Gabrieli Consort and Players, Wigmore Hall, London - review

It is a shame Purcell never composed an ode to celebrate the birth of a royal baby. That might have come in handy recently, though some of the other subjects he touches upon seem hardly less topical - the unity of the UK, trouble with the Scots, the threat of violence from religious differences. So much for political progress.

Spread over two seasons, "Henry Purcell: A Retrospective" is bringing a wide range of his music to Wigmore Hall. Apart from a couple of well-known exceptions, the odes do not get performed often and it was a good idea on the part of Paul McCreesh to bring together the six that Purcell wrote to celebrate the birthdays of Queen Mary.

The reign of William and Mary was not a musical golden era comparable to some in continental Europe, but with Purcell at its height it had a glorious champion. While William was away fighting the Protestant cause in Europe, Mary presided over a cultured court at home - modestly, in an English way, not wanting to add too much to the budget deficit.

The odes are duly modest in scale. They mostly last around 20-25 minutes (the six for the birthdays of Queen Mary neatly fill two evenings) and the famed "vingt-quatre violons", modelled on the orchestra of Louis XIII in France, were rarely at their full strength in Mary's time. At Wigmore Hall, McCreesh's Gabrieli Consort and Players numbered 11 singers and 20 instrumentalists, enough to leave no elbow room at all on the platform, ample in sound but still lithe and supple.

Riches abound. Of the three odes in McCreesh's first evening, Arise, my muse was the most subtly rewarding, Welcome, welcome, glorious morn, with its major key certainty and pealing trumpets, the most uplifting. Tenor Jeremy Budd performed marvels of high-wire singing in his near-countertenor solos. Anna Dennis and Nicholas Mulroy also excelled. McCreesh is an inspiring leader of his chorus and orchestra. If contemporary reports are to be believed, Queen Mary did not get much fun (of any kind) out of her husband, William. At least Purcell was around to give her a lift on her birthday.

wigmore-hall.org.uk

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