Purcell and Handel with Andreas Scholl & Co., by Andrew Miller
Sydney Recital Hall, Angel Place: 12 March 2011
part of the Musica Viva series
repeat performances in Sydney 21 March, Brisbane 23 March, Adelaide 25 March
Andreas Scholl - countertenor
Tamar Halperin - harpsichord
Daniel Yeadon - viola da gamba, Baroque cello
Tommie Andersson - baroque guitar, theorbo
Henry Purcell
Music for a While
from Oedipus, Z583 (c ?1692)
Sweeter than Roses
from Pausanius, the Betrayer of His Country, Z585 (c 1695)
Evening Hymn, Z193 (c 1688)
Round O in D minor, ZT684 (c 1695)
Since from My Dear Astrea’s Sight
from The Prophetess, or The History of Dioclesian, Z627 (c 1690)Fairest Isle
from King Arthur, Z628 (c 1691)
Dido’s Lament
from Dido and Aeneas, Z626 (c ?1689)
Harpsichord Suite in G minor, Z661 (c 1696)
O Solitude, Z406 (c 1687)
Man is for the Woman Made
from The Mock Marriage, Z605 (c 1695)
George Frideric Handel
Sonata in G minor, op 1 no 6 HWV364 (c 1724)
Vedendo Amor (When Cupid Saw), HWV175 (1707–08)
Tunes for Clay’s Musical Clock (selection) (c 1730–40)
Arranged by Tommie Andersson
Harpsichord Suite no 2 in F major, HWV427 (c 1710–17)
Nel dolce tempo (In That Sweet Time), HWV135 (c 1710)
Most seem to agree musical historicism can go too far: imagine a Plymouth Plantation-style re-enactment of a concert of Baroque music with the audience coming and going, eating picnics in the gods, a musician wearing a modern watch dismissed as a "farb." Luckily most musical historicists are more practical and flexible. For this concert the hall lights stayed up, which is a nice touch, even if electrics are not as pretty as the candle-lit halls of days past. Unfortunately, and I assume unintended by the musicians, the audience did come and go in between the first several songs, which not only rudely made the musicians wait but disrupted the flow of the program, and one woman, having missed three or four songs, came clumping down the wood-floored aisle in high-heels making an incredible noise. More cheerfully, Mr Scholl had the audience join in on the refrain of Purcell's Man is for the Woman Made, which, according to Mr Scholl, is what Purcell intended when he originally composed it, for light relief in the theatre. And it did provide some short refreshing relief among the quite serious music in this program.

