 |
| Photo: Yoel Levy |
As one of the greatest composers England and the Baroque era have produced, Henry Purcell (1659-1695) stands alone. The son of a musician in the employ of Charles II, it was royal service that was largely to become his creative environment as well. Henry Purcell began his musical life as a boy chorister at the Chapel Royal, in 1673 becoming an unpaid assistant to the keeper of the king’s instruments. His first formal royal appointment (1677) was as composer-in-ordinary for the violins (succeeding Matthew Locke), becoming one of the organists of the Chapel Royal in 1682. He was also organist of Westminster Abbey (succeeding John Blow). His oeuvre includes chamber music, church music and odes for royal occasions. The 1680s saw Purcell starting to write for the theatre, composing songs and instrumental pieces for plays by distinguished Restoration dramatists, his one opera “Dido and Aeneas” and the semi-operas, of which “The Indian Queen” was his last, to be completed by his brother Daniel Purcell.
The bulk of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra’s program consisted of a number of sections of “The Indian Queen”, enough, however, to display Purcell’s consummate skills as a music dramatist. Based on Dryden’s play, Henry Purcell’s music for “The Indian Queen” presents the conflict between Mexican Queen Zampoalla and Peruvians in a classic story of love and war, in which things do not go quite as planned for the queen… With Parrott leading the instrumentalists through the exciting course of detail, colour and characterisation in the work’s symphonies, airs and dances, we were presented with some exquisite string playing, not to mention the colour, variety and beauty provided by trumpet (Amir Rabinovich), oboes and recorders (guest players Olivier Rousset, Nathalie Petibon). The ensemble’s stylish, precise reading of these sections was uplifting in its freshness and energy. In both the Purcell semi-opera and Jeremiah Clarke’s ode, the choir, consisting of the vocal soloists joined by soprano Maya Golan, mezzo-soprano Iphigenie Worbes, tenor Hillel Sherman and bass Hagai Berenson, displayed articulacy, emotional immediacy and a richly-coloured choral sound. With semi-opera being a hybrid genre of theatre and opera, it was clear that bass Yair Polishook was the right artist to portray Envy and Ismeron. His dramatic flair, humour and splendid grasp of British English brought out the small gems and symbols written into the pithy text, as he hissed his way through
“What flattering noise is this,
At which my snakes all hiss?”
In the scene opening Act III, where we meet Ismeron the magician in the conspirators’ cave singing “Ye twice ten hundred deities”, Polishook plays out each gesture, vocally highlighting such words as “round” and “lull” in melismatic word-painting and relishing each succulent English utterance. In the well-known “I attempt from love’s sickness to fly” Yuval Oren’s singing of the somewhat enigmatic rondo air was appealing, with some elegant, easeful embellishments adding interest on repeats. And, as any Purcell work of significance is sure to include a piece based on a ground (ostinato), we heard Purcell’s favourite musical form laced with political meaning in pleasing duets performed by tenors Simon Lillystone and Wolodymyr Smishkewych and Yuval Oren with mezzo-soprano Iphigenie Worbes:
“Greatness clogg’d with scorn decays,
With the slave no empire stays…”
Two chamber works, both also to ground basses, made for delightful interludes between the larger works: The Chacony in G, its lively minor course (characterised by the lowered 7th step) offering solos and duets and the refined Fantasia - three Parts upon a Ground, seasoned with variety, invention and virtuosity on the part of the JBO players.
Henry Purcell died on November 21st 1695 at age thirty-six; the music he had written for the funeral of Queen Mary only eight months earlier was performed again, this time at his own burial service. What then transpired was that several literary figures and composers paid tribute to Purcell by writing works in his memory. “Ode on the Death of Henry Purcell”, a deeply moving piece composed as a homage to Orpheus Britannicus, (as Purcell was referred to) by Jeremiah Clarke, one of Purcell’s younger colleagues at the Chapel Royal, reflects the younger composer’s admiration of Purcell. Clarke himself was also destined to die young. The JBO, under Andrew Parrott, performed the Israeli premiere of this spectacular work. The ode takes the form of a pastoral scene, opening with Arcadian revelling (Lillystone, trumpet, drum) interrupted by a messenger (Oren) who announces the death of “Strephon”. At that point the revelling becomes a lament. The soloists - Lillystone, Oren and Polishook - and choir weave Clarke’s sublime music through the tragic, seamless musical canvas in a performance of strong emotions set into its dialogues. In finely sculpted, noble singing, the choir gave expression to Clarke’s daring choral moments. The soloists enhanced and endorsed the work’s emotions with the various Baroque practices used in emphasizing key words. Musical associations take on more importance in the verbal text as the work draws to an close, with Yuval Oren’s articulate and convincing declaration:
“And see, Apollo has unstrung his lyre,
No more the sweet poetic choir;
The Muses hang their drooping head,
For Harmony itself lies dead.”
Following that, drum beat, strings and choir evoke a sombre funereal picture, adding that “All’s untuned” as the work concludes on a bleak octave and fifth.
A concert offering the elegance of Baroque music, high quality performance and interest.
 |
| Photo: Mica Bitton |
No comments:
Post a Comment