Categories
Recording

Babell: Concertos op. 3 for violins & small flute

Anna Stegmann, Ensemble Odysee
75:02
Pan Classics PC 10348

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he six concertos recorded here appeared in an error-ridden Walsh print three years after the composer died. His (seemingly badly extrapolated) ripieno parts have been discarded for the purpose of the performances, as have odd instances of the violins doubling the bass part where this leads to some infelicity. The results are a joy to hear, with Anna Stegmann’s small flutes (she plays no fewer than four different instruments) well matched by bright one-to-a-part strings in four of the works; in the fifth she is paired with fellow recorder player Yongcheon Shin in a concerto with two oboes and continuo (transposing the entire concerto up a minor third because it does not fit standard oboes strikes me as an extravagance; surely oboes d’more would have preserved the original pitch?), and in the sixth concerto they are matched by a pair of violins. The final work on the programme is a Sinfonia in A, whose last movement features a virtuosic harpsichord part (presumably for the composer himself, who will be known to most of our readers as the arranger of Handel arias and overtures for keyboard). As a recorder player myself, I very much enjoyed the way Stegmann crafts each note and phrase beautifully; virtuosity without the eccentricity that can often accompany it… This was among the discs I listened to most often through December and January.

Brian Clark

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Recording

Molter: Orchestral Music & Cantatas

Camerata Bachiensis
66:02
Brilliant Classics 95273
MWV 2:25, 26; 3:7, 6:13, 7:24, 9:20

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s someone who has been involved with publishing Molter’s music, I was very excited when this CD was released, and delighted when the performers offered to send me a copy for review. The programme includes two Italian cantatas (each consisting of a pair of arias framing a central recitative), a sonata à quadro, a flute concerto (played impressively Quantz-like by the oboist in the quartet!) and one of several extant D major symphonies.

When you edit and typeset music and listen back to it on Sibelius, you have a real problem in assessing the merit of “new” repertoire; there is something about the lack of human involvement that masks its real quality. I had experienced that before with Graupner’s church cantatas; somehow they really only become “musical” in performance. Camerata Bachiensis have certainly had a similar impact on my appreciation of Molter; whether in the beautifully stylish rendition of the instrumental pieces (the unison playing from the two violins is aboslutely the best I have ever heard!), the glorious rich yet perfectly in tune singing of soprano, Julia Kirchner, or just in their audible enjoyment of Molter’s not quite baroque, not quite classical music – the cantatas (with their taxing writing for voice and instruments alike) could easily be by Hasse or even his Italian models, while the ouverture (right down to the part names!) could hardly be more French. The performers (complete including the first harpsichord I’ve heard in some time who is not desperate to compete with the singer) are uniformaly excellent, and I cannot recommend this recording highly enough – even if you have not heard of Molter before (or you’ve only heard hackneyed old recordings for trumpet and clarinet concertos!), fear not – this is over and hour of pure delight!

Brian Clark

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Recording

Telemann: Advent Cantatas

Gudrun Sidonie Otto soprano, GSOConsort (Ingolf Seidel baritone, Christine Schwark cello, Michael Freimuth lute/theorbo, Wolfgang Brunner harpsichord/organ)
53:42
cpo 777 955-2

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]henever Christmas approaches I look forward to new releases from cpo; they have a knack of uncovering some excellent repertoire that has lain unknown for centuries and serving up fabulous recordings. When the new lists came out for December 2016 I noticed that – in addition to Jauchze du Tochter Zion (reviewed below) – a new Advent disc was on its way, I got very excited; it is a much neglected and (obviously) important part of the church year, but few performers seem to take much interest in the music written for the four Sundays before Christmas. Of course, as well as the great Martin Luther celebration, 2017 is important for Telemanniacs, too, since the great man died 250 years ago, so (like Advent) this disc was a portent of things to come.

In fact, there no cantatas at all; instead, we have extracts from Telemann’s Auszug der derjenigen musicalischen und auf die gewöhnlichen Evangelien gerichteten Arien welche in den Hamburgischen Haupt=Kirchen durchs 1727. Jahr vor der Predigt aufgeführt werden  (“A selection of the musical arias based on the usual Gospel texts which are performed before the sermon in Hamburg’s main churchs throughout the year 1727”). Their scope is broader than the CD title implies: eight are (as advertised) for Advent, then two each for the traditional three days of Christmas according to the Lutheran calendar, the Sunday after Christmas and the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.

