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Purcell employs four soloists who work together as a consort and are also provided with solo sections: the role of the chorus is slight, perhaps because the choir at the Chapel Royal was not strong at the time. Purcell’s imagination was clearly fired by the strong text: the opening word ‘Who’ is repeated no fewer than seven times, first by the three lower voices and then by the quartet (with a daringly open false relation in the second tenor). ‘For he shall grow up’ rises inexorably, the ‘tender plant’ affectionately droops, and the ‘dry grass’ is pictured with a bare fifth. The solos that follow are full of word-painting: the ‘under tenor solus’ is provided with another delicious false relation against the continuo at ‘there is no beauty’, and the ‘upper tenor solus’ contrasts the anger of ‘he was despised and rejected’ with the dejection of sorrows and griefs. The bass is more noble in his comments, rising only for ‘stricken and smitten’, and the countertenor completes the doleful picture, mournfully recounting the wounds and bruises and graphically illustrating the flogging ‘stripes’. The refrain ‘All we like sheep have gone astray’, sung first by the quartet, and then taken up by the choir, is largely homophonic, and all the more moving in its quiet simplicity, especially the falling repetitions of ‘hath laid on him’.
The second section opens with overlapping entries from the soloists for ‘he was oppressed’ which rise up through ‘so opened he …’ only to fall at ‘… not his mouth.’ Isaiah’s parallels with a dumb lamb brought to the slaughter, and of a sheep in front of his shearers are colourfully set for the lower tenor, but it is the first tenor who is given the most Italianate, declamatory writing at ‘who shall declare his generation?’ This is followed by a triple-time air ‘For he was cut off’, complete with Purcell’s own echoes, and the final direction to ‘Repeat the Chorus All we like sheep and so conclude.’
from notes by Robert King ©
La seconde section débute par les solistes dont les entrées se chevauchent pour chanter 'he was oppressed' (il était opprimé), qui s'élève à travers 'so opened he ...' (il n'a pas ouvert) et retombe à '.. not his mouth' (la bouche). Les parallèles d'Isaïe avec un agneau mené au sacrifice, et à une brebis devant ceux qui la tondent sont pittoresquement mis en musique pour le ténor lyrique, mais c'est au premier ténor que revient l'écriture déclamatoire la plus italianisée de 'who shall declare his generation?' (Et parmi ceux de sa génération). Lui succède un air en triple temps 'For he was cut off (car il était retranché), avec les propres échos de Purcell, et l'instruction finale de "répéter le Choeur 'All we like sheep', et finir ainsi".
extrait des notes rédigées par Robert King © 1993
Français: Alain Midoux
Der zweite Teil beginnt mit gestaffelten Einsätzen der Solisten bei 'he was oppressed' [er ward geknechtet], deren Gesangslinie im Verlauf von 'so opened he … ' [so daß er aufmacht … ] ansteigt, nur um bei ' ... not his mouth' [ … nicht seinen Mund] wieder abzufallen. Jesajas Vergleich mit dem stummen Lamm, das zum Schlachthaus geführt, und dem Schaf, das zum Scheren vorgeführt wird, ist abwechslungsreich vertont für den tieferen Tenor, doch bleibt dem ersten Tenor die am ehesten italienisch anmutende deklamatorische Stimmführung bei 'Who shall declare his generation?' [Wer kann sein Geschick ermessen?] vorbehalten. Es folgt 'For he was cut off' [denn er ward weggerissen], ein Air im Dreiertakt, das mit Purcells persönlichen Echoangaben und der abschließenden Anweisung versehen ist: Den Chor 'All we like sheep' wiederholen und damit enden.
aus dem Begleittext von Robert King © 1993
Deutsch: Anne Steeb/Bernd Müller
Purcell: The Complete Sacred Music ‘It is hard to speak too highly of this enterprise … much enjoyment to be had’ (Gramophone) ‘The performances from The King’s Consort and its Choir, the Choir of New College and a starry line-up of soloists have such qualities of concentratio ...» More |