Places devoted to the night,
Remote from tumult and from noise.
If it sounds melancholy, the words aren't but that's perhaps irony, that some sadness is enjoyable.
If the rest is less impressive it is up against a high standard, not only in that track but against expectations of Purcell in general and what the Sixteen consistently produce. The local event of the year was their Monteverdi Vespers in Chichester Cathedral. I can't think now why I didn't make the effort.
The mood of O solitude continues through much of the record which makes it a bit one paced. That there is some fine singing we can take for granted but this is esoteric Purcell rather than Dido & Aeneas. It is to be hoped it has more to offer with more hearing but with the very different Weinberg and Bacewicz purchases to compete with for attention, it will need to take it chances.
The notes are of interest, though. Purcell owed much to the patronage of King Charles and the 'triumph' of the court and Tory party 'over an organized parliamentary opposition, the Whigs'.
The strong, stable, divinely legitimated image that Charles liked to project had no basis in reality; but the scale of the deception did not emerge until 19th century historians discovered secret treaty documents
that he was being subsidized by his cousin, Louis XIV.
Purcell wasn't to know that so the plaintive tone of Here the deities approve, a later highlight sung by alto Daniel Collins, is unwittingly double-edged, in tribute to that other great proroguer of parliament. History repeats itself in mysterious ways, repeating the motif of dodgy scoundrels incapable of honesty in pursuit of their narcissistic agendas. Thus, the Sixteen's project on Royal Welcome Songs tells a story, and this is inevitably well done without making me want to order Vol. 1 any more. There is plenty of other Purcell you might benefit from more.
