News

'A scene of sheer delight'

Reviews following the 14 February performances of Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Acis and Galatea have been positive for all of those involved. Read on for excerpts and links to the full articles.

THE GUARDIAN (full article)
“Mhairi Lawson and James Gilchrist - an ecstatic pair of lovers opposite Christopher Purves's gauchely dangerous Polyphemus.”

“Purves, along with McCreesh (the star of the day), also tackled the vast, vocally treacherous role of Polifemo in the earlier work, causing a considerable stir.”


MUSICALCRITICISM.COM (full article)
“Informative and enjoyable.”

“Scholarly, beautifully printed programme notes.”

“Christopher Purves, the only singer who participated in both performances, delivered to perfection. He was the giant as per the story, but he was also a giant as a performer. Purves' stamina, vocal control, musicality and acting should be studied by all future Polifemos and Polyphemuses.”

“Mhairi Lawson's vocal colour and personality seemed perfectly suited to the part of Galatea and James Gilchrist was a full-blooded and virtuoso Acis. The remaining parts of Damon and Coridon were excellently delivered by Jeremy Budd and Nicholas Hurndall Smith respectively.”

“Truly theatrical performances…We had superb drama on stage.”

“The musicality of the performances was greatly aided by the Gabrieli Players who were unobtrusive, perfectly balanced but also virtuosic when called upon.”


THE TIMES (full article)
“A fascinating experience, revealing the true versatility of Handel. We heard a composer as ready to celebrate a noble marriage in Italy with a lavish serenata, trumpets, recorders, vocal virtuosity and all, as he was to sidestep into the intimacy of English pastoral, with its breezy melodies and deft caricature.”

“The two works were held together by Christopher Purves's superb double portrayal of the giant: monstrous and menacing as Polifemo, erupting like Etna from the Wigmore's upper gallery; rather more shambling and lovable as Polyphemus… Nothing daunted, his bass reached up to Heaven and down to Hell with truly terrifying power - and, before we knew it, the jealous Acis had hurled the roses into a delighted audience.”

“The glory of the afternoon's Italian metamorphoses was the soprano Gillian Webster [Aci]. The trousers gave the game away and her voice, as flamboyant in her florid writing as her cuffs and collar, was as clarion bright as that of the castrato male for whom the role was doubtless first written.”


THE SPECTATOR (full article)
“The Wigmore Hall last Saturday afternoon and evening was a scene of sheer delight.”

“A uniformly fine set of soloists.”

“Gabrieli is a wonderful early-instrument group, characterised by extraordinary sweetness of tone, and by an expressiveness which would be regarded as quaint if it didn’t emerge from the right kind of instruments. Even hearing them tune up is a pleasure.”

“Fortunately Christopher Purves, never more in his element than when playing sadistic villains, has the technique and the notes, and he was hilarious, frightening and awe-inspiring. The lovers, whose most distinctive vocal feature is that Galatea’s tessitura is lower than Aci’s, caroled, languished, lamented, affirmed adorably. It was hard to imagine that the evening would be as delightful as the afternoon had been.”

“I think this was the best Acis I have heard.”

“Mhairi Lawson and James Gilchrist made an admirably non-ageist pair of lovers, and in ‘Happy, happy we’ managed, quite brilliantly, to convey both genuine joy and the idiocy of such a state in a world as alarming as theirs and ours. Christopher Purves, with a less taxing role than in Aci, was still immense, with fathomless low notes, and a hateful expression passim.”


THE SUNDAY TIMES (full article)
“Christopher Purves acquitted himself magnificently as the English Polyphemus and coped bravely with the impossibly low tessitura of his Italian counterpart.”

“Mhairi Lawson’s English-speaking nymph, a crystal stream of pure, limpid soprano sound…”

“The vocal highlight for me was the youthful Jeremy Budd’s artless and touching account of Damon’s heart-stopping Consider, fond Shepherd, with Katharina Spreckelsen’s shining oboe obbligato. Rebecca Miles, too, deserves a mention for her brilliant birdsong imitations on the sopranino recorder. Indeed, this was a triumph for Paul McCreesh’s Gabrieli Consort, peerless Handelians revelling in the chamber-music scale of the 'Cannons' version of Acis and in the intimacy of their rapport with an enraptured audience.”