Welcome to All the Pleasures - The English Concert, Pinnock

Bach, Boyce, Haydn, Händel,
Mozart, Purcell, Scarlatti, Vivaldi
Welcome to All the Pleasures
The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock
Archiv 437 175-2

I am thrilled that Archiv Produktion in Canada has assembled "Welcome To All The Pleasures", and happy that it includes so many personal favorites from my discography. This celebration of choral, keyboard and orchestral music on authentic instruments is a voyage filled with delicious musical pleasures and warm personal memories, for 1993 marks my fifteenth anniversary with Archiv Produktion, and the twentieth anniversary of my founding of The English Concert. My new assosiation with Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra is providing every bit as adventurous and is filled with the pleasures of rich musical rewards. So, indeed, welcome to all the pleasures!

Trevor Pinnock

Purcell: Harmonie Sacra - Gabrieli Consort, Paul McCreesh

Henry Purcell
Harmonie Sacra
Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh
Archiv 445 829-2

In memoriam Ranasphenocephala.

This is one of the finest Purcell discs around, but it isn't one of the most cheerful. It's an anthology of pieces for one to four voices with continuo on spiritual themes--pieces such as "With sick and famish'd eyes," "The earth trembled," "In the black, dismal dungeon of despair," and the famous "O solitude." It really is top-notch Purcell, with much better texts than he usually had to work with, and it's performed to Paul McCreesh's usual high standard, but Baroque-for-Brunch it is not. The highlights are the deeply comforting meditation "Close thine eyes and sleep secure," and the riveting "In guilty night," effectively an eight-minute chamber opera enacting Saul's visit to the Witch of Endor, with a sensational performance by Charles Daniels as Saul.


Matthew Westphal, Amazon.com