Charpentier from King's with Felicity Lott

This post is a tribute to the fine soprano Felicity Lott, who has died at age 79. It continues a series of choral recordings from the King's College Choir and Philip Ledger. These artists are heard in a 1977 recording of baroque music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

Dame Felicity Lott

The program is, in fact, somewhat unusual for Dame Felicity, who made her name via opera performances and song recitals. It does show her broad repertoire and artistic sympathies. You can read much more about her in a New York Times obituary (gift link).

In that article, critic Tim Page wrote of her:

Tall and self-possessed, with an air of wit and sophistication, Ms. Lott was ideal for parts like the introspective Marschallin in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, the Countess in his Capriccio and yet another wistful Countess, in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.

While Ms. Lott’s voice was lucid and sensitive, what set her apart were her dramatic gifts and her refined yet warm bearing.

Today's program includes two Charpentier works: his Te Deum in D major, H.146, and Magnificat in D minor, H.74. They were composed while he was music director at the Church of Saint-Louis in Paris in the late 17th century.

An 18th century portrait of Marc-Antoine Charpentier,
which may or may not be accurate

"It is ceremonial music, for thanksgiving to God and perhaps almost equally to Louis XIV - after French victories, with the triumphal tones of trumpets and drums prominent," wrote Stanley Sadie in The Gramophone. "Not unlike Purcell's big court pieces, it mixes vigorous choruses with solo numbers and concertante movements (not unlike verse anthem style) for groups of soloists with the chorus."

Dame Felicity is heard in solo passages as well as ensembles with baritone Stephen Roberts, alto Charles Brett, tenor Ian Partridge and soprano Eiddwen Harry. The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields provides the instrumental backing, Thomas Trotter the organ continuo. The orchestra is heard most prominently in the two preludes. The prelude to the Te Deum is widely known in Europe for its use by Eurovision, principally for its Song Contest.

Recording Charpentier in the King's College Chapel

Several recent posts have addressed the coming of the period performance practice movement in the 1970s and 80s. This LP represents the middle ground of using modern instruments and small forces, in contrast to symphonic performances of Baroque music or the newly ascendant historically informed performances. Julian Rushton, who prepared the parts for this recording, explained his methods in the sleeve note:

This recording is made with modern instruments, and at modern pitch. Pitch in 17th-century France was about one tone below ours, but transposition raises more problems than it solves. Charpentier would probably have had a bass viol continuo rather than cello, and recorders rather than flutes; high tenors (haute-contres) were used rather than altos, and the soloists, presumably all male, would have formed part of the choir.

To demonstrate the difference in sound between this recording and period performances, here is what the Te Deum's prelude sounds like as performed by William Christie's Les Arts Florissants.

Philip Ledger

Putting the matter of "authenticity" aside, the King's performance is a good one. Stanley Sadie's verdict was as follows: "The performances here, cleverly recorded in King's College Chapel in such a way as to sound both clear in detail and spaciously reverberant, are altogether superior to those on the Pye Vanguard disc cited above [referring to a performance by the Pailliard Orchestra directed by Louis Martini]: in the solo singing (better in tone and much more sensitive to line), in the choral singing (clearer in articulation, brighter in tone and in every way more alive), in the instrumental playing (neater and more expressive) and in the general direction (Philip Ledger conducts rhythmically and with a keen feeling for the character of each number)."

Dame Felicity shines throughout, demonstrating the versatility that was just one of her artistic talents.

LINK

Mozart from ASMF and Marriner

Neville Marriner's records with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields are always a good listen, so here they are with two familiar Mozart masterworks and one piece that is less well known.

These recordings come from 1970 and were made not in St. Martin's, but in St. John's, Smith Square, a historic church that is now a concert hall.

A print of St. John’s, Smith Square from 1814

The reviews were generally favorable. Here's Eric Salzman in Stereo Review: 

[The LP] offers an extraordinary amount of pleasure in the form of a warm and highly poetic version of K. 364 [the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola] - much more satisfactory than some highly touted and illustrious versions - and an elegantly melodic "night music." 

Marriner's favorite melodic phrasing - an arch with a subtle crescendo in the middle and a falling away at the end of the phrase - is heard to particularly good advantage in K. 525 [Eine kleine Nachtmusik]. It gives the music a kind of breathing, sighing, pastoral quality that is just right. 

