More amazing Purcell
What a wonderful concert Les voix Humaines gave at Trinity-St. Paul's United Church on Friday night. The Montreal-based gamba duo of Susie Napper and Margaret Little brought two of their colleagues from Montreal and joined three Toronto players to play all of the fantasias for viol consort by Henry Purcell. There were many "stories" connected with this concert. The group had already recorded the program for a CD on the ATMA label (it's in record stores now....highly recommended!), and the pieces were recorded with the use of the precious viol collection at Hart House. These instruments usually live in a glass case in the Gallery Grill on the second floor of Hart House at the University of Toronto. They were acquired by the Massey family in the late 1920s, apparently, but haven't been played much, if at all, for many years. Susie and Margaret arranged for them to be repaired and prepared for use for the recording and they also received permission to play them in the concerts on Friday and last night. Another interesting point was explained by Susie from the stage: she had apparently phoned David Fallis to see if this concert could appear on his Toronto Consort series and he replied that Purcell is a little late in terms of the repertoire of the Consort and suggested she phone Jeanne Lamon. Susie did, and Jeanne apparently said that she felt that viol fantasias were a little early for the repertoire of Tafelmusik and suggested she call David Fallis! Anyway, this story points out how amazingly complex the story of Purcell's music is: how much interest he had in the earlier music and musical traditions of England, but how forward-looking he was in his own compositional language.
The result was a fascinating concert. The colours that the instruments produced together were rich and varied, the playing was first-rate, and the energy, spontaneity and thought that the players put into each piece was, well, "fantastic". They didn't just play the fantasias in order and pause for applause between each one.....they made "sets" out them, paying attention to key relationships, sometimes making up little "bridges" leading from one to the next and they also interspersed dance movements from Purcell's operas, mostly The Fairy Queen, adding to the charm of the program.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and a real revelation to hear these rare pieces played on these rare instruments.
There's a short documentary about the recording project at
