Twenty-five years after Alfred Deller’s death, Vanguard Classics is reminding us, with reissues such as this one, why the singer was one of the great artists of the past century. Although this program–its first appearance on CD–doesn’t show Deller at his finest (try the previously reviewed disc of Elizabethan & Jacobean music–type Q7809 in Search Reviews), it does have some shining moments. Among these are the aria “Since from my dear Astrea’s Sight”, from Purcell’s Dioclesian, which is liberally spiced with a unique Dellerian mannerism, where he “enhances” the mood with oddly effective little bends and slides on certain pitches and key words. While Deller is fine enough in the other songs–all from various Purcell works–the mood is mostly down-beat with pacing to match, and the pieces featuring viol consort show inaccuracies of pitch and rhythm that make us appreciate the amazing technical facility routinely displayed by today’s early-instrument performers. The sound here–unlike the abovementioned disc–has a confined, somewhat boxy quality that gives away its decades-old provenance.
