Hail! Bright Cecilia (1692) was the last and greatest of Purcell’s odes for celebrations of the saint’s day (November 22) that were organized by the Gentlemen of the Musical Society of London in the late 17th Century. He wrote three earlier odes—two in English and one in Latin—but they are not as ambitious or colorful as the 1692 ode. He would write a large scale Te Deum and Jubilate with accompaniment of strings and trumpets for the St Cecilia celebrations of 1694. They were the canticles sung at the church service preceding the celebratory banquet. The text for the 1692 ode was a new poem by Nicholas Brady, who evidently used John Dryden’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day (1687) as his model.
Handel turned to Dryden’s ode for the text of his Song for St Cecilia’s Day in 1739. Both Dryden and Brady consider the musical instruments and declare them all inferior in dignity and resources to the organ, the instrument especially associated with St Cecilia. Irresistible opportunities for exploitation of instrumental colors are imaginatively taken by both composers.
Haydn’s St Cecilia Mass was originally composed in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the shrine at Mariazell (Missa Cellensis in Honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae). It is thought that a later performance on St Cecilia’s Day in Vienna may account for its other title. It exists in two versions. The earlier one— performed on this recording—dates from 1766 and includes only the Kyrie and Gloria. The later version of 1773 includes the entire Mass Ordinary and is the lengthiest of Haydn’s masses, comparable in scale to Bach’s B minor Mass or Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. As an encore here, Minkowski includes the two concluding movements of the 1773 Credo.
These are highly polished performances of great energy and subtlety. Marc Minkowski takes quick tempos very quickly, but rarely do they seem rushed. The rapid-fire repetitions of the words “must be forced” in ‘Wondrous Machine’ from Purcell’s ode come close to sounding frantic. Bass Luca Tittoto is more than able to keep up, but it does not sound easy or natural. On the other hand, Minkowski is not afraid to let a movement in slow tempo unfold at a leisurely pace while preserving structural coherence, as for example, Handel’s ‘What Passion Cannot Music Raise’.
The vocal soloists are excellent. Soprano Lucy Crowe exhibits an exquisite refinement of tone and impressive vocal control in Handel’s ‘The Soft Complaining Flute’ and ‘But Oh! What Art Can Teach’ as well as the aforementioned ‘What Passion Cannot Music Raise’. At the same time she performs impressive vocal acrobatics in Haydn’s ‘Quoniam tu Solus Sanctus’. I have admired contralto Nathalie Stutzmann from other recordings. Her tone is almost unbelievably majestic: a genuine contralto, not just a mezzo with some good low notes. Her trios with tenor Richard Croft and bass Luca Tittoto are amazingly cohesive in tone and blend. Even so, I think it was the right decision to give Purcell’s alto solo ‘Hark, Each Tree’ to countertenor David Bates; it is more suited to the musical idiom.
The 30-voice chorus (8-7-7-8) is highly disciplined and responsive. I find their tone a trifle thick for Purcell, whose style benefits from the lightness and transparency of the best British early-music choirs. This chorus sounds much more at home in the more broadly-conceived choral lines of Handel and Haydn. The playing of the period-instrument ensemble is outstanding.
The physical presentation is exceptionally elegant. The two discs are bound in a substantial hard-cover book of over 130 pages printed on glossy paper with stitched binding. It is lavishly illustrated with fine art reproductions, mostly from the 16th and 17th Centuries. It contains a program notes by Hilary Finch, a rather whimsical philosophical essay by Ivan Alexandre, and a more technical commentary on performance questions by Minkowski himself. These are given in French, English, and German. Full texts and translations are also given.
By William J Gatens
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