Categories
Recording

Mondonville: Trio Sonatas Op. 2

Ensemble Diderot, Johannes Pramsohler
67:22
Audax Records ADX13707

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen it comes to French baroque chamber music, there is a real paucity of high quality repertoire; or so it has seemed until now! Move over Couperin and Rameau, there’s a new kid on the block – in typical style, Johannes Pramsohler has sought now fresh jewels for his stylish Ensemble Diderot, and what a revelation de Mondonville’s opus 2 trios have turned out to be. This world premiere recording of the six works (two of them pairing violin with flute as per the composer’s alternative versions) reveals not only a composer of great technical skill but also demonstrates that by the time they were originaly published, the level of violin playing in France had progressed immensely since Couperin insisted that only professional musicians need even attempt to play his music… Double stops abound, as well as wide leaps and other difficulties, all of them surmounted by Pramsohler and co. But – again as we have come to expect from these musicians – overcoming the challenge of actually playing the notes is merely the beginning; playing them beautifully and in a way that serves the music is key, then add a liberal sprinkling of passion and you begin to understand who they function. With the recent broadcast on Hungarian television of one of his operas, it seems we may be in for a revival of de Mondonville’s spectacular output; this fabulous recording deserves to be recognised as one of the most exciting releases of 2016, and I will be surprised (in fact, I will actually be disappointed!) if it does not win many awards.

Brian Clark

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Recording

J. S. Bach: Sonatas BWV 525, 527–530

Jan Van Hoecke recorders, Jovanka Marville harpsichord & fortepiano
63:10
Alpha 237

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here have been various attempts over the years to rediscover the “original” versions of the six sonatas that have come down to us as trios for organ (BWV525–530); these have ranged from relatively simple transcriptions of the three lines for two violins, a bass stringed instrument that can cover the low notes not available to the violins and continuo, to interpretations using a broad palette of instrumental colours and combinations.

Personally I favour the former approach, even if every “solution” (which pre-supposes that there ever was a problem) involves a compromise of some sort. So too with this present recording featuring Jan Van Hoecke on no fewer than five instruments (including two in one work!), while the second melodic line and the accompanying bass are covered by Jovanka Marville on copies of a 1726 Zell harpsichord and a 1749 Silbermann fortepiano. Both are clearly relvant to Bach, and it is interesting to hear them in any context. According to the notes, only BWV 527 remains in its original key (D minor); I am puzzled that BWV525 (originally in E flat) was transposed up a tone, but then played on an instrument in the original key, but I expect there was some practical reason for the choices made (and I’m sure that Bach’s own musicians would have been faced with making such pragmatic decisions all the time!) The playing is excellent and the recorded sound everything we expect from Alpha; personally, though, I would not wish this to be my only version of the sonatas (there’s one missing, for a start) – even with the different makes and pitches of recorders, I’m afraid I need a more varied sound.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Couperin: Pièces de clavecin

Aurélien Delage
68:39
passacaille 1015

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne can understand why recitalists and recording artists ‘cherry pick’ from the voluminous repertoire produced by the great claveçinistes. But when they don’t I always feel that both the cherries and the surrounding bowl gain even greater lustre. Add a recitalist who is clearly enjoying himself and you have a winning mixture. This is one of those programmes in which everything just feels ‘right’ – programme, tempi, ornaments, sonorities etc.. I especially appreciated the addition of preludes from L’Art de toucher…  before the first two ordres. The booklet (notes Eng/Fre/Ger, biography Eng/Fre) does the job without fuss or particular glory. It’s not exactly seasonal, but this was nevertheless a rewarding listen.

