Purcell: Fantasias for the Viols, 1680 - Hespèrion XX

Editorial Reviews
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These works are almost universally regarded as the most profound chamber music works before the Haydn string quartets. The viol family of instruments--closely related to the violin family--was already obsolete in Purcell's day. Indeed, of the family's modern descendants, only the double bass survives. The differences between the two types of instrument have to do with shape, number of strings, tuning, length of the bow, and other technical matters, but the bottom line is that the viols have a darker, more veiled tone quality than the violins. Whatever Purcell's reasons for electing to write for these instruments, the music he composed has a melancholy serenity that is unique. These performances have a Zen-like concentration. Great for meditation. --David Hurwitz --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Amazon.com

These works are almost universally regarded as the most profound chamber music works before the Haydn string quartets. The viol family of instruments--closely related to the violin family--was already obsolete in Purcell's day. Indeed, of the family's modern descendants, only the double bass survives. The differences between the two types of instrument have to do with shape, number of strings, tuning, length of the bow, and other technical matters, but the bottom line is that the viols have a darker, more veiled tone quality than the violins. Whatever Purcell's reasons for electing to write for these instruments, the music he composed has a melancholy serenity that is unique. These performances have a Zen-like concentration. Great for meditation. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

The Last Masterwork for Viol Consort.......2007-06-07

Henry Purcell is arguably the greatest genius of the Baroque era that most people have still not heard of. To be sure, Bach is undeniably the greatest composer of the Baroque (and to many, the greatest composer in Western musical history), but Purcell can plausibly be compared with Handel and Scarlatti, the other two giants of Baroque music besides Bach. Purcell's short opera Dido and Aeneas is certainly the best opera of the latter half of the seventeenth century and the greatest English opera before Britten. Had he not died in 1695 at the early age of 35 (the same age Mozart was at his death), Purcell would surely be regarded as one of the greatest.

This recording features Henry Purcell's 1680 masterwork for viol consort, the Fantasias for Viol. Like Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, the Fantasias feature a poignant chromaticism and continuous upward modulation that heightens the emotional power of the work in a way not entirely dissimilar to the Liebestod that concludes Wagner's Tristan and Isolde (prior to its widespread adoption in the early nineteenth century, only the murderous Renaissance prince and composer Carlo Gesualdo used chromaticism as extensively as Purcell did). Yet just as they look forward in time to post-romantic chromaticism, in their use of the viol consort the Fantasias look backward in time to the English renaissance, in which such composers as Mathew Locke wrote interesting music for viol consort, though no other piece can match the sublime profundity of Purcell's work. Purcell's was moreover to be the last work for viol consort as the viol was increasingly out of favor, having been replaced by the violin family on the continent long before the 1680s. (Italian music for virtuoso violin goes back to the early seventeenth century - see my "Listmania List" of some of this wonderful music.) By the mid eighteenth century the string quartet had eclipsed what was left of the viol consort's legacy.

Purcell's Fantasias are the most significant and rewarding chamber music written before the Classical age of Hadyn and Mozart's string quartets. They feature polyphonic writing that are worthy of Bach himself and like Bach's Art of Fugue and A Musical Offering, written seventy years after the Fantasias (the back of the CD mistakenly says that the Art of Fugue was the precedent for the Fantasias), the contrapuntal writing is brilliant, complex, and overflowing with inventive genius. But not only was writing for viol consort considered outmoded by the 1680s, counterpoint was also (alas) deemed old hat, and so perhaps aware that they would find no contemporary audience, Purcell did not even attempt to have his set of Fantasias published, a body of work made all the more incredible by the fact that they were written by a young man of only twenty years of age!

The heart of the work is Fantasia XII in Four Parts (track 14), itself a miniature masterpiece. It is here that Purcell pulls out all the emotional stops and during which an almost cathartic climax is reached with the use of continuous modulation, a practice that continues with the wonderful final piece of the set, In Nomine in seven parts (track 15), whose theme is a church choral. Nonetheless, the In Nomine was not intended to be the final piece, but rather as an introduction to additional Fantasias that Purcell had drafted in 1683 but which were unfortunately not completed.

I think this the best available recording of the Fantasias, which are truly brought to life with a gripping performance, which is particularly refreshing (and necessary) given the fact that viol music can easily sound dull and bland given the rather `hollow' and homogeneous sound of the viol vis-à-vis the violin family. But Jordi Savall achieves just the right blend of sound with the instruments to capitalize on the haunting character of the viol at its best to express the melancholic mood that characterizes much of this work (most of the Fantasias are in a minor key). However, one relatively minor complaint about this performance is that Savall has the annoying habit (on this and most of his other recordings) of humming along with the music (like Glenn Gould) and also of making odd and rather obscene-sounding noises that can be somewhat distracting. But given the overall power and beauty of the performance, this should not deter the potential listener.

Unique and wonderful music by Purcell played very beautifully.......2005-12-14

While the string quartet as we know it today was an invention of the Classic through the works of Haydn and Mozart (and then Beethoven), people have been playing together in ensembles of stringed instruments for many centuries. The predecessor of the violin, viola, violoncello (cello), and double-bass were the viols. There were many different kinds of viols because they were not as standardized as the violin family and evolved in various areas of Europe over time. Ensembles of such instruments were often known as consorts. They were played by private groups for their own enjoyment, for public display, and the richest consorts were for court functions.

