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Essential Purcell
(more) »rank: 60268by: Henry Purcell, New College Choir Oxford, King's Consort, Robert King, Roy Goodman, Charles Daniels, John Mark Ainsley, James Bowman, Peter Buckoke, Jane Coe, Rogers Covey-Crump, Gillian Fisher, Michael George, Miles Golding, Jane Norman, Barbara Bonney, Mark Caudle, William Carter, King's Consort Choir, Helen Gough, Paul Nicholson, Angela East, Barry Guy, Tessa Bonner, Jerome Finnis, Rupert Bawden, Lucy Howard, Richard Campbell, Susan Addison, James O'Donnell, Stephen Saunders
: essential recording:The 'Essential' Purcell? Well, you could get a bunch of critics to argue about that for a few days, but in the meantime, here is a sampler of highlights from the King's Consort's three admirable Purcell series: the Complete Odes and Welcome Songs, Complete Anthems and Services, and Complete Secular Solo Songs. There are, of course, some of Purcell's most-performed pieces (which probably are 'essential'): Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, 'Sound the trumpet' from Come, ye sons of Art, Rejoice in the Lord alway (the 'Bell Anthem,' named for the string figure at the opening that sounds like pealing bells), ...
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Bach: Lutheran Masses Vol.1
(more) »rank: 50576by: Peter Harvey, Catherine Latham, Mark Padmore, Jane Rogers, Stephen Preston, The Purcell Quartet, Sinéad Bradbeer
: :In 1979 it was inconceivable; even in 1989 it seemed radical if not ridiculous. By 1999, however, performing Bach's choral music with one singer and player per part had started to catch on. Around 1982 Joshua Rifkin first argued that Bach composed most of his sacred music for an ensemble of soloists; when Rifkin recorded the Mass in B Minor that way, he had few defenders and many outraged detractors. Gradually other Baroque specialists such as Andrew Parrott and Jeffrey Thomas tried this approach; now the (augmented) Purcell Quartet presents Bach's four brief 'Lutheran' Masses with top-notch soloists--Volume 1 is not only a sterling example ...
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Bach: Lutheran Masses, Vol. 2
(more) »rank: 48622by: Peter Buckoke, Michael Chance, Peter Harvey, Catherine Latham, Mark Padmore, Anthony Halstead, Roger Montgomery, The Purcell Quartet
: :Joshua Rifkin and Andrew Parrott no longer seem to be lonely voices crying in the proverbial wilderness. The idea of performing Bach's sacred music with only soloists seems to be catching on a bit. This recording, for instance, completes Chandos's one-singer-per-part set of Bach's four 'Lutheran' Masses (i.e., Kyrie and Gloria only), performed by the (enlarged) Purcell Quartet with all the transparency, exactitude, and grace they brought to volume 1 of the series. Perhaps surprisingly, it's the instrumental detail--usually buried underneath the voices of a choir but clearly audible here--that's striking: take the lively oboe figures that give a Handelian feel to the Gloria ...
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Bach: Harpsichord Concertos, Vol. 4 - BWV 1052 / BWV 1061 / BWV 1044
(more) »rank: 513195from: Chandos
: :Joshua Rifkin and Andrew Parrott no longer seem to be lonely voices crying in the proverbial wilderness. The idea of performing Bach's sacred music with only soloists seems to be catching on a bit. This recording, for instance, completes Chandos's one-singer-per-part set of Bach's four 'Lutheran' Masses (i.e., Kyrie and Gloria only), performed by the (enlarged) Purcell Quartet with all the transparency, exactitude, and grace they brought to volume 1 of the series. Perhaps surprisingly, it's the instrumental detail--usually buried underneath the voices of a choir but clearly audible here--that's striking: take the lively oboe figures that give a Handelian feel to the Gloria ...
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Hummel, Schubert, Schumann: Piano Quintets
(more) »rank: 483208from: Hyperion UK
: :The Schubert/Hummel coupling is ingenious. Schubert wrote his famous Trout Quintet (piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass) for a group of friends who were playing Hummel's Quintet for the same combination. Schubert has, of course, far outshone Hummel; but Hummel, Mozart's favorite pupil, was a fine composer with traces of early Romanticism in his basically classical style. His Quintet is well worth hearing. If these performances, and those of the Schumann works, were superb, this set would be an amazing bargain. As it is, they're fairly good, and the set is a fairly good bargain. --Leslie Gerber
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Distance & Enchantment - Chamber Works By Judith Weir
(more) »rank: 492696by: Jane Salmon, Mayumi Seiler, Susan Tomes, Timothy Boulton, Richard Lester, Krysia Osostowicz, Petra Casen, The Schubert Ensemble of London
: :The Schubert/Hummel coupling is ingenious. Schubert wrote his famous Trout Quintet (piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass) for a group of friends who were playing Hummel's Quintet for the same combination. Schubert has, of course, far outshone Hummel; but Hummel, Mozart's favorite pupil, was a fine composer with traces of early Romanticism in his basically classical style. His Quintet is well worth hearing. If these performances, and those of the Schumann works, were superb, this set would be an amazing bargain. As it is, they're fairly good, and the set is a fairly good bargain. --Leslie Gerber
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Dvorak: String Quintet In G/Intermezzo In B/String Quartet In E
(more) »rank: 958848from: Hyperion UK
: :The Schubert/Hummel coupling is ingenious. Schubert wrote his famous Trout Quintet (piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass) for a group of friends who were playing Hummel's Quintet for the same combination. Schubert has, of course, far outshone Hummel; but Hummel, Mozart's favorite pupil, was a fine composer with traces of early Romanticism in his basically classical style. His Quintet is well worth hearing. If these performances, and those of the Schumann works, were superb, this set would be an amazing bargain. As it is, they're fairly good, and the set is a fairly good bargain. --Leslie Gerber
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Bach: Harpsichord Concertos, Vol.2
(more) »rank: 655094from: Chandos
: :The Schubert/Hummel coupling is ingenious. Schubert wrote his famous Trout Quintet (piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass) for a group of friends who were playing Hummel's Quintet for the same combination. Schubert has, of course, far outshone Hummel; but Hummel, Mozart's favorite pupil, was a fine composer with traces of early Romanticism in his basically classical style. His Quintet is well worth hearing. If these performances, and those of the Schumann works, were superb, this set would be an amazing bargain. As it is, they're fairly good, and the set is a fairly good bargain. --Leslie Gerber