David Hansell

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Recording

Duni: Les deux chasseurs et la laitière

Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett, Maciej Straburzynski, Lukasz Wilda SBarT, Accademia dell’Arcadia, Roberto Balconi
52:44
Brilliant Classics 95422
+Orlowski Sinfonia in F

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m sorry, but the quality of the dramatic music on offer here simply doesn’t hold the listener’s attention, especially wrenched from its context. I can believe that the full pièce  was indeed a great success in 1760s Paris and might well be so again but, a bit like much G & S, you need the surrounding ‘amusing spoken dialogue’ to appreciate the ‘very light’ music to any degree. The performance is good however, with soprano Agnieska Budzińska-Bennett delivering some very delicious sounds. The filler symphony by Michal Orlowski is really quite tedious. The booklet note (English only) is informative and tries hard: the sung French text is included, but no translation.

David Hansell

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Categories
Recording

Sonates et Suites

Dan Laurin recorder, Anna Paradiso harpsichord, Domen Marinčič cello
85:25
BIS-2815 SACD
Music by Blavet, Chédeville, Chéron, Dieupart, Hotteterre, Leclair, Marais & Philidor

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he royal monopoly on printing and distributing music produced a distinctive French style of music which was only affected by outside influences with the arrival of the Concert Spirituel in 1725. These public concerts were held in the Tuileries Palace during lent and other religious holidays when the opera houses were closed, and the very first one included Corelli’s Christmas concerto as well as two motets by Lalande. Works by other foreign composers such as Telemann and Vivaldi were sometimes included, though for some time the confrontation between the French and Italian styles caused much controversy. By the time the first composer on this disc, Nicolas Chédeville, published his set of sonatas Il Pastor Fido  in 1737, it was to his advantage to publish them under Vivaldi’s name rather than his own. This piece is one of the few on this disc where the treble recorder is included in the list of suitable instruments, amongst a variety of others including the musette and viele. Most of the other music was composed for the transverse flute but Dan Laurin gets over this problem by using the voice flute, or recorder in D, rather than transposing the music up a minor third. This works very well, though occasionally I missed the extra subtlety of expression which a flute can produce, and there are one or two slightly uncomfortable high notes. Laurin’s playing is brilliant as always, and it is fascinating to hear how he incorporates into it the essential elements of the French style. So many performers are inhibited by Hotteterre’s instructions on how to ornament his music. Not so Laurin, who uses all the flattements, inégalité, wide trills and other graces to produce a sparkling performance. His own extraordinary arrangement for solo recorder of the Marais Folies d’Espagne  for bass viol and continuo is surprisingly effective though I rather missed Anna Paradiso’s splendid harpsichord playing which is so essential to creating the mood of all the other music. Slovenian cellist Domen Marinčič is an equal partner in all the pieces with a particularly interesting bass line. I shall certainly be returning to this disc which, with music published between 1701 and 1740, presents a most enjoyable picture of the way musical styles developed in France over these forty years.

Victoria Helby

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Recording

Winter’s Delight

Early Christmas Music and Carols from the British Isles
Quadriga Consort
TT
deutsche harmonia mundi 888750757227

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here isn’t any information about the Quadriga Consort in the booklet so I looked them up on their web site and was amused when the following popped up: “Quadriga Consort – The Early Music Band. Traditional songs and tunes from the British Isles played on old-ish instruments by young-ish people.” Although they started as an early music group in Austria in 2001 they soon expanded their repertoire to include their own arrangements of English folksongs, so now although they still play early instruments (recorder, gamba, basse de violon and harpsichord) it’s difficult to call them an early music group anymore.

All the carefully thought-out arrangements are by the group’s director, harpsichordist Nikolaus Newerkla who also plays the vibrandoneon, a small wind-blown portable keyboard instrument. The singer is South African Elisabeth Kaplan, who has since left the group. She has the sort of appealing voice which is at home in the folk world and this is where I think this CD belongs, though enthusiasts of authentic folk music probably won’t approve of it. This is mostly traditional music in modern arrangements and the whole effect is rather soothing. I’m sure there must be plenty of people who will like it but I must admit I’m not one of them. On the positive side, the booklet is quite informative, particularly about the arrangements, and all the words of the songs are provided so you can sing along.

