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Fanfare Magazine: 37:3 (01-02/2014)
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Alpha
ALP192
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Led by Nicolas Achten, who sings and plays harp or virginal while leading this ensemble, the Scherzi Musicali has rearranged Purcell in its own image. The ensemble, which besides Achten’s baritone features Reinoud Van Mechelen’s tenor voice, has two flutes à bec, which are basically recorders, a viola da gamba, theorbo, and a Baroque guitar. No larger string ensemble, as we hear in Gustav Leonhardt’s Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, for instance. No trumpets, no matter how pleadingly the two male singers proclaim “Sound the trumpets.” No harpsichord, either, nor female voices, even in songs traditionally sung by women. So this is not a typical or in any way definitive Purcell recording.
Still it is often musically satisfying, in both the instrumental pieces and vocals. When the band sounds after Van Mechelen’s initial chorus of Still I’m Whishing, it does so with a sweetness one rarely hears elsewhere. Yet the sound also becomes muddied when the full band accompanies the singer. Nor is the enunciation always clear: these are after all French singers. On Musick for a while, Van Mechelen clearly enjoys singing how the “snakes drop, drop, drop from her head,” and we share his pleasure. The hornpipes are also delightful, as is Achten’s playing of such pieces as the Almand in D Minor on virginal. The notes are extensive; thankfully, they include texts. It might be helpful it they had also included the sources of the pieces; not everyone will know the source of Sound the trumpet, for instance. This is a pleasing, though eccentric, collection of Purcell.
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