Not easy to understand, but worth the effort
DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 05/29/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As well as the St Cecilia ode this disc contains two superb biblical 'verse anthems', the second ending with a lovely and most unusual quiet Alleluia. The disc is thus excellent value in terms of the amount of music provided, the performances have authority and scholarship stamped all over them, the performers are totally accomplished professionals in music of this period and the recorded sound is very good in a discreet way. The piece I am having difficulty with is the Ode itself, or at least its opening number. I was not expecting Handelian extroversion from Purcell, but what is the connexion between minor-key harmonies and a solemn bass solo on the one hand and on the other the sentiment 'Hail bright Cecilia, fill ev'ry heart/With love of thee...' etc? Purely as music it is fine stuff, but it would not have come amiss as a setting of, say, Quid sum miser in a requiem mass. This may be a simple failure of comprehension on my part, and I betook myself to the liner notes for guidance. To my frustration these read like rather amateur advertising copy telling us what to admire (everything, basically) and how to admire it. A certain amount of e.g. 'McCreesh's unforced command of the Ode's wide expressive range' or 'it conveys an arresting grandeur' or 'McCreesh...eschews detached historicism...and brings a fresh and vital approach' is fair enough, and I have to admit that my spirits were lifted when 'the tessitura becomes stratospherically high' and Mr J Freeman-Attwood soars in sympathy into the empyrean with 'Daniels caresses each new graphic image with a magical sense of of gradually unfolding the music's captivating charms'. For this disclosure I am grateful indeed though probably not in the way the author intended, but it's a wasted opportunity when this is all there is.The text of this St Cecilia ode is by one Nicholas Brady, reasonable workaday stuff but obviously not in the Dryden class. The liner notes do not go into the obscure association of St Cecilia, an early martyr, with the art of music -- legend has her as the inventor of the organ, which she had no more chance of inventing than the saxophone. This is a topic I shall go into when I have got my ideas clearer on the Ode. My unreserved recommendation of this disc does not have to wait for that."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1