Victoria Helby<;/font>

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Recording

Galanterie: Music for Lute by Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), vol. 3

Nigel North lute
73:58
BGS Records BGS 125

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is Nigel North’s third volume of music by Weiss, in which he plays a Parthie in D minor, a Sonata in C minor, and a Sonata in F minor. Weiss’s works have been catalogued by Douglas Alton Smith, “The Late Sonatas of Silvius Leopold Weiss”, Stanford University, Ph.D. 1977 [SM], and more recently by Tim Crawford and Douglas Alton Smith in Silvius Leopold Weiss, Sämtliche Werke für Laute in Tabulatur und Übertragung / Complete Works for Lute in Tablature and Transcription  [SC], so it is a pity there are no SM or SC numbers to identify which the pieces are in the present CD. All of them appear in one or both of the two main sources of Weiss’s music – London, British Library, Add. MS 30387  [not 3038 as given incorrectly in the liner notes], and Dresden, Landesbibliothek, MS Mus. 2841-V-1  – but it is not always clear which of these sources is used for each track of the CD.

The Partie in D minor consists of seven movements: SM 241, 55-60; SC 11.7, 11.1-6. It begins with a prelude-like Fantasia from the Dresden manuscript, followed by an extremely ornate Allemande. North describes the Courante and Gavotte as “the strongest contenders for galanterie.” The Sarabande uses almost the whole range of the lute, starting with a top d” at the ninth fret, and a bass line which slowly works its way down to bottom A at the 13th course for the final cadence.

The Sonata in C minor consists of eight movements: SM 173-180; SC 27.1-8. The Sarabande and Angloise (La Belle Tiroloise) are in E flat major. The latter appears in Track 14 with the Rigaudon, which is played twice, with and without repeats. The music is sprightly, but the range of notes is low-lying and the overall tone is fairly lugubrious.

The Sonata in F minor is easy to track down, since it is the only Sonata by Weiss in that key: SM 128-133; SC 21.1-6. North gives an unhurried performance of the Allemande, allowing time for the music to breathe. There are many appoggiaturas from above and below to which he tastefully adds extra notes of his own on the repeats. A dramatic diminished seventh chord with a low E natural on the 9th course presages the final cadence. The Courante flows along smoothly, although he waits rather a long time on the first quaver of the first full bar of each section. He plays the Bourrée before the Sarabande in the order of the Dresden manuscript. In the Sarabande, after a passage of emphatic thirds, Weiss uses extremes of pitch to heighten the final climax; the melody rises to a high d” flat at the 8th fret of the first course underpinned by a low B flat on the 12th course. That B flat is repeated in the next bar to create an unexpected third inversion of C major, as part of the final cadence leading to F minor. There is an interesting effect in the Tempo di Menuetto – the bass is quite sparse, and drops out completely here and there, leaving the running quavers of the treble unaccompanied. The Gigue has an ear-catching opening theme of repeated notes, which returns for the last few bars. What is so pleasing is North’s tone quality – sweet treble notes which sing, and unobtrusive bass notes which do not ring on too long. He creates a variety of tone colour which is consistently pleasant on the ears. He plays a 13-course lute by the Swedish maker, Lars Jönsson, although he is pictured on the cover of the CD holding a seven-course renaissance lute. Weiss’s music is always excellent, and North’s interpretation is masterful.

Stewart McCoy

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Sheet music

Motetti a vna, dve, tre et qvattro voci Col Basso continuo per l’Organo Fatti da diuersi Musici Seruitori del Serenissimo Signor Duca di Mantoua e racolti da FEDERICO MALGARINI pur anch’egli Seruitore, e Musico di detta Altezza. IN VENETIA, Appresso Giacomo Vincenti. MDCXVIII

edited by Licia Mari, (Gaude Barbara Beata, 2: Music of the Basilica of S. Barbara in Mantua)
LIM, 2016. pp. xxiv + 124 ISBN: 9788870967449 €25

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]urprising and useful, this is a modern edition of 32 motets in score, from a 1618 Venetian print in part books, for the court of Mantua, dedicated to Scipione Gonzaga, son of Ferrante Gonzaga (brother of Mons. Francesco Gonzaga, who was still bishop). The collector was the composer and bass singer Federico Malgarini (among the highest paid in S. Barbara, and Rector of S. Salvatore, a church later demolished for the creation of the Jewish ghetto in 1611), and the other composers represented were also active at the Basilica. In Mantua the doctrines of the Council of Trent were followed, but with some independence in style and liturgy. The motets are generally quite short, and the contents include settings from Psalms (6, 8, 84, 98, 113, 137), Song of Songs (2, 4, 5), Old and New Testaments, and liturgical texts.

