#charlesdaniels

(Part I here: http://dothemusicblog.tumblr.com/post/147241620044/charles-daniels-i-from-gabrieli-to-grandi)

A few years later, McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort & Players made this recording of Purcell’s wonderful ode ‘Hail, Bright Cecilia!’

The piece was commissioned by a London society set up to celebrate the feast day of the patron saint of music (22nd November). Purcell’s contribution to the 1692 festivities is a 50-minute, 13 movement treasure trove. It opens with a substantial orchestral overture, followed by a series of solos, duets, trios and choruses, praising both music and Cecilia herself. A selected group of instruments (organ, violin, flute, guitar and fife) receive more specific attention.

Having been so struck by Charles Daniels’ performances on ‘Venetian Vespers,’ I was naturally intrigued to hear him in different repertoire. Here, he sings ‘The fife, and all the harmony of war,’ as well as the showstopping ‘’Tis Nature’s voice.’ His performance of this second air particularly grabbed me. Here was another ecstatic virtuoso song in the manner of Grandi’s ‘O Intemerata.’ Here also was my proper introduction to Purcell’s daringly original way with harmony and melody. The English text removed a barrier, and gave me a first chance to appreciate Purcell’s gift for word setting - this really is a masterclass (text: http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=2979).  

Henry PURCELL (1659-1695) - ‘Tis Nature’s Voice (from Hail, Bright Cecilia!) - Charles Daniels (tenor); Gabrieli Players / Paul McCreesh https://play.spotify.com/album/07mZ80g31bc99UK6Trs6Dd (track 4)

Daniels has the measure of Purcell’s ‘incredible Graces’ (see Ps. below), including the lung-bursting melismas towards the end. He is unafraid to use the full power of his voice (at ‘mighty,’ for instance), and clearly relishes the more dissonant passages (both appearances of ‘grieve or hate.’) Purcell’s setting of the last line is superb, the teasing repeats of ‘charms’ leading to a final long run of notes on ‘captivates.’ Daniels’ thrilling second pass at this is something special, much like the repeated ‘et virgo gloriosa’ in the Grandi motet (see Part 1). 

Ps. Thanks largely to an article about the premiere in the November 1692 edition of the Gentlemen’s Journal, ‘’Tis Nature’s Voice’ has been the subject of some musicological debate. According to this article, it ‘was sung with incredible Graces by Mr. Purcell himself,’ leading to uncertainty as to whether Purcell actually gave the first performance, or whether he wrote the ‘incredible Graces’ (ornaments) for someone else to sing. The couple of recentish Purcell books in Nottingham Central Library indicate the latter, although the liner notes for my other (very fine, modern instrument) recording of the piece claim that the composer did give the premiere. On this CD (English Chamber Orchestra / Mackerras - 1969), ‘’Tis Nature’s Voice’ is performed by a countertenor. McCreesh’s decision to use a tenor is supported by an  Andrew Parrott article in the Faber ‘Purcell Companion,’ which addresses the subject of male voice types in this music: ‘the 1680s and 1690s seem to mark an historical mid-way point in the evolution of the countertenor, with the emergence of the later, and indeed current, falsettist countertenor overlapping with the glorious last years of an earlier tradition in which - contrary to popular belief - the voice was, in modern terms, essentially a (high) tenor.’ (pp. 417-8)

Pps. Charles Daniels was a founder member of the Orlando Consort, a one-to-a-part vocal group specialising in Medieval repertoire. By the time I got round to hearing them in concert (in their ‘Voices Appeared’ film and live music programme: http://www.orlandoconsort.com/voicesappeared.htm), he had already left the consort. I still have the earlier recordings, though. By a whisker, my favourite is ‘Popes And Antipopes - Music For The Courts Of Avignon & Rome.’  

https://play.spotify.com/album/1lDs1pode6DiurQTIGvbLw

I remember the original Gramophone review: ‘To be savoured meditatively, like an Islay malt.’