The performances were recorded live at the regular Sonntagsmusiken held in Magdeburg (where there is an important centre for the study and promotion of the composer’s music). They are broadly shared by the brightly voiced Gudrun Sidonie Otto and her youthful sounding baritone companion, Ingolf Seidel. Throughout they are finely accompanied by cello and either one or two “realisers” playing one or other of their designated instruments. These changes of soundscape help to enrich the experience, but even such dramatic openings as that to TVWV 1:114a was not enough to make up for my initial disappointment that these were not full-blown cantatas with orchestra.
Brian Clark
Brian Clark

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Recording

Vejvanovsky: Festal Baroque Music for Trumpets and Strings

Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor
73:01
Pan Classics PC10366

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his CD does pretty much what it says on the tin. There are 17 tracks, some with and one without brass (up to four trumpets with trombone – which presumably plays the lowest of the written parts – and timps); the music ranges from under two minutes (the Sonata Sancti Spiritus) to over nine (a five-movement “Serenada”), and the performances on this re-release (the original issue of the recording made in Italy was in 1997) are lively and well recorded. Such a pity that they are let down by a particularly poor booklet note translation; “Apart from the technique of concerting in the music of Vejvanovsky there are pulsations and accents deriving from dance style” was my particular favourite line…

Brian Clark

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Recording

Sances: Capricci Poetici, 1649

Irene Morelli, Beatrice Mercuri mezzosoprani, Diego Cantalupi archlute, Giuseppe Schinaia harpsichord
56:20
Tactus TC 601903

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ctive at the imperial Hapsburg court in Vienna, Sances wrote a vast body of church music, little of which is performed today. His secular music has enjoyed little more lasting success, and these secular works – arias, cantatas and canzonettas from the first part of his Capricci Poetici  published in Venice in 1649 – soon fell from favour, as did the by then rather passé dramatic madrigals which made up part two. Indeed Sances’ deputy Schmelzer is on record as saying that he had to restrict his own more cutting-edge output so as not to offend ‘old Sances’. So poor Sances is something of a victim of changing taste, although of course his compatriot, Salieri, was still holding sway in Vienna fully a century later. Having said that, these rather lacklustre accounts of secular songs in which both singers are inclined to undercut notes and to take a rather cavalier approach to intonation generally will be unlikely to win Sances any more friends. It is hard to gauge how much of the blame for these rather grimly dull performances accrues to the performers or the composer, but this CD has a routine feel to it which does the music few favours.

D. James Ross

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Recording

L’arte del Madrigale

Voces Suaves
62:36
Ambronay AMY308
Agostini, Gesualdo, Luzzaschi, Monteverdi, de Wert

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his comprehensive tour of the Italian madrigal world includes the composers listed in the title as well as several more, including a Gonzaga Duke! The group are well named as they have a delightfully suave tone and blend which are very easy on the ear, and provide delicate accounts of the madrigals. Just occasionally I felt that we lost some of the detail in the more rapidly interactive episodes, but these are performances which are never less that sensitive and expressive, and in their presentation of both familiar and unfamiliar material they provide a very broad introduction to the development of this distinctive and important musical form. In the highly decorated lines of a Luzzaschi madrigal the detail of the articulation is definitely sacrificed for the overall sense of line, but the ensemble has an uncanny ability to spectacularly ‘warm up’ the tone for appropriate passages while the sound of the full eight-voice texture, as in Gastoldi’s Cantiam lieti, is magnificent.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Girolamo Cavazzoni: Complete Organ Works

Ivana Valotti
146:38 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
Tactus TC 510391

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his complete account of the organ works of Cavazzoni features the magnificent 1565 organ ‘in Cornu Epistolae’ by Graziadio Antegnati in the Basilica palatina di Santa Barbara in Mantua expertly played by Ivana Valotti. The instrument is perfect in period for Cavazzoni’s music, but also in character and variety of stops. The mechanism is understandably audible but almost never to the detriment of the music, and the clarity of the various stops attests to diligent upkeep over the centuries. I have been mainly aware of Cavazzoni’s keyboard music as providing useful instrumental interludes in programmes of choral music by composers contemporary with the Gabrielis, but hearing this comprehensive collection of a bewildering variety of musical forms so authoritatively played on this magnificent Renaissance instrument made me aware that Cavazzoni’s music stands up very well in its own right. More harmonically adventurous than many of the organ music composers in the second half of the sixteenth century, Cavazzoni displays a ready imagination well beyond the technically showy but ultimately rather conservative music of his contemporaries. Where needed plainchant incipits and ‘links’ are provided by Gianluca Ferrabini, and I felt just occasionally that it might have been worth engaging a small capella for the tutti chant sections. These are CDs to dip into at random to enjoy the wonderful aural palette of the Antegnati organ, the sensitive playing of Ms. Valotti and Cavazzoni’s creative response to a delightful range of musical forms.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Philippe Verdelot / Sylvestro Ganassi: Madrigali diminuiti