These composers wrote or sang secular music, too, and their motets are light, often florid, rhythmically interesting and delightful. They were either singers (Cardi, Sacchi, Grandi, Sanci and Rasi) or players, organists or musicians who worked in theatres and for the imperial court in Vienna. The contents are as follows [title, composer, voices]:

For one voice:
1. Apparuerunt Apostolis, Francesco Dognazzi [S]
2. O Domine Iesu Christe, Giovanni Battista Sacchi [S]
3. Audite caeli, Giulio Cardi [S]
4. Amo Christum, Lorenzo Sances (Sanci) [A]
5. Domine secundum actum meum, Alessandro Ghivizzani [T]
6. Cantate Domino, Federico Malgarini [B]
7. Quam pulchra es, Federico Malgarini [B]

For two voices:
8. Tota pulchra, Giulio Cardi [SS]
9. Nigra sum, Francesco Dognazzi [CT]
10. Sancta et immaculata virginitas, Lorenzo Sances [AT]
11. Benedictus Deus, Simpliciano Mazzucchi [SS]
12. Quasi cedrus exaltata sum, Ottavio Bargnani [ST]
13. O Maria, Giulio Cardi [SB]
14. O Crux benedicta, Giovanni Battista Rubini [SS]
15. Laudate pueri, Federico Malgarini [SB]
16. Beata es, Virgo Maria, Giovanni Battista Sacchi [SB]
17. Vulnerasti cor meum, Francesco Rasi [SS]
18. Audi Domina, Alessandro Ghivizzani [SB]
19. Adoramus te, Christe, Pandolfo Grandi [SS]

For three voices:
20. Domine, ne in furore tuo, Ottavio Bargnani [SAT]
21. Aperi oculos tuos, Anselmo Rossi [SAB]
22. Laetentur caeli, Alessandro Ghivizzani [SAB]
23. Confitebor tibi, Domine, Simpliciano Mazzucchi [SST]
24. O sacrum convivium, Pandolfo Grandi [SSB]
25. Anima mea liquefacta est, Giulio Cardi [SSB]
26. Cernite mortales, Orazio Rubini [SAB]
27. Beatus vir, Francesco Dognazzi [SST]
28. Ego dormio, Simpliciano Mazzucchi [SSB]

For four voices (all SATB):
29. Domine, Dominus noster, Ottavio Bargnani
30. Puer qui natus est, Francesco Dognazzi
31. Audi Domine, Amante Franzoni
32. Quam dilecta tabernacula tua, Simpliciano Mazzucchi

It is unfortunate that the Introduction is only in Italian, and that no full pages from the part books are included for comparison with the transcription, which I have to assume is faithful. In the Critical Apparatus there are 15 problematic details shown in facsimile, which are enough to suggest that there may be other solutions for the number of notes or rhythm of some ornamental passages (such as groups of three or five notes, or ties that weren’t respected by the editor as essential for the rhythm or underlay).

Malgorini’s collection is remarkable for the number of continuo figures it gives, many of which challenge interpretation. I wonder whether they were decided by Malgorini or perhaps written in by various organists in the manuscripts he used. Maria Licis adds a few more in parentheses, but she doesn’t offer help in the difficult cases, and confirms some pretty obvious ones. In one case a superfluous editorial (a natural) under a bass note e, meant to refer to a g natural 3rd above that note (and who would play a g sharp in the vicinity of five e flats?), will be mistaken for an editorial alteration of that bass note to e natural. Licis does not remove the ambiguity by repeating the flat sign. Upon reflection (i.e., is there any reason to change a brief e flat to e natural, or, indeed, to change the even shorter one in the voice as she suggests?) I decided she was referring to the 3rd above e flat. So I must remind performers to question all editorial interventions as well as one’s own.

