Song for St Cecilia's Day
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HANDEL
Song for St Cecilia's Day
Mary Bevan (soprano) & Ed Lyon (tenor) / Ludus Baroque, Richard Neville-Towle
[ Delphian / CD ]
Release Date: Monday 30 July 2012
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Following the widespread critical acclaim of their debut recording, 'Alexander's Feast', Ludus Baroque brings their celebrated verve to Handel's 'Song for St Cecilia's Day'. Coupled with his miniature cantata for tenor, 'Look down Harmonius Saint', which Handel wrote to supplement performances of 'Alexander's Feast', and with the Concerto Grosso in B flat, written in his fruitful autumn of 1739, Handel approaches the setting of this second text by John Dryden with the same extraordinary vividness of detail and metrical virtuosity as Alexander's Feast.
"What passion cannot music raise and quell?" - the answer is that it can raise and quell them all: martial, erotic, sacred … but as music had, in the beginning, been the divine principle of cosmic order, so, on the Final Day, it will be the force that dissolves the universe.
"Radiant soprano Mary Bevan is in glorious form in "What passion cannot music raise and quell?", while the chorus is outstanding throughout, singing with beautiful diction and a light, springy edge. And exciting Ed Lyon confirms his place as one of Britain's top baroque tenors" (Observer)
"The ode receives an orderly performance. I wish there were double the number of string-players: the sonority of only six violins is insufficiently grand for the overture's opening...The unaffected 19-strong choir outweights the slimline orchestra at times....but kudos to Delphian for the intelligent choice of cover art reflecting Dryden's first stanza discussing the creation of the universe." (Gramophone)
Tracks:
Ode for St Cecilia's Day, HWV76
Look Down, Harmonious Saint, HWV 124
Concerto grosso, Op. 6 No. 7 in B flat major, HWV325
