Ode for St Cecilia's Day
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel
Label: Archiv Produktion
Magazine Review Date: 1/1987
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 419 220-1AH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Ode for St Cecilia's Day |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
(The) English Concert (The) English Concert Choir Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Tenor Felicity Lott, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Trevor Pinnock, Conductor |
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel
Label: Archiv Produktion
Magazine Review Date: 1/1987
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 51
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 419 220-2AH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Ode for St Cecilia's Day |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
(The) English Concert (The) English Concert Choir Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Tenor Felicity Lott, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Trevor Pinnock, Conductor |
Composer or Director: George Frideric Handel
Label: Archiv Produktion
Magazine Review Date: 1/1987
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 419 220-4AH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Ode for St Cecilia's Day |
George Frideric Handel, Composer
(The) English Concert (The) English Concert Choir Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Tenor Felicity Lott, Soprano George Frideric Handel, Composer Trevor Pinnock, Conductor |
Author: Nicholas Anderson
Verses in praise of music for St Cecilia's Day were fashionable in the seventeenth century but in poetic inspiration none equalled Dryden's two poems in which he attempts to imitate the effects of music in language. He wrote this one, his Song for St Cecilia's Day, in 1687; it was set to music during the poet's lifetime but not, of course, by Handel whose setting dates from 1739. The work has been fairly well represented in the catalogue over the past decades—my own introduction to it was through an LP recording conducted by Anthony Bernard which, if my adolescent sensibilities can still be relied upon, featured some remarkably crisp oboe playing and a memorably lyrical cello solo—but of the four performances currently available only the two under consideration here are played on period instruments. Nikolaus Harnoncourt's recording is not a new one but a reissue on CD of an LP released in 1979. I enjoyed it then and subsequently for its vigour and freshness and for the splendid contribution from Felicity Palmer, then a soprano.
The highlight of Handel's score for me is, without question, his hauntingly beautiful setting of Dryden's second stanza, ''What Passion cannot Musick raise and quell!''. Here, especially, Handel matches a text which Dr Johnson regarded as exhibiting the highest flights of fancy with a tenderly expressive cello obbligato. Both Harnoncourt and Trevor Pinnock achieve affecting resultsand it would be hard to pronounce any preference. Felicity Lott, in the Pinnock version, has a warmer timbre and I like the way Pinnock introduces a theorbo to the texture; but, though eloquent, Anthony Pleeth's cello solo lacks the poetic flair and the rhetorical approach of Harnoncourt's own playing which seems to me quite outstanding and delightfully apposite in the context of Dryden's 'Pindaric' verse. The tenor, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, is common to both recordings and makes a robust contribution in each. His voice is fuller and more closely recorded in the Arcniv version but I experienced occasional LP distortion in his aria, ''The trumpet's loud clangor excites us to arms''. If Harnoncourt marginally wins my warmer affection in his solo cello number, it is Lisa Beznosiuk's limpid flute obbligato, accompanying Felicity Lott's ''The soft complaining flute'' which captures more affectingly the spirit of music and text.
By now you will realize that there really is little to choose between these two fine performances. Pinnock is at a greater advantage with his English Concert Choir which is made up of some of the best names in the business. The Stockholm Bach Choir are not only at a linguistic disadvantage—though they acquit themselves remarkably well—but are also a little less crisp in ensemble, though never so much as to mar my enjoyment. The English Concert, led by Simon Standage, sometimes have the edge over the Vienna Concentus Musicus—and that is no small compliment, but Harnoncourt's love of gesture, sometimes an irritant in other contexts, nicely matches both the virtuosity and the rapid shifts of emotion in Dryden's text.
In short, both interpretations are strongly recommended. Archiv achieve the clearer recording, but it is a marginal matter and I felt no disappointment with the Teldec remastering. Both booklets contain full texts, though Archiv treat Dryden's spelling in a cavalier and, indeed, inconsistent manner. A performance with boys' voices in the choir, as would have been the case in Handel's time, is still needed.'
The highlight of Handel's score for me is, without question, his hauntingly beautiful setting of Dryden's second stanza, ''What Passion cannot Musick raise and quell!''. Here, especially, Handel matches a text which Dr Johnson regarded as exhibiting the highest flights of fancy with a tenderly expressive cello obbligato. Both Harnoncourt and Trevor Pinnock achieve affecting resultsand it would be hard to pronounce any preference. Felicity Lott, in the Pinnock version, has a warmer timbre and I like the way Pinnock introduces a theorbo to the texture; but, though eloquent, Anthony Pleeth's cello solo lacks the poetic flair and the rhetorical approach of Harnoncourt's own playing which seems to me quite outstanding and delightfully apposite in the context of Dryden's 'Pindaric' verse. The tenor, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, is common to both recordings and makes a robust contribution in each. His voice is fuller and more closely recorded in the Arcniv version but I experienced occasional LP distortion in his aria, ''The trumpet's loud clangor excites us to arms''. If Harnoncourt marginally wins my warmer affection in his solo cello number, it is Lisa Beznosiuk's limpid flute obbligato, accompanying Felicity Lott's ''The soft complaining flute'' which captures more affectingly the spirit of music and text.
By now you will realize that there really is little to choose between these two fine performances. Pinnock is at a greater advantage with his English Concert Choir which is made up of some of the best names in the business. The Stockholm Bach Choir are not only at a linguistic disadvantage—though they acquit themselves remarkably well—but are also a little less crisp in ensemble, though never so much as to mar my enjoyment. The English Concert, led by Simon Standage, sometimes have the edge over the Vienna Concentus Musicus—and that is no small compliment, but Harnoncourt's love of gesture, sometimes an irritant in other contexts, nicely matches both the virtuosity and the rapid shifts of emotion in Dryden's text.
In short, both interpretations are strongly recommended. Archiv achieve the clearer recording, but it is a marginal matter and I felt no disappointment with the Teldec remastering. Both booklets contain full texts, though Archiv treat Dryden's spelling in a cavalier and, indeed, inconsistent manner. A performance with boys' voices in the choir, as would have been the case in Handel's time, is still needed.'
Ode for St Cecilia's Day
Ode for St Cecilia's Day
Ode for St Cecilia's Day
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