More information or more facsimile examples in the Critical Apparatus would have been useful, too. Another problem may be the existence of wrong notes or missing accidentals in the print itself, unsuspected by the editor. Prints in movable type contain a high number of errors. There are two notes in Tota pulchra es  which I do not think are correct, because e, instead of the continuo’s f in bar 4 and also instead of its first c in bar 5, would not only produce good 6th chords, making sense harmonically and contrapuntally, but even appropriately for the text (et macula non est in te  – ‘There is no blemish in you’). Indeed the third and fourth repeats of “macula non” immediately following in bars 5 and 6 are set over four figured 6s in a row.

Since this music is so good, let me make a few suggestions for continuo players using it: 1) A string of numbers may not refer to chords, as we are apt to think. These single intervals may be a guide to a melodic line for the organ. The bass lines contain passages typical of keyboard toccatas, over which the right hand might only play a sequence of short motives; 2) A strange figure, such as a 2, between two chords on the same bass note may also be melodic, a way to pass from a major 3rd over the first to a minor 3rd over the second, by inserting a neighbouring note in between; 3) On almost every perfect cadence we find the conventional # 4 # , which stands for #3-4 4-3#, or simply figured # 4 – #. This edition never aligns the final sharp correctly, over the last quarter of the long dominant bass note, unless the vocal notes above clearly show the syncopation, which is usually demanded in the accompaniment anyway. Other misleading original figures could have been clarified, but every editor has to draw a line somewhere, and I’d agree here that we are lucky to have so many figures to consider, even where they are inconsistent. Players have to vet both those of Malgorini and of Licis, using a fair amount of creative musicianship as well.

Singers will enjoy these motets, technically easy, with plenty to do in not many bars (averaging about 36 bars per motet). Basses, however, be prepared for Malgorini’s two octave range, from D to e flat’! Everyone will enjoy encountering the other lesser known composers.

Barbara Sachs

Categories
Recording

Handel: Alexander’s Feast

Mariam Feuersinger, Daniel Johannsen, Matthias Helm STBar, Kammerchor Feldkirch, Concerto Stella matutina, Banjamin Lack
(2 CDs in a jewel case)
fra bernardo fb 1615566

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] straightforwardly enjoyable live recording of Handel’s sparkling setting of Dryden’s ode on the Power of Music. The whole of Dryden’s poem is given, but unfortunately the integral harp and organ concerti (one apiece for Timotheus and St Cecelia) are omitted, which rather weakens the final recitative’s implied competition between the two of them! The original closing duet and chorus (to additional text by Newburgh Hamilton) are also omitted.

No matter – this is a fine achievement.

Daniel Johannsen is a splendidly dramatic narrator. I particularly enjoyed the accompagnato which opens Part 2, with its meticulously specified orchestral crescendo, and the energy of his later ‘Give the Vengeance due’ recitative and ensuing aria. Matthias Helm is a sonorous Bacchus (with splendidly rasping horns) in Part 1, and an equally sonorous Timotheus (with eerily cavernous multiple bassoons) in Part 2. Miriam Feuersinger produces lovely tone, but sometimes at the expense of verbal clarity.

The chorus respond well to Benjamin Lack’s committed direction, bringing out Handel’s rich scoring (in up to seven parts) and resourceful counterpoint – try the grand ground bass of ‘The Many rend the Skies’ in Part 1, or the glorious quadruple fugue at the end of Part 2 (slightly oddly, here, three of the four themes are given out by the soloists, while the fourth is sung by the chorus altos). The many instrumental obbligati are well (though often anonymously) done, with finely poised solo cello in ‘Softly sweet in Lydian measure’ and rousing trumpet in the A section of ‘Revenge Timotheus cries’ (dramatically contrasting with the aforementioned multiplicity of bassoons in the B section). Stefan Greussing is suitably energetic in the driving drum ostinato of ‘Break the Bands of Sleep asunder’. The magical ‘distancing’ effect of the cool recorder thirds in ‘Thus Long ago’ is beautifully captured.