K. 318 [the Symphony No. 32] is an oddity. It is called a symphony, but it obviously is not. It has a single movement - a big allegro, interrupted by a long andante and has the festive scoring of horns, trumpets, and drums in addition to the more common winds and strings. There are other peculiarities: the ambiguous opening, the unexpected andante in the original key, the truncated reprise, all of which somehow suggest the theater. It makes a nice, although hardly needed, extra. 

Neville Marriner

The Sinfonia Concertante is the masterwork on the program. Richard Wigmore described it as follows in The Gramophone:

The initial entry of the soloists, suspended high above the orchestra’s cadential phrases, is one of the most magical moments in any Mozart concerto; and as several performances reveal, the music’s grandeur, poetry and almost erotic yearning need not preclude a vein of frisky playfulness reminiscent of Mozart’s violin concertos. The Andante is a transfigured love duet triste that touches depths of desolation found elsewhere only in the Andantino of the Jeunehomme Piano Concerto, K271, and the Adagio of the A major Piano Concerto, K488. Mozart’s own cadenza then pushes the music to a new pitch of chromatic pathos. After the bereft, disconsolate close, the contredanse finale, virtually unshadowed by the minor key, bounds in with a glorious sense of physical relief.

Alan Loveday, Stephen Shingles

Shirley Fleming of High Fidelity was disappointed with the recording balance in the Sinfonia Concertante - she thought the soloists (Alan Loveday, violin, Stephen Shingles, viola) were too much in the background, a view I share.

Marriner obviously takes the work's designation to heart and conceives of it as an ensemble piece featuring two prominent instruments. I'm afraid I conceive of the work as a two-solo concerto, and I am therefore frustrated by the fact that the soloists - particularly the violist - often tend to be eclipsed by the orchestra.

Otherwise, the recording is excellent - and the disc should provide much listening pleasure.

LINK

Music of Purcell from King's College

This transfer of music by the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell comes as the result of a request, and it is a pleasure to post it.

Purcell was a great composer, perhaps insufficiently recognized. This recording provides ample evidence of his genius.

Henry Purcell

The performers are some of the finest that Britain had to offer in 1975, the time of the recording: the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Conducting was Philip Ledger (1937-2012), the choir's director from 1974-82, who was knighted in 1999.

The program is divided into two parts: first the Funeral Music for Queen Mary II, dating from 1695, It comprises a funeral march and canzona; and three funeral sentences, of which only "Thou knowest, Lord" is certain to have been used in the ceremony. "Thou knowest, Lord" was performed at Purcell's own funeral services. He died later in 1685, at age 35 or 36.

The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble

The march and canzona are performed by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, a well regarded group of the day. The ensemble also appears in the one of the two settings of "Thou knowest, Lord." Otherwise, organist Francis Grier accompanies.

[A brief interlude of royal exposition here: Queen Mary and her spouse King William were installed as joint monarchs in 1689 after James II was deposed. James ruled in succession to his elder brother, Charles II, who died in 1685. The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy had taken place in 1660 when Charles had returned from exile.]

Purcell had become the organist of Westminster Abbey in 1679, and in addition the Chapel Royal organist in about 1682. The composer then devoted his energies to church music for several years, rather than the theater works that had been his main occupation.

Philip Ledger and the choir in the King's College Chapel

Following the funeral music, the balance of the LP is devoted to five church anthems. "Hear my prayer, O Lord" and "Remember not, Lord, our offenses" are performed by the choir, unaccompanied. In "Rejoice in the Lord alway," "My beloved spake" and "Blessed are they that fear the Lord," the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the organist provide accompaniment.

The performances, while glorious in their understated way, might be characterized as middle of the road - neither the inflated approach to baroque music that might have been heard earlier in the 20th century, nor the historically informed performances that are common today. I've owned the LP since it came out 45 years ago, and its style seem just right to me, old fashioned though I may be.

The reviews were generally positive at the time, although one complained that the performance of "My beloved spake" is not sensuous enough for the Song of Solomon. (One wonders how sensuous Charles II would have wanted things to be in the Chapel Royal. This is a church anthem, after all.)

The recording quality is excellent, although the late-analogue effort is not as transparent as the finest digital recordings of today. The EMI team was experienced with the highly resonant acoustic of the vast King's College Chapel, so presumably achieved the best results possible at the time. You can hear the echo go on (and on and on) at the end of the choir's phrases. That extended reverberation does not appear on the contributions from the vocal soloists, presumably because of the spot microphones used for them. But overall, the effect is pleasing.

I enjoyed this recording; I'll have to see what other Purcell recordings I have in the vaults.