However, by the young twenty-one year old Henry Purcell turned his genius to writing these works in 1680, the idea of a consort of viols had gone out of fashion and the last publications for those ensembles had already been printed in 1660. These are among the greatest works of the type ever written. They are magnificently contrapuntal and achieve very great things. When you listen to them, think polyphony rather than trying to hear chord progressions and you will be able to appreciate them in their glory. Sometimes I just cannot believe the wonderfully biting dissonances Purcell achieves in these works and how they flow into the sweetest consonances.

The viol has a much reedier sound and different color palette than the violin family even though they both are bowed string instruments. This group, Hespèrion XX, is a very skilled and intelligent consort that brings out the music in these works beautifully well.

This is a disk that should not be missed because of the importance of these works, their unique place in music history, and the skill of the musicians playing these fabulous works.

IN PRAISE OF PURCELL'S GENIUS........2002-09-15

Any historical time-period always has some limiting impact on an artist, even an artist of genius. In the case of Henry Purcell this impact was considerable and in some ways unfortunate, but it could not keep his genius from blazing through whatever openings it could find or create. For example, any sensitive listener familiar with DIDO AND AENEAS could never deny that Purcell's genius included a great gift for dramatic vocal music. His ability to create life-giving music for ordinary words is astounding. But there was no public opera in London in Purcell's time. He wrote DIDO AND AENEAS for the very modest setting of a girls' school in Chelsea. So the work is necessarily small in scale, it is a sort of miniature opera, but it contains things, Dido's lament being only the most well-known, that are as powerful as anything of this type in the history of music. One can only imagine what Purcell might have created in more agreeable and nuturing conditions.
Then consider that when Purcell composed the works recorded on this disc under consideration, FANTASIAS FOR THE VIOLS, he was creating in a form that was already outdated and for instruments that were also considered outdated. These works were not even published until the 20th century, so obviously they didn't get much attention through the years. But Purcell obviously felt some strong personal attraction to both the fantasia and the viol, because these works are genuine masterpieces both in the ingenuity of the counterpoint and the originality of the harmonic progressions. Purcell had a highly original sense of harmony and an inclination to chromaticism in his melodies that to me is profound and beautiful. It is nothing like Wagnerian chromaticsm or even like that of Bach or Mozart. It is unque and one of the wonders of music. And in addition to this is Purcell's sensitivity to the viol itself as an instrument. The viol family in Purcell's time was being replaced by the violin family. One of the differences between the viol and the violin is that the viol produces primary tones that are not as sharply distinct and durable as those of the violin. The viol has a more gritty, flattened, 'veiled' tone, it is like an intense glow constrasted with the violoin's sharp flame. But the viol is more rich in easily audible overtones than the violin. All of these characteristics make it an ideal ensemble instrument. And Purcell's feel for this is remarkable. Listen to the large 7 part In Nomine, the last track on the disc. A more perfect piece for viols has never been written. Apart from the glory of the music itself, the tones and overtones weave together, rather they breathe together, so deeply that it is as if one were hearing some mysterious single instrument with many voices. Amazing. No grouping of the violin family could do this.
And two final thoughts: Another somewhat unfortunate fact concerning work is that it exists only on cd. This is unfortunate because one of the differences between cd recordings and vinyl recordings is that on the cd recording the overtones are almost all eliminated. This is what gives a cd its peculiar 'clarity'. I, for one, always choose vinyl if I have a choice. In this case there is no choice, but this recording by Hesperion XX led by Jordi Savall is so wonderful that I can only highly recommend it. It is a masterful recording of one of the great works of Western music.

Crystallized Brilliance.......2001-09-05

Purcell never published these pieces, which he wrote when he was about twenty. They were composed at great speed, sometimes one per day. As Bach was to do in his "Art of the Fugue," Purcell attempts to provide a comprehensive cycle of compositional elucidation, probing the form for all its nuances. The result is a masterpiece of crystalline brilliance, admirably performed by Savall and his cohorts and beautifully recorded. Despite their apparent formality, these wonderful pieces possess an emotional range and depth that is quite startling. Overall, an exceptional disc, warmly recommended.

For no one other than himself.......2001-06-29

Purcell's viol fancies are astonishing, but unlike his theatre music, they don't stand up well to a mediocre performance. So, thank God for this disc. This is one of only two recordings I've ever heard that does justice to this strange, final flower of English consort music (the other being an ancient Leonhardt Consort recording with Marie and, I think, the young Kuijkens). Savall and his consort-mates have exquisite ensemble technique, which is itself a rarity, but they also understand the music deeply, as it progresses from Purcell's almost awkward first essay to some of his finest compositions at the end of the MS. If I remember correctly, this music survives in score in Purcell's autograph copy, which he wrote out when he was about twenty. The particular mystery, in an age where even the greatest musicians lived a tenuous material existence, is that he appears to have written these pieces for no one other than himself. Thanks to Savall, we can share those private thoughts almost three and a half centuries later.

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