe (baritone)7
Simon
Callow (Charles II); Michael Ball (Henry Purcell); Nina Young (Mrs
Purcell); Rebecca Front (Queen Mary); Corin Redgrave (William III);
Lucy Speed (Nell);
Letittia Dean (Barbara); John Shrapnel (Pepys); Robert Stephen (Dryden); Murray
Melvin (Shaftesbury); John Fortune (Clarendon); Bill Kenwright (Bill) 
[DVD:
153:00 + CD: 76:04] 