Doulce Mémoire, Denis Raisin Dadre
67:20
Ricercar RIC371

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n my apprenticeship as a recorder player, I invested in a copy of Ganassi’s manual on ornamentation, Fontegara, and still remember my astonishment at the diversity and freedom of decorations he suggested including trills on a third and fourth, scalic divisions of startling variety and sheer flights of fancy. I felt then and feel now that early musicians have chosen very selectively from this and other manuals to create an ornamentation orthodoxy, which simply didn’t exist in the 16th century. Fascinating then to have this CD presenting vocal accounts by Clara Coutouly of madrigals by Verdelot followed by diminutions after Ganassi, played on the recorder by Denis Raisin Dadre. Sympathetically accompanied by lute, harp and spinet/clavicytherium Coutouly gives markedly straight-laced but beautiful accounts of Verdelot’s imaginative music, contrasting effectively with Dadre’s technical fireworks. In a couple of the madrigals both soloists perform simultaneously, Coutouly singing ‘straight’ and Dadre ornamenting the same line, an approach which sounds as if it may result in chaos but which works surprisingly well. I was disappointed to hear no exotic trills at any point, suggesting a slightly conservative approach even today by the present performers – I can remember as a student raising a few eyebrows at concerts with unorthodox recorder trills ‘alla Ganassi’, and I made sure to have a page reference at hand for any critics. Notwithstanding this, the present performances are highly engaging and sound very natural and believable.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Sisto Reina: Armonia Ecclesiastica, Opera Quinta, 1653

Concentus Vocum, Michelangelo Gabbrielli
74:55
Tactus TC 621801

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]isto is a composer new to me. He seems to have been one of many ordained composers of church music who moved throughout Italy during the 17th century, visiting important centres such as Modena and Bologna, but also smaller musical establishments. Vital in the dissemination of musical ideas, such composers inhabited the grey area between providing rather mundanely adequate liturgical music and making a genuinely original contribution to musical history. Sisto’s music seems better than mundanely adequate, but not much. The performances by Concentus Vocum are variable. The accounts by the full choir struggle with some of the more fleet figures in the writing, while unanimity of attack and intonation are also a problem. In the manner of singers who are ‘only just hanging in there’, everything is unrelentingly loud and punchy which gets a bit wearing. Some of the motets are sung by solo voices, which addresses the unanimity issues and solves many but not all of the accuracy problems. This CD provides a useful profile of Reina Sisto, but much of the singing is just a little uncomfortable to listen to and I found the limited interest in Sisto’s music insufficient to hold my attention.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Mazzone: Il Primo Libro delle Canzoni a Quattro Voci

Ensemble le Vaghe Ninfe, Natalie Bonello, Maria Antonietta Cancellaro
64:06
Brilliant Classics 95416

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his CD is the result of a very thorough concert engagement with the music of Mazzone, and the performers provide impassioned accounts of the four-part Canzoni in a variety of vocal and instrumental guises. These range from four unaccompanied voices, which employ a little more vibrato than would be ideal, and voices with a variety of instruments including a (perhaps slightly anachronistic?) serpent, to entirely instrumental performances featuring renaissance flutes and organ. These latter interpretations are helpfully preceded by spoken accounts of the missing texts, and tastefully embellished. Marc’ Antonio Mazzone’s name was known to me, but this account of his four-voice Canzoni gives a clear picture of where he stands in the world of late-Renaissance Italian music. There are a couple of issues with the recording, such as the rather artificial-sounding overall acoustic and the rather startling, amplified sound of the reader’s voice. I have reviewed so many studio recorded accounts of concert performances involving readers where this same balance problem arises that I can only conclude that readers need to be present and be recorded in the same acoustic and in the same way as the music.

D. James Ross

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