The first time I heard the music of Giovanni Gabrieli, it sounded something like this:

One of these massed U.S. brass section recordings sat in my overworked Walkman for months, providing the soundtrack to my journey to and from school. A few years later, as a trombonist in a city full of trombonists, I had the opportunity to play some of this music. Our more sober performances were closer in style to those by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble or the London Symphony Brass: without tubas, horns or the often present E. Power Biggs. A few years later, I bought and repeatedly listened to ‘A Venetian Coronation 1595,′ by the Gabrieli Consort & Players. This revelatory disc was my introduction to the sonatas and canzonas played on (wooden) cornetts and (trombone forerunner) sackbuts (try track 19 here: https://play.spotify.com/album/0FoiiTbgOKYHAkUWjDI6GQ).* It was also my first encounter with the vocal music of Gabrieli and his uncle Andrea.

For this début disc, Paul McCreesh put together a speculative reconstruction of a Doge’s coronation, interspersing the Gabrielis’ music with bells, fanfares and the appropriate plainchant, in an attempt to transport the listener to St. Mark’s, Venice (it was actually recorded in Brinkburn Priory, Northumberland). This disc had a profound effect on my developing musical tastes, partly because it prompted an exploration of the many riches of the pre-Baroque repertoire. Perhaps even more importantly, it was the first time I had truly enjoyed listening to classical solo voices. In those days, I preferred orchestral and choral blockbusters - opera had yet to make an impression on me. It feels a slightly strange admission now, but I think that the vibrato-laden big voices of Romantic opera were somehow too much for me (I suspect there was something too nakedly emotional about that kind of voice for my shy teenage self to handle - difficult to put into words). The opening of the Kyrie on ‘A Venetian Coronation’ was another matter. Here, I first heard the ‘cleaner,’ firmer voice of Charles Daniels, blending perfectly with the less brassy, almost vocal-sounding period trombones. Poring over the liner notes of my then modest collection of early music CDs, I started to see the same names cropping up repeatedly, and made a point of searching for discs featuring my favourites.

Paul McCreesh’s next reconstruction imagined a Venetian Vespers service, ‘as it  might have been celebrated on Friday 24th March 1643.’ By 1643, Claudio Monteverdi was in charge of music at St. Mark’s** (he died the same year). The set includes a handful of pieces by him, including an ingenious Laetatus Sum (track 11 - https://play.spotify.com/album/3lYgTpaHCc8aFfcQRQ7Nx3), but most of the music is by his younger colleagues, including Alessandro Grandi, who was made Monteverdi’s deputy in 1620. By this time, Venetian church music had changed. Composers had dispensed with the large choirs of cornetts and sackbuts, writing more often for solo voices with smaller accompanying groups of instruments. Several of the singers I had got to know on ‘Coronation’ returned for ‘Vespers,’ including Charles Daniels, whose performance of Grandi’s marvellous ‘O Intemerata’ remains a great favourite.

Alessandro GRANDI (?1586-1630) - O Intemerata (from ‘Motetti A Voce Sola’) - Charles Daniels (tenor); Paula Chateauneuf (chitarrone); Timothy Roberts (organ) 

https://play.spotify.com/album/3lYgTpaHCc8aFfcQRQ7Nx3 (track 6)

This astonishingly virtuosic Marian motet packs an awful lot into its four and a bit minutes. Grandi’s music moves swiftly between moments of great tenderness and surprisingly unchecked abandon. Looking back, I know I rarely used to consider the meaning of the text when I was younger. I was more taken by the beautiful SOUND of the words (O Eeeeen-taaaiiir-maiiirr-raaaaaata - McCreesh consulted a pronunciation advisor on ‘Coronation’) as well as the performance, in which Daniels pushes his voice towards its limits - the ecstatic final repeats of ‘et virgo gloriosa’ still leave me open-mouthed.

(Part II here: http://dothemusicblog.tumblr.com/post/151747980144/charles-daniels-sings-florid-songs-ii-natures)

(Part III here: http://dothemusicblog.tumblr.com/post/160514774364/charles-daniels-iii-monteverdi-vespers-1610)

* This actually comes from the 2012 remake, ‘A New Venetian Coronation.’ ‘Music For San Rocco,’ (https://play.spotify.com/album/25ABFDS9TZOIuiTpO8E1ow) recorded in the Tintoretto-covered Scuola Grande di San Rocco, is also well worth hearing.

** In 1595, Baldassare Donato was maestro di cappella. 

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