From the marvelous Polish counter-tenor Jakub Józef Orliński and L'Arpeggiata:
It's not often that you get a whole album of premiere recordings from the 17th century.
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Yes Bryan, Jakub Jozef Orlinski is a fabulous countertenor. I have his CD Anima Sacra, which is so fine! Another great countertenor is Filippo Mineccia, who I discovered when I was acquiring everything I could find recorded by my favorite violinist at the time, Eva Saladin. She's on one the first of his I bought, and I liked him so much I picked up another even without her being on it. Meanwhile Christina Pluhar and her L'Arpeggiata have become my favorite ensemble for the last year or two, I've bought a bunch of her discs and especially love her Monteverdi album and her disc of innovative jazzy rendition of Henry Purcell. I'm sure Purcell would have approved. L'Arpegiatta have proven their authenticity in straight early music enough to have license for that "Music For Awhile" disc, which to me is also authentic because Purcell (nor Monteverdi) was an antiquarian but rather innovators writing brand new music on the instruments made brand new at the time. Early music can fall into the trap of being museum pieces, quite the opposite of what those musicians were actually doing. Check out L'Arpegiatta's "improvisations on Purcell" for superb and immediate living music!
ReplyDeleteI meant to type "Purcell was NOT an antiquarian..."
ReplyDeleteThanks, Will, I will check those out. I have requested a ticket to see my current faves, Lea Desandre and Thomas Dunford in July at Salzburg. They are doing Dowland and, yes, Purcell.
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