Hyperion Records

This verse anthem dates most probably from 1689, by which time Purcell’s writing for the Chapel had all but come to an end. Indeed, it may be the only anthem that he wrote that year.

The Symphony is especially spacious, beginning with a series of four mysterious block chords before a winding series of imitative entries leads into a lyrical triple-time section of great beauty. Restraint is also shown at the first vocal entry, which is sung not by the full choral forces, but by the quintet of solo singers. The five-part texture allows harmonies of great richness, and ‘For kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers’ contains delicious suspensions. ‘As we have heard, so have we seen’ introduces the choir simply and gently, and it is only at the section ‘Be thou exalted, Lord’, constructed over a rising arpeggio, that the mood brightens, beginning with the five soloists, enlarging into the full choir, and ending in a series of Alleluias, each set more spacious than the previous ones. Finally the triple-time metre is replaced for the last stanza with seven bars of expansive duple-time Alleluias of great harmonic richness.

from notes by Robert King ©