Happy St. Cecilia's Day! (Charles Daniels Part 2)

A few months ago, I wrote something about two favourite records, A Venetian Coronation 1595 and Venetian Vespers. That post turned into an account of my first meaningful encounter with a solo classical voice, as I tried to put into words my delight at discovering Charles Daniels' thrilling performance of Grandi's O Intemerata. I had a similar experience a couple of years later, when Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & Players released their version of Purcell's ode, Hail! Bright Cecilia.

Commissioned by a London society set up to celebrate the feast day of the patron saint of music (22nd November), Purcell’s contribution to the 1692 festivities is a 50 minute, 13 movement treasure trove. It opens with a substantial orchestral overture, followed by a series of solos, duets, trios and choruses, praising both music and Cecilia herself. A selected group of instruments (organ, violin, flute, guitar and fife) receive more specific attention. The whole thing is a joy. 

On the McCreesh recording, Daniels sings The fife, and all the harmony of war, as well as the piece that really grabbed me, ’Tis Nature’s voice, an exhilarating virtuoso song that took me straight back to my time with the Grandi.

Henry PURCELL (1659-1695) - Tis Nature’s Voice (from Hail! Bright Cecilia) - Charles Daniels (tenor); Gabrieli Players / Paul McCreesh

Daniels has the measure of Purcell’s "incredible Graces" (1), including the lung-bursting melismas towards the end. He is not afraid to use the full power of his voice (at "mighty", for instance), and clearly relishes the more dissonant passages (both appearances of "grieve or hate"). Purcell’s setting of the last line is superb, the teasing repeats of "charms" leading to a final long run of notes on "captivates". Daniels’ thrilling second pass at this is something special - I'm reminded of his stunning "et virgo gloriosa" in the Grandi motet (Purcell text here). 

Charles Daniels also played a part in my introduction to even earlier music, as a founder member of the Orlando Consort, a one-to-a-part vocal group specialising in Medieval repertoire. By the time I got round to hearing them in concert (in their ingenious Voices Appeared silent film with live music programme), he had already left the consort. I still have the earlier recordings, though. By a whisker, my favourite is Popes And Antipopes - Music For The Courts Of Avignon & Rome. I'm struggling to find any clips online, but there are CD copies around. Highly recommended.

I still remember the Gramophone review of Popes And Antipopes: "To be savoured meditatively, like an Islay malt".

(1) Thanks largely to an article about the premiere in the November 1692 edition of the Gentlemen’s Journal, ’Tis Nature’s Voice has been the subject of some musicological debate. According to this article, it "was sung with incredible Graces by Mr. Purcell himself", leading to uncertainty as to whether Purcell actually gave the first performance, or whether he wrote the "incredible Graces" (ornaments) for someone else to sing. The couple of recentish Purcell books I've seen indicate the latter, although the liner notes for my other (very fine, modern instrument) recording of the piece claim that the composer did give the premiere. On this CD (English Chamber Orchestra / Mackerras - 1969), ’Tis Nature’s Voice is performed by a countertenor. McCreesh’s decision to use a tenor is supported by an Andrew Parrott article in the Faber Purcell Companion, which addresses the subject of male voice types in this music: "the 1680s and 1690s seem to mark an historical mid-way point in the evolution of the countertenor, with the emergence of the later, and indeed current, falsettist countertenor overlapping with the glorious last years of an earlier tradition in which - contrary to popular belief - the voice was, in modern terms, essentially a (high) tenor". (pp. 417-8)