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Posted by Ralph Moore on July 31, 2024, 2:13 pm, in reply to "Re: Elgar Dream of Gerontius"
Ah yes - I see. It was probably Lauri-Volpe who mocked the young Corelli's speech impediment. 
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Wasn't that Corelli, Evan, rather than Martinelli? He had to work as hard to try to correct that pronunciation defect as he did the bleat in his vibrato in his early days (hence the unkind nickname "Pecorelli - "Little Sheep"). Previous Message
Elizabethan Ayres and Duets Sung in Authentic Elizabethan Pronunciation (Hyperion CDA66003) has 7 Dowland items (plus 2 Campion, 1 Danyel, etc.) sung by Glenda Simpson and Paul Hillier with the Camerata of London, recorded in 1980.
Two very small reservations:
(1) The disc uses E. J. Dobson's reconstructions of Elizabethan pronunciation (which, I think, not all specialists would accept in all details).
(2) The performances, though excellent, sound dutiful rather than spontaneous, and hints of modern vowels still peep through in a few places.
I too have the impression "that the historical accuracy movement does not focus all that much on issues of pronunciation." The same is even more true of Shakespeare: no recording of any of his plays attempts to reproduce the sonorities that he so meticulously constructed. And sonority does make a difference, at least sometimes (consider, e.g., Martinelli's performance of the Celeste Aida recitative as sung by a tenor with a lisp).
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Elgar Dream of Gerontius - Ian Peake July 7, 2024, 1:05 pm
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