The acoustic of the Monforthaus in Feldkirch is slightly dry, but probably not unlike that of the theatres in which Handel first performed the ode.

A fine achievement!

Alastair Harper

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Categories
Recording

Bach: Erbarme dich

Reinoud van Mechelen, A nocte temporis
69:56
Alpha Classics Alpha 252

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his CD from A Nocte Temporis directed by Reinoud Van Mechelen is built round a selection of arias from Bach cantatas for tenor, flute and continuo. The CD explores the tenor’s role as the sinner overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of this world yet joyfully anticipating the life above; the flute is both the harbinger of death and the promise of release – as a bird from the snare of the fowler, as the Psalmist puts it. The notes by Gilles Cantagrel describe the arias as trios, which indeed they are, and the empathy between the performers is disclosed in chamber-music making of a high order. Interspersed with the arias and a couple of recitatives are some pieces for flute played on a Melzer copy of a 1750 Palanca flute; the cellist plays a copy of an Antonio Stradivarius by Gérard Sambot from 2000; but of special interest is the use of the André Silbermann organ of 1718, recently restored in 2015 by Quentin Blumenroeder, in Sainte Aurélie Church, Strasbourg, which is tuned at a=460 hz.

The basic organ tone is of open principal ranks rather than the stopped flute of the small, portable box organs we are used to hearing in recent recordings, and to which players often have difficulty in tuning. Here, as in Alpha’s recent recording of early Bach cantatas with Lionel Meunier and Vox Luminis (reviewed below), there is a new clarity and a more robust sonority even in such small-scale works given by using a more substantial instrument, an approach pioneered by Paul McCreesh in the Bach recordings he made with more substantial organs in Saxony and his OVPP St Matthew Passion using the two Marcussen choir organs built together for Roskilde Cathedral in 2000.

The notes give no details of the organ’s disposition – the restoration of 2015 has returned it to the Silbermann 1718 specification – but details can be found at http://decouverte.orgue.free.fr/orgues/staureli.htm. It would have been good to have inserted this reference into the notes since as well as being of interest in its own right, there is one novel piece of registration. In (7), the aria in cantata 107 Wenn auch gleich aus der Höllen  the left hand of the continuo with the cello is marked ‘solo’ and uses the Voix Humaine (and some mutation ranks?), while the right hand plays more principal-based chords (the Positif de Dos Prestant 4’ an octave lower?). This certainly spices up the aria which is in essence a two-part invention depicting how Satan tries his best to overcome the soul with a novel and to me entirely plausible sound where the bass line and the tenor voice are properly equal.

In this kind of programme much will hinge on the vocal quality and interpretive skills of the singer. Reinoud Van Mechelen may not (yet) be a household name like other singers who have made recordings featuring themselves singing Bach, but I rate him highly. His voice is perfectly controlled and very neat, yet he is capable of expressive shading and a degree of emotional intelligence that is rare in singers who get so caught up in the technical challenges of Bach that they sometimes seem too dry and instrumental. But his words are always crystal clear, and the structure of the programme presents a theologically as well as an emotionally crafted structure.

In the new generation of Bach recordings that is emerging, our concerns will not only be with historically informed performance practice in terms of getting the right instruments playing at the right pitches: so much has been achieved here. The focus may now shift to finding the voices who have the emotional sensitivity as well as the vocal ability to match the instrumental sounds they sing with – and that includes the organs. We need to know more about the Saxon and Thuringian instruments and the pitches at which they played and how complex keyboard transpositions worked with a relatively mean-tone temperament.

But this deceptively modest CD is certainly an eye-opener, and I will listen to it frequently as I try to absorb what it is drawing us towards.
David Stancliffe

David Stancliffe

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