Purcell: King Arthur / Pinnock
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Composer: Henry PurcellConductor: Trevor Pinnock
Orchestra: Chevilly Choir of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit
Orchestra: English Concert
Performer: Julia Gooding
Performer: Nancy Argenta
Performer: Mark Tucker
Performer: Brian Bannatyne-Scott
Performer: Gerald Finley
Performer: Jamie MacDougall
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 1992-08-11
Music Label: Archiv / Polygram Int'l
Music reviews of Purcell: King Arthur / Pinnock
Music Review: BLUST'RING BRETHREN
Rating: 4 Stars
This is not where to find Lancelot, Guinivere, ladies in pointy hats, Sir Bors, Sir Mordred and the gang. You may have thought that Comus was someone in Milton, you were probably fairly sure that Grimbald was not the baddy in Beowulf and Philidel may be a newcomer to you, but probably only specialists either in Dryden or in 17th century music will usually know their association with King Arthur, which occurs only here, or I hope so. Dryden produced his book of King Arthur as a `dramatick opera' for Charles II. His Majesty wanted something different, but after the era of the Stewarts came to an end Dryden, now ousted as poet laureate to the court, dusted it off as a patriotic celebration of the new dynasty. As I understand the matter, autographs are extant of neither Dryden's text nor Purcell's music. What seems fairly clear all the same is that Purcell browbeat Dryden to a considerable extent, even altering the verses at times.
King Arthur is something to hear for the music, not for the play it accompanies. Where there is some genuine drama in it, Purcell takes full advantage, but he really treats it as a pretext for a string of musical numbers rather than as a coherent opera like Dido and Aeneas. There is no plot worth the name, and the liner-note makes the excellent point that it has more than a little of a pantomime about it. This is particularly obvious in the rustic farce of Comus and his attendants in the last act, but the excursus into the realm of the Cold Genius and his cold people, plus the various episodes involving characters from pseudo Greek mythology, are not less absurd in their own way, just not so deliberately absurd. The quality of Dryden's diction is variable but rarely good, and the nadir comes when the Nereid and Pan voice the ringing patriotic sentiment `foreign lands thy fish are tasting' early in act V; and just before that the address of Aeolus to the winds as `Ye blust'ring brethren of the skies' is Dryden at his own windy and blustering worst.
If the text gets worse as it goes along, the music gets better. The earlier numbers, both vocal and the numerous instrumental preludes, passacaglias, tunes, symphonies, dances and ritornellos, are all short, giving no opportunity for development. The first startling glimpse of what Purcell can really do comes with the entry of the Cold Genius. Whether this is an aria, or an accompagnato, or what it is I don't know, but it is completely extraordinary. Some interpretation has had to be done of certain special markings in the score, and the liner-note seems to take for granted that these are by the composer unless the writer has forgotten that we don't have Purcell's autograph. Taking as read that they are authentic and correctly or at least plausibly interpreted, the effect is nothing short of startling, and I know nothing like it in Handel or, come to that, in Weber or in Wagner or in Verdi or in Bartok or in Britten. The long aria for Venus `Fairest isle, all isles excelling' is fairly well known and justly so, but I'm inclined to think that the trio for alto tenor and bass `For folded flocks' is possibly even better. The rustic roistering of Comus and co, sung in a mangle-wurzels Somerset accent both by Jamie MacDougall and the chorus, is something Purcell was particularly adept and practised at, and it is most enjoyable to hear and must have been most enjoyable to sing.
It hardly needs saying that Trevor Pinnock is another old hand at this kind of music and that he knows exactly what he is doing. The instruments are `period' instruments, but I seem to find that `period' singing has become less severe and straitlaced than it once was. The artists have the style to a t, but there is more in the way of modern vibrato than we used to hear. This suits me for one very well, and it's not my reason for withholding a fifth star - reluctantly - from the set. Nor is the recorded quality, which is very good if not exactly amazing. My feeling is that the women soloists are not quite the equals of their male counterparts, and that Nancy Argenta and Julia Gooding in particular are slightly uncomfortable on some of their high notes. I must also say that I have heard `Fairest isle' come across more winsomely that I hear it here.
Otherwise everything is really just fine - except for the text of course. In the foreword to The Stuffed Owl, Wyndham Lewis and Lee find what they memorably call `splurging and bombinating' in the special kind of hearty patriotic verse in which Britain unquestionably and regrettably led the world for a long time. I will not say that nobody did it worse than Dryden because many did, I will only say that he had less excuse. In compensation, the liner essay with this set by Curtis Price is excellent, it is translated into German, French and Italian to show a new pan-European spirit of inclusiveness, and Dryden's words are in all four languages too, and they can't have lost much in translation having little to lose in the first place. The play's not the thing here, the music's the thing. The earlier numbers are perhaps more `of interest' than particularly exciting, but Purcell had the greatest musical talent that any native-born Englishman ever had, and there is proof of that in this score. I enjoy this music from beginning to end, partly out of `interest' but mainly because I love good music. I'm probably not likely to acquire other performances of it, and that is chiefly because, minor quibbles apart, this is an excellent account that I shall be happy to go on living with.
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