The fourth stage in Robert King's Purcellian journey offers the usual contrasting scenery, with a familiar landmark cannily placed to tempt travellers towards the disturbingly large areas of the composer's sacred output as yet little-known. In this case the old friend is the coronation anthem My heart is inditing, while the strangers include two verse anthems receiving first recordings: The Way of God is an undefiled way and Sing unto God In truth, neither is a masterpiece, perhaps explaining why they have been assigned to a disc which otherwise concerns itself mainly with devotional songs for various combinations of solo voices and continuo.
In these, though, there really is some excellent music. It goes without saying that Purcell sets his texts brilliantly: listen to the graphic depiction of the word 'shrunk' in the probing Lord, what is man?, the melting supplications of Early, O Lord, my fainting soul, or the fearsome bass duets of Awake, ye dead. They get good performances, too, from King's usual array of expert solo voices. Star billing belongs to Michael George, who copes splendidly with the many wide-ranging solos originally intended for Purcell's friend John Gostling; I also enjoyed, though, the attractive and intelligent account of Lord, what is man? from Susan Gritton, a newcomer soprano with a voice reminiscent of Judith Nelson.
But it is My heart is inditing that for many will be the main attraction. Sadly, it is a disappointment. King's laudable efforts to capture some of the pomp of James II's coronation by gathering together more than 60 singers and players founders on fudgy intonation and a general lack of rhythmic impulse or definition. It's a stodginess that one might have got away with in Westminster Abbey, but not under the spotlight of a recording. To my mind, the smaller-scale, more incisive performances by Preston on Archiv Produktion and (going back a bit) Willcocks on Teldec Das Alte Werke (see page 101) are far more effective.'