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Mr Händel im Pub: Baroque Meets People (Arcantus)
★★☆☆☆
I had excessive hopes of this album, an try by interval musicians to recreate the form of stuff which may — repeat, would possibly — have been carried out in London pubs through the early 18th century. Henry Purcell, who frolicked far an excessive amount of in London hostelries, was not too long ago lifeless. Handel, who went in for heavy consuming moderately than heavy ingesting, was newly arrived from Germany, and nonetheless discovering his method across the metropolis’s leisure venues. Match their music with the rougher people commerce that, then as now, performed at esoteric ingesting holes, and the collusion promised potential enlightenment.
The primary flaw within the proposition is discovered within the title. Handel by no means performed in pubs and dropped the umlaut from his title earlier than he might wipe the primary English breakfast from his chops. The second shortcoming is the seriousness of the musicianship. Ensemble I Zefirelli are impeccably educated early music performers of German extraction. They play conventional numbers like Fig for a Kiss with the identical attentiveness as they apply to Purcell’s eighth sonata and Handel’s flute sonata. It’s all completely nicely completed, as if for a subsidy audition, however with no hint of the requisite formlessness and anarchy of an evening at a riverside pub.
A studying of Samuel Pepys diaries might need helped issues alongside. There isn’t any edge to this enjoying, no interplay with a putative pack of drinkers. A singer might need helped issues alongside, likewise a slash of dissonance, however the entire recital barely cracks a smile. Nice title, disgrace in regards to the music.
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Norman Lebrecht is without doubt one of the most widely-read commentators on music, tradition and cultural politics. He’s an everyday presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Avenue Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint, Sinfini and different publications. His weblog, Slipped Disc, is among the many most generally learn cultural websites on-line, breaking unique tales and campaigning towards human abuse and acts of injustice within the cultural industries.
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