Search - Purcell, Watson, Pears :: Dido & Aenas

Here is one great English composer paying homage to another. Britten showed his love and affinity for Purcell in performances as well as realizations of his works, putting his personal stamp on the music while remaining true to its style and spirit. These are full-blooded, rich-sounding performances, using modern instruments (except for a very resonant harpsichord) and ringing heroic voices to express passionate love, hatred, joy, and sorrow with natural, unrestrained urgency and directness, producing a powerful emotional impact (for an excellent period-instrument interpretation, try Andrew Parrott's 1999 recording). The music is wonderful: contrasts are strong and dramatic; rhythms of great variety are crisp and incisive; and there are heartbreaking lamentations, malicious and triumphant laughter, and echo choruses that foreshadow future operas. Chorus, orchestra, and soloists are all splendid; Peter Pears as Aeneas is sadly underemployed, while harpsichordist George Malcolm and the unnamed continuo cellist are admirable. In the Cantata, Fischer-Dieskau is at his peak vocally and dramatically, while members of the Alberni String Quartet and of course Britten at the piano are superb. --Edith Eisler