Purcell
Complete Suites and Other Music for Keyboard
Cristian Sandrin (piano)
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0702 61:09 mins
Clip: Purcell - Riggadoon, Z. 653 (Cristian Sandrin)
In the first complete recording of Purcell’s eight keyboard suites on the modern piano, Romanian pianist Cristian Sandrin sets the bar impressively high. His accounts blend an instinctive grasp of Baroque rhetoric with the expressive breadth of the piano, revealing the ever-changing affects of these jewel-like works. They’re interspersed with popular numbers from The Musick’s Hand-Maid, making for a delightful journey.
A Romantic sensibility infuses many of his readings. In the G minor Suite, the Prelude glows with impressionistic colours, its chromaticisms highlighted by the piano’s resonance, while the yearning Alman is poured out with brooding introspection. In the F major Suite, Sandrin exploits the piano’s dynamic range, building the Prelude into a crescendo of sound that yields to quieter timbres in the weightless Alman. Elsewhere, rubato brings life to Purcell’s rhythms: the Corant of Z660 and the Alman of Z662 unfurl with liquid grace, and there’s an almost jazzy quality to the Corants of the 3rd and 7th Suites.
At the same time, Sandrin’s playing is firmly rooted in Baroque style: his sound is transparent, counterpoint sharply etched, ornaments realised with finesse. Lines are eloquently shaped and balanced, highlighting Purcell’s conversational idiom. The Preludes to the A minor and D minor Suites breathe with improvisatory freedom, echoing the French tradition of unmeasured preludes fashionable in Purcell’s London. Sandrin brings to these performances all the pathos and lyricism of Baroque opera, making a fitting tribute to one of England’s greatest theatre composers. Kate Bolton-Porciatti
