Search - Purcell, Vocal Ensemble Quink, New Consort :: Odes

A voice teacher and early music fan

George Peabody | Planet Earth | 05/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"FOR HE'S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW!!!!



Henry Purcell looked like a Florentine prince, was hail-fellow-well-met in tavern and taproom,wrote for the church and also for the stage and salon, was in fact a most likeable young man, as well as a "very great Master of Musicke."



He literally invented the English celebratory style in music. The odes on this disc with their heavy reliance on trumpets and kettledrums demonstrate very well the celebratory aspect as well as the exultation of the music itself. All of the solo voices are excellent and are included to some extent in each of the odes.



"Come, ye sons of art,away" was the ode for what was to be Queen Mary's last birthday-30 April 1694 and is the least ostentatious of the birthday odes. It is a countertenor's dream, for Purcell favors this voice as the soloist thruout. Some of the these solos for the countertenor heard quite often on their individual solo albums are: 'Sound the trumpet,sound'-'Strike the Viol'-and 'Come ye sons of art, away'.



"Welcome to all the Pleasures" was composed for the inaugural celebration of a so-called Musical Society in 1683. One of the outstanding solos from this ode is for the tenor-'Beauty,thou scene of love' and is sung beautifully on this disc by John Mark Ainsley.



The ode: 'Yorkshire Feast Song' also called 'Of old when heroes thought it base(1690)' features the countertenor more than the other voices and my favorite countertenor: Michael Chance performs them splendidly. This ode was written for an obscure gathering of York nobility. The instrumental accompaniment is excellent and I found the entire disc to be very entertaining."