Track Listings (20) - Disc #1| All Artists: Henry Purcell, Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Orchestra Title: Purcell: Odes for Saint Cecilia's Day (Hail! bright Cecilia! & Welcome to All the Pleasures) Members Wishing: 1 Total Copies: 0 Label: Harmonia Mundi Fr. Release Date: 6/9/1998 Album Type: Import Genre: Classical Styles: Opera & Classical Vocal, Historical Periods, Baroque (c.1600-1750) Number of Discs: 1 SwapaCD Credits: 1 UPC: 794881416929 |
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Search - Henry Purcell, Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Orchestra :: Purcell: Odes for Saint Cecilia's Day (Hail! bright Cecilia! & Welcome to All the Pleasures)
 | Henry Purcell, Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Orchestra Purcell: Odes for Saint Cecilia's Day (Hail! bright Cecilia! & Welcome to All the Pleasures) Genre: Classical
The odes that Purcell wrote for annual concerts in honor of St. Cecilia (the patron saint of music) are among his most celebrated works. Chief among them is Hail! Bright Cæcilia, which calls for the "Warb'ling Lute ... more » |
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Amazon.com The odes that Purcell wrote for annual concerts in honor of St. Cecilia (the patron saint of music) are among his most celebrated works. Chief among them is Hail! Bright Cæcilia, which calls for the "Warb'ling Lute ... airy Violin ... Am'rous Flute," and all the Harmony of War," along with chorus and a bevy of soloists, to demonstrate their prowess. Choosing between this performance and Paul McCreesh's equally fine version on DG isn't easy. McCreesh has a stronger chorus, quicker tempos and energy to burn; what the more deliberate Philippe Herreweghe loses in excitement, he gains in grace and his soloists (the stronger set) get more space for musical and rhetorical nuance. Herreweghe finishes the disc with an earlier Cecilian ode, the sprightly Welcome to all the pleasures. --Matthew Westphal Similarly Requested CDs
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CD ReviewsSuperb 06/21/1999 (5 out of 5 stars) "Says BBC Music: "[Herreweghe's] way is refined, the playing of the Collegium Vocale instrumentalists highly polished, full of colours, delicate, yet also with a solidness of sound and technique. ... And his team of soloits is wonderful, though I wish the booklet had been more specific in telling us which singer was singing which air. ... [B]ut I am almost sure that it is the alto Robin Blaze and the baritone Peter Harvey who do such a wonderful job in the duet "Hark each tree." ... Meanwhile Mark Padmore, king of haut-contres [sic], is surely responsible for "Tis nature's voice," investing each syllable with poetic thought, making the most of dynamic contrasts, yet avoiding the sensation of affectation. It's a stunning performance from him here and in the duet "In vain the am'rous flute." Says Gramophone: "[Herreweghe] shapes this music with a rapture and precision ... This is, for the most part, a compendium of his most persuasive musical attributes ... The whole is infectiously fresh and never rushed. If not as brilliant or as full as McCreesh, Herreweghe is rather more sensitive to the nuances which irradiate from Purcell's colouring of words. ... For beauty of sound, then, Herreweghe is your man." Gramophone praises by name the same three singers (so you can be sure it is indeed Blaze and Harvey in "Hark each tree;" and Harvey also does the "Wondrous machine.") Funny that both magazines complain that "the beguiling high tenor of Mark Padmore is confusingly labelled `A' for alto." Since when did they start noticing? There's nothing confusing about a haute-contre in an "A" part. I've been saying all along this is a hell of a recording. See, I was right." The soloists are incomparable!!! 01/09/1999 (5 out of 5 stars) "I'm not an expert, I can't talk about the tempos, musical nuances or comparisons between this conductor or that conductor. But I do have a set of ears, and they tell me that the singing on this recording is outstanding. If you don't like 'Tis Nature's Voice in Mark Padmore's breath-taking performance on this CD, you simply don't like baroque."
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