Purcell The Fairy Queen. The Scholars Baroque Ensemble

Naxos (Super budget price) (CD) 8 550660/1 (two discs: 129 minutes: DDD). Notes and text included.

How revealing it is to read the modus operandus of a period ensemble in the biography-cum-statement of an accompanying booklet. No longer does an awareness of contemporary performance practices alone project the attractive, politically-correct image it once did. The Scholars Baroque Ensemble assert that "... the artistic aim of the ensemble goes far beyond that of so-called 'authenticity'; more important is the clarity and vitality achieved by the use of a minimum of players and singers to a part, a common practice in the 17th and 18th centuries". I am, however, rather baffled by the second half of this statement. Surely the point of saying that you are going 'beyond authenticity' is to project performance values which cannot simply be explained in terms of historical fidelity? Maybe it is a questionable exercise to pick musicians up on what they say; it is what they do that we should be concentrating on. Certainly there are aspects of The Scholars' approach to Purcell which do, appealingly, go far beyond mere historicity. Having said that, this recording of Purcell's fourth stage work departs from its rivals—Gardiner, Christie and Christophers have made the three major recordings of recent times—in a logical separation of music for the four masques and the instrumental numbers which act as interludes during the play. The Fairy Queen, as with all works in the peculiarly English 'semi-opera' genre, is a dichotomous drama where music's role is confined mainly to the lavish masques which enhance the events or the overall mood (at an appropriate moment) in the spoken play, here an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The slight re-ordering here amounts to a few dances appearing as an appendix when you might have expected them during the course of a 'concert' performance.

What The Scholars project above all else is the spirit of Purcell's marvellously lavish and colourful score with a natural spontaneity, instilled no doubt from taking the programme 'on the road'. This is strikingly evident in the way the music is paced and moves effortlessly from one number to the next. Rarely is the listener aware of the artificiality or 'camping up' which can seem so tempting in a studio-designed performance where the overall context is not clearly felt. The Act 4 masque is deftly caught in this respect. Whereas Christie's recording is more decisively shaped, polished and finely characterized, The Scholars' less ostentatious and earthy effects are often the more winning. The comparison is less favourable in matters of vocal consistency, however, where a number of solos are too often short of the necessary technique to realize the tonal and lyrical beauty which Purcell clearly demands in the score.

There are notable exceptions: David van Asch is a splendidly ridiculous Drunken Poet and for the first time I have felt distinctly sorry for this hapless victim of beastly fairies. Adrian Peacock makes a noble Sleep in Act 2 (and sensitively reiterated by the consort), whilst van Asch and Angus Davidson execute the dialogue between Coridon and Mopsa in Act 3 with delightful revelries. Purcell's exquisite Winter is well represented with John Bowen's moving opening strains of Phoebus's "When a cruel long Winter", though it is the Plaint from the final act so affectingly sung by Kym Amps and accompanied by Robin Canter's doleful oboe which I shall return to most fondly. The orchestral contributions are usually crisp and sweetly ornamented except in a few awkward corners where scrappiness and liberal intonation (especially in sustained string passages) leave one temporarily jarred. The chorus of amassed soloists are warmly blended in a consort exhibiting an old-fashioned gusto and a wobble at the top.

There is, then, much to enjoy in this spirited and above all well-judged account. Despite the few vocal horrors, this is exceptionally good value, most of all in the successful way The Scholars kindle that elusive quality of indescribable Englishness which for a brief moment gave continental baroque opera a run for its money.